you asked, has to do with delivery on the House side. It differs on the Senate side.

On the House side, a Congressman will send us a request for 25 flags, let's say, to be flown for various people under various situations, and that order then goes to the House Stationery Room. They may be out of flags, and so the flags will come in four weeks later, and we then have to match them up to the letters previously received.

We are doing that every day, and sometimes they get into the hundreds. It is a lot of time and effort just matching those up. We are trying to work out a way to do that as a single operation, which is what happens on the Senate side. The order goes to the Senate Stationery Room, and it doesn't come to us until the flag is ready.

These seem like menial problems, but it adds up to money and time and effort. So we are trying to improve that.

Mr. HIGHTOWER. On the House side, why not tell all the Members, when you request a flag be flown over the Capitol, get the flag first?

Mr. TRAXLER. Some offices do that now I believe.

Mr. WHITE. We could do that. We could require that the request not be submitted until the flag is with it. We might get some problems, but we will try it.

Mrs. Boggs. I think the Members probably don't realize the flags are available through the stationery room.

Mr. WHITE. Many of them probably think that we have the flags. Mr. FAZIO. I have several thoughts at this point. One, I wish every other committee could get into the kind of detail that this one does sometimes. Our oversight responsibilities here are taken seriously. But these are important matters.

Mrs. BOGGS. I must say, this is a problem though of significance, that obviously there are more and more people wanting flags; it means something to them.

Mr. FAZIO. It is a measure of patriotism.

Mrs. Boggs. And the Capitol means something to them, and as do the House and Senate.

Mr. CONTE. I just got a little idea. You know now, they have that adhesive on gloves and hunting jackets. Flag manufacturers might put two tabs on the end of each flag, and then you could have adhesive on there that would be a lot faster than putting on the clip. Maybe you could fly three or four flags at one time.

INDIVIDUALIZED CERTIFICATES

Mr. WHITE. We will look into it.

As you may know, in that regard, in terms of the individual hanging of the flags, that we number every flag. We didn't used to do that, but we get requests from people that say, "I lost my certificate; send me another one," and we won't do that unless theyMr. FAZIO. We are not unsympathetic. On the other hand, we would like to try to explore some alternatives to cut down on some of the bureaucracy that may be inadvertently introduced here.

ADDITIONAL POSITIONS

That should take care of our discussion of the additional positions. Mr. Lewis, do you have any questions?

Mr. LEWIS. I have had a number of questions raised by my own. staff and others regarding what your personnel do on a day-by-day basis. It is easy for people to be critical of others, but they see people standing around and they see overlap of functions and activity that has caused some questions to be raised. So I outlined a series of questions for our record, and ask you to respond in terms of some of the personnel policies that relate to supervisory activities as well as some questions that relate to training new employees, etc cetera.

So I will put those in the record.

[The questions and responses follow:]

QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD FROM MR. LEWIS

As this Committee knows the Architect of the Capitol has a large work force, 2,068 persons I believe, who execute the responsibilities of an almost $100,000,000 budget. As in any large organization, hiring, managing, training, and closely supervising the workload is a major undertaking. While generally we know this work force performs well and with technical competence, we also hear of some problems from time to time.

We get occasional reports of the labor force just "standing around" with nothing. to do or "chatting" with the tourists, Capitol Police, or Congressional Staff. We sometimes see four or five people doing something where one or two would seem sufficient. Some projects get delayed when materials don't arrive on time.

On the other hand, we note the very timely and excellent work in making room 2360 ready for Committee use and the Ethics Committee space in the Mezzanine. So there are many pluses, but still some minuses.

I would just like to get some idea how this work force is organized and I have a number of questions.

Question. Is 2,068 an accurate figure of the size of your staff?

Response. Yes. That is the number of authorized positions funded in fiscal year 1984 from the Congressional Operations Appropriation Act. In addition, we have 33 positions assigned to the Supreme Court which are funded in the Judiciary Appropriations Act.

Question. How many non-permanent staff do you employ?

Response. As of January 20, 1984 a total of 235 temporary employees were on the payroll.

Question. How are non-permanent staff used?

