Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, I again want to express my gratitude for the opportunity to testify before you today. I also want you to know how much I have appreciated the support and advice you have given me as your

Postmaster. I hope that I may continue to count on your guidance

in the future. With our combined efforts, I feel that we have made the House Post Office one of the more efficient organizqations organizations in the House of Representatives.

Our efficiency has surpassed that of the Postal

Service. A Postal Service publication noted that Postal Service employees could sort approximately 800 items per hour. Our employees, however, can sort approximately 1200 items of mail per hour. This type of efficiency has enabled us to meet the increasing needs of the Members for rapid and dependable communications and has provided us with a means of handling the ever-increasing volume of mail.

It is my hope that we will be able to maintain the same standard of service now offered to the Members of Congress and that the future will enable me to give you even greater and more efficient service.

Mr. ROTA. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, I wish to thank you for giving me the opportunity to appear before you in support of appropriations for the House Post Office.

As in the past, the budget request being presented today is the lowest at which we feel we can operate and still provide the Members with the kinds of services you need and deserve. The total appropriation requested for the House Post Office during the 1979 fiscal year is $1,177,100. This figure represents an increase of $60,500 over last year and is the result of the mandatory cost-ofliving increases and the longevity pay increases. The House Post Office, however, has not requested an increase in the number of employees.

VOLUME OF MAIL

In spite of the increase in the amount of mail handled by House Post Office employees last year, we have been able to steadily improve the services and efficiency of the Post Office. Table No. 1 demonstrates the steady increase of mail being processed by the House Post Office. The table also shows the number of mail handlers being used as well as the number of stops currently in effect throughout the House Office Buildings served.

In addition, we are now serving 292 additional mail stops in two more buildings than in 1972. This improved efficiency has made it possible for us to provide new services each year as I will detail in

a moment.

With respect to the volume of incoming mail, it is important to note that the figure in table 1 includes only that mail which comes in through the U.S. Postal Service. This mail is estimated to be less than half of the mail processed by the House Post Office last year, as these figures do not include the mail delivered by messengers to the House Post Office; the mail from the various Federal and State departments and agencies; specially delivered mass mailings from various organizations; bulk delivered newspapers; "dear colleague" letters; inside mail, plus the delivery of the daily legislative calendars, the Congressional Records, telephone books, mail from the Library of Congress and other special mailings requested by the Members.

Based on our estimations including all of the above material, which is not reflected by the U.S. Postal Service data, we feel that we processed in excess of 100 million pieces of mail last year. An example of additional mail being handled by the House Post Office last year occurred during House consideration of the Common Situs Picketing bill in March of 1977. In one four-hour period, the Speaker's office received over 55,000 items of mail, mostly in the form of postcards delivered to the House Post Office in various bundles-such as large mail bags, packages, cardboard boxes. The actual number of the cards and letters was not taken into account by the Postal Service, rather they simply tallied a bag of mail as one item which certainly did not give an accurate count of incoming mail.

Mr. SHIPLEY. When you say incoming letters and envelopes, does this include newspapers?

Mr. ROTA. No, sir. Actually, those numbers reflect only that mail which has been reported to us by the City Post Office.