is taking the lead in this very appropriate function. I am very pleased, Mr. Lainhart, at the way you have begun and are carrying forward this task. Mr. LAINHART. Thank you very much. Mr. PACKARD. I think that reflects the feelings of the committee members generally. We appreciate you being here. Are there any further questions by any members of the committee? If not, we appreciate your testimony, Mr. Lainhart. And we will excuse you at this point. Mr. LAINHART. Thank you very much. OFFICE OF COMPLIANCE Mr. PACKARD. Thank you. I would like to ask Mr. Faulkner, if you would, how does the Office of Compliance work and who do they report to and what are their-what is going to be its responsibility? Mr. FAULKNER. All right. The office falls under, they are kind of an office in motion, basically. They are probably going to be the nucleus for what will be part of this addition to H.R. 1 by literally setting them up similar to the way we currently have the Office of Standards of Official Conduct. It is a separate entity governed by a board with term appointments. In the meantime, they currently reside under my Associate Administrator for Human Resources, but only from the standpoint of processing vouchers. They are an entity unto themselves with no policy direction. They are taking their direction at the moment from the office, or the Committee on House Oversight. So it is administratively in this holding pattern until the implementation of S. 2. MISSION AND PURPOSE OF H.I.S. Mr. PACKARD. Don, would you please return back? I have a question that I want to ask about. Maybe some others would like to ask questions of HIS. What is your understanding of the mission and purpose of HIS as a broad prospect? I would be interested in your views there. Mr. MUTERSBAUGH. My understanding of the mission and purpose is to provide any type of data processing support that we can to help Members' offices perform their jobs more effectively, the staff in the offices, by investigating and making recommendations about the software, hardware, types of interconnectivity they might need in terms of networking themselves within the committee structures and, for that matter, more futuristically into the Internet and just providing an organized and efficient access to that information. Mr. PACKARD. Have you done an assessment to determine the manpower and the expertise and capacity of your facilities and your capabilities to perform this mission? Mr. MUTERSBAUGH. We are currently investigating that very closely. Once again, keeping the proper frame of reference of what makes sense to do and, as Mr. Thornton pointed out, doing the right things, trying to determine what those right things are. We are very focused in terms of ensuring that the Members of Congress and their staffs have the appropriate levels of support from us to do their jobs and we are looking at more efficient ways to provide that service, such as one-stop shopping, if you will, and so we are looking at that. But at this point in time, we have not made any conclusions. PUBLIC ACCESS TO H.I.S. DATA Mr. PACKARD. And how long have you allowed the public access of your data over the World Wide Web and the Internet? Mr. MUTERSBAUGH. Could you repeat the question? Mr. PACKARD. When did you start to allow the public access to the data over the World Wide Web network and when was that authorized for you? Mr. MUTERSBAUGH. If you are talking about trying to separate that from like the MINS system, the information network which supervised the legislative information prior to my tenure, I couldn't really state with authority, but I believe it was around 1989. Of course, the public information began on January 5th, if I remember correctly, when Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Thomas cut the ribbon for THOMAS, which is going to become the access for that information. Mr. PACKARD. Okay. And how is that information accessed and how much information is available? And what security is there for individual Member's office's data if they are connected to the-to HIS over the Hill network? Mr. MUTERSBAUGH. The information is actually available; I am sorry I don't have a listing. I can include that with the record. But we do have appropriate safeguards called firewalls which control specific passage between the systems. [The information follows:] In the spirit of Thomas Jefferson, a service of the U.S. Congress through its Library. Full Text of Legislation Full text of all versions of House and Senate bills searchable by keyword(s) or by bill number. 103rd Congress 104th Congress Full Text of the Congressional Record for the 104th Congress NEW Full text of the daily account of proceedings on the House and Senate Floors searchable by keyword(s). How Our Laws Are Made Edward F. Willett, Jr., House Law Revision Counsel An explanation of the lawmaking process from the origin of a legislative proposal through its publication as a law. Resolution Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the 104th Congress Text of the Resolution Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the 104th Congress House of Representatives Gopher Directory information for House of Representatives members and committees; House of Representatives yearly calendar, latest daily committee hearing schedules, the current week's House floor schedule; visitor information. 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Thomas Usage Statistics Send comments on this service to thomas@loc.gov Last update 02/20/95 INCREASED USAGE OF "THOMAS" SYSTEM Mr. FAULKNER. Also, I would like to note that when the Thomas system got switched on, we went from I think 8,000 users on the first day to a 40,000 increase within two weeks and steadily climbing. it. us. Mr. PACKARD. That will continue to increase. No question about Mr. FAULKNER. There is a lot of interest. Mr. PACKARD. I think that it has phenomenal opportunities for Any questions before we dismiss the witnesses? DISCUSSION OF FINANCIAL FEASABILITY OF COMPUTER UPGRADES Mr. MILLER. Could I ask a question? It is exciting what we are going into about all of the new computer system. I know I just ordered upgrades of equipment in my office, because I have an old system. But it is difficult under the budgeting system requiring us to individually upgrade. How much of a problem is that with individual offices? Are you aware of a problem” I was able to, because of some staffing from last year that I could use, to make this major jump. It is kind of ama you cant st say put in an extra $5,000 here. Is it holding back other Members, or are you aware of that? What can be done about that? Because I think we all want to get everybody into the 21st Centur M: FAULANER That is one of the things we are looking at through our coerational reviews. There is a way for us to take some of the sings that we are projecting and reprogramming it for Members to come up to the standard level. Arun these in the thing that are making our task very challenging because each Members sightly different in terms of their user need and List their specific capability. Many members really know the computer feid already and are giving us tremendous gumne wale hers who are still very early an in their use and schwenge of me qerace are looking at training opportunities. We are inang & ese service procles and ultimately where the A gang i come fom which makes for a very lively reTHW IN ESCIUSSUL TIÊU DOw, especially with our oversight com NEW MEMBERS MAY INSERT CLO NUPMENT N NILS Car Secuse I feel that as something that for ve if is that are the budget fe is great Rt we need I helt rcher nos esteca y newer Momers that are coming in. Some of them a ming 3M Selectris ill and new computAS IT I NE Best Fre the a is that have the budget, it is ge. But the f is 2o not, I would enverge them to get Faxa M Mer deze a my god at We have just rear drug the sending in der die and our office is SHET WELL WHe i s gang ze de Deus. We are very, very excited Shut The Dew cums and the opportunties à rest is But it |