Response. The vast majority of the temporary employees are used in connection with the construction activities. Of the total, 169 (or 72 percent) are union-scale tradesmen who are hired to work on in-house construction and alteration projects such as completion of spaces in the Hart Senate Office Building, installation of the fire protection systems in the Jefferson and Adams Buildings, repair of the bomb damage outside the Senate Chamber, and alterations to accommodate the requirements of the House Committees on Appropriations and Ethics.

The balance of the temporary workforce consists of 66 employees, of whom 55 are engaged in various construction activities in such capacities as project managers, engineers, inspectors, drafting aides, and administrative or clerical support. Thus, all but 10 temporary employees are directly involved in the construction activities of the office; the 10 other employees are assigned to the House Garage (4), the Flag Office (3), and the administrative office (3).

Question. You have many crafts and other jobs in your workforce carpenters, laborers, painters, elevator mechanics, plumbers, and so on. Do you have crews and foremen for each craft?

Response. Generally, our shops are organized by trade or craft (e.g., plumbing/ pipefitting, carpentry, sheet metal, air conditioning, electrical, etc.). Each shop has a foreman; in addition, there may be one or more assistant foreman if required because of the number of personnel assigned to the shop or because the shop is staffed for more than one shift. All shop foremen are under the direction of the respective Superintendent or Supervising Engineer. In addition, the mechanical trades (e.g., el

evator maintenance, air conditioning, electrical, etc.) receive technical guidance and assistance from the Engineering Department, under the Director of Engineering, whose staff engineers have technical responsibility for mechanical systems.

Question. Are these crafts people hired as apprentices or journeymen? Response. The Architect's policy is to promote individuals from within the organization whenever that is feasible in terms of the workload of a particular shop. As a matter of fact, the House Office Building Commission requires that we fill all vacancies in the House Office Buildings from within that organization if there are qualified candidates. Accordingly, vacant positions are posted and are generally filled at the helper or apprenticeship level; thereafter, employees advance to journeyman levels as their skills and knowledge of work requirements so warrant. Of course, vacancies must be filled at the journeyman mechanic level from time to time when the nature of the work requires advanced skills which are not possessed by apprentices within the organization. When we need to go outside the organization for a tradesman of journeyman skill, we attempt to employ individuals with whom we have had some experience in the past in connection with our construction activities, for example.

Question. What training do you give your people? How do you keep them up to date on, say, new technology?

Response. Most of the training has been provided on the job with apprentices assigned to journeyman mechanics from whom they learn work methods, use of tools and equipment, applicable codes, and the like. Of course, individual employees are encouraged to attend trade schools on their own time to advance their skills and many take advantage of these opportunities. Training in safety procedures is conducted by our Safety Engineering division and safety manuals are available to the shops for routine reference.

We have long recognized a need for providing greater training opportunities to our shop personnel to help upgrade skills, learn state-of-the-art methods and increase productivity. Occasionally, employees have been sent to formal training conducted by other Federal agencies or private organizations when the training was provided at no cost to this office. In 1983, the Architect of the Capitol was for the first time brought under the Government Employees Training Act thereby making it possible to send employees to training programs for these purposes and to expend funds to develop in-house training programs. Toward this end we have requested a position in this fiscal year 1985 budget to set up and administer a training program for the Architect's office.

Question. You work three shifts? What type of work is done on each shift?

Response. Yes, most of our buildings have shops that are scheduled on a threeshift-per-day basis. Generally, the first shift oversees the operation of HVAC, life safety, and other systems; performs routine services for Members and Committeessuch as moving offices, delivering ice orders, etc.-and handles emergency service and repair calls. In addition, maintenance of the Capitol Power Plant, including steam and chilled water lines, and routine maintenance, operation and care of the buildings and grounds, including walkways, are generally performed during the first shift. Crews assigned to the second and third shifts are primarily engaged in preventive maintenance activities, major nonemergency repairs, and alteration or other construction projects. In addition, most of the custodial care of the buildings takes place during the third shift, which is generally 11:00 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.

Question. It would seem reasonable that your day shift would be doing remedial work-fixing leaks, and handling emergency breakdowns while your afternoon and night shifts would be doing the routine maintenance, remodeling, and installation work. Is that the case?

Question. How many people are assigned to each shift?

Response. The number of employees assigned to each shift varies according to the requirements of each of our major areas of responsibility (e.g., Capitol Building, House Office Buildings, Senate Office Buildings, Capitol Power Plant, Library of Congress, etc.). For illustration purposes, the House Office Buildings can be used to show the deployment of personnel by shift. The third shift makes up the largest complement of the workforce with just over one-half of the staff. Next, employees assigned to the first shift represent just over one-third of the workforce. Finally, the second shift accounts for about 15 percent of the total.

Question. I know you have superintendents for each building. Do these superintendents work the day shift or do they rotate to the afternoon and evenings? Response. We do not have a superintendent for each building. Instead, one superintendent is responsible for all the House Office Buildings and the Annex Buildings. Similarly, a superintendent is responsible for the Senate Office Buildings and an

nexes. The Superintendents work the day shift to be available to confer with Members and their staffs regarding their requirements as well as with the Architect of the Capitol and other officials of this office. In addition, a night superintendent is on duty during the second and third shifts who is responsible for assuring that service calls are promptly attended to and that scheduled work proceeds as planned.

Question. If not, what kind of overall supervision do your non-day shift crews re

ceive?

Response. In addition to the overall supervision from the night superintendents, there are foremen or assistant foreman on duty at all times unless the number of employees assigned to the shift for a particular shop requires a leader, not a foreman, to assure proper supervision. Supervisory personnel are responsible to their superiors for completing work assignments and for assuring that performance is in accordance with quality standards set by top management. First-line supervisors are, of course, the most important link between the trades personnel and top management inasmuch as they are responsible for assuring timely and proficient accomplishment of work assigned to their subordinates.

Question. In particular reference to dealing with the public and on-the-job behavior-what kind of specific training or indoctrination do your employees receive? Response. All supervisory officials—superintendents, supervising engineers, foremen and assistant foremen-are keenly aware of the important mission of this office to serve Members of Congress, their staffs, Committee staffs, other occupants of the buildings as well as the general public on some occasions. New employees, regardless of their duties, are indoctrinated by foremen and other supervisory officials as to their responsibility to represent the organization in a prompt, competent, and courteous manner. Employees of this office are fully informed that ours is a service organization that requires each individual to display a great deal of tact in dealing with everyone.

Question. What steps do you take to insure that your crews are productive and busy throughout the work day?

Response. As indicated in our answer to the question concerning night shift supervision, shop foremen play the central role in supervising our maintenance and construction forces. In addition to the direct supervision of the shop foremen and assistants, however, the Superintendent and his staff make frequent inspections of the various job sites throughout the buildings to determine whether the work is proceeding on schedule and according to plan. Work order reports are prepared on service calls to assure that prompt attention has been given to the needs of an office or building occupant. Frequent meetings are held between the Superintendent and the key line supervisors (e.g. shop foremen) to monitor the status of work under way and deal with problems that arise in the course of completing work assignments. The House Superintendent, for example, meets with his foremen and assistant foremen two or three times weekly to coordinate activities among the shops, review project status and schedule assignments. In addition, the House Office Building Deputy Superintendent, who is also a professional engineer, has been delegated authority by the Superintendent for supervision of the daily operations of all trades and crafts shops. To further strengthen our administrative management, our internal auditor is authorized to engage in activities in these and other matters in order to add a measure of certainty and credibility, as an "outside" observer, to the established procedures.

Question. Are these controls sufficient to maintain a satisfactory level of productivity and public relations?

Response. We believe that the control procedures established for each area under the Architect's jurisdiction provide a reasonable basis for holding personnel accountable for the quality and quantity of work performed. Of course, no system can assure that every one of our 2,100 employees will be performing at full productivity every minute of the work day. However, we are not aware of any serious problems in that regard and believe that our staff can stand shoulder to shoulder with any other support organization on Capitol Hill.

Question. Will you take a special look at that for us?

Response. We would be happy to review our control procedures and investigate any particular allegations that the Subcommittee wishes to bring to our attention. It is worth noting also that the Architect's workforce totals just over 10 percent of the total workforce on Capitol Hill. Since the vast majority of our employees are blue collar, that may be the basis for some misunderstanding regarding the judgement that employees in that category who appear to be "standing around" are necessarily employed by the Architect. There are, of course, a number of other support agencies with similar craft, trade, or custodial personnel, so it is often difficult to distinguish one group from another. As indicated, we do endeavor to obtain the best

productivity possible. We do, however, permit rest periods among shop personnel, office employees, etc. At any given time we are apt to find examples of individuals taking breaks, or stopping to say hello to a friend, or offering directions to visitors. Those same employees may nevertheless be highly productive, valued members of the work force. In any event, we shall continue to monitor these matters with the goal of achieving additional improvements in everyone's conduct.

Question. Your workforce is assigned to crews within various buildings. Isn't that a cumbersome way to organize? What if your electronics technicians have a heavy workload at the Library while things are slow in the Capitol or vice versa?

Response. The way our maintenance forces are organized is the result of statutory restrictions which prohibit funds appropriated for one purpose being used for another. For example, funds appropriated for the maintenance and operation of the House Office Buildings are available only for those purposes. Employees compensated from House Office Building funds may not be detailed to other accounts, except for temporary purposes. Such a restriction does create problems because of differing workloads. However, in cases where a specialty function exists within our organization, the Congress has allowed us to fund such activities from our central account in order that we might assign employees engaged for these purposes to the building where a need exists. For example, the electronics technicians involved with the closed circuit television system and the data transmission cable system work in all the buildings under my jurisdiction, depending on the workload. Likewise, we have a central crew that is charged with testing and cabling elevators in all the buildings, and another crew that maintains electric substations in all buildings.

In 1979, as a first step toward resolving some of the problems we experienced from time to time with fluctuating workloads, the Congress approved my request to provide legislative language to permit me to temporarily detail employees paid from one appropriation to another in order to meet peak workload demands. This has been helpful, but is not the total answer.

As I have indicated in testimony in previous years, I believe that the Congress can be more efficiently served by permitting me to partially centralize the maintenance personnel under my jurisdiction. I believe we can provide a better service, with fewer employees by having at least partially centralized shops and storerooms. This is a matter that requires much study in order to ensure that both Houses are properly served. In that regard, we have been engaged in a review of this situation and I anticipate recommending steps to effect a reorganization in the near future. Question. A few years ago, we allowed you to consolidate your elevator mechanics into one crew. Has that worked out?

Response. The elevator crews are still organized by appropriation, but as I mentioned in response to a previous question, we were authorized to detail employees for temporary periods from one shop to another. Even that arrangement has been very useful and effective. As a matter of fact, we have reduced our elevator maintenance forces by approximately 20 percent as a result.

Question. Wouldn't it be more efficient to do that with all of your crews?

Response. In my opinion, it will indeed be more efficient to organize our workforces so that we can provide more centralized maintenance. In that regard, as I mentioned earlier, I anticipate making recommendations to the Congress as soon as we complete our analysis of the impact of reorganizing our workforce to provide this service.

As a matter of fact, I intend to submit a proposal to the Legislative Subcommittee before mark-up requesting legislative authorization to establish a trial program for centralized maintenance. I propose to select a maintenance function such as sheetmetal, organize a central fabrication shop for all activities under my jurisdiction, fabricate all sheetmetal items in the central location, with installation being performed by building maintenance personnel. Costs would be charged to each appropriation by a cost accounting method that would enable the Congress to be kept informed regarding cost distribution. We would monitor the trial program to determine its effectiveness following which we would report to the Congress on the results, together with further appropriate recommendations. I believe that such an arrangement will permit us to reduce the duplication of shop equipment and, perhaps, personnel.

I hope to move into a centralized maintenance mode on a gradual basis. Question. For the record, for each of your major crews (Architect, Capitol buildings, grounds, Senate office buildings, House office buildings, Library buildings and grounds, Capitol power plant) supply a list of each employee assigned, their job title, office or shop location, wage grade, date hired, date assigned to that job, date assigned to that shift, and the wage grade when hired. Subdivide by craft or labor crew type. Designate each vacant position.