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ANNOUNCEMENT ON CELL PHONE USAGE

Chairman LEWIS. I want to interrupt you for just a second, and it won't take long. For those in the audience who may not enjoy cell phones, if one rings, that person probably won't be with us during the rest of the hearing so I suggest you turn it off because Mr. Obey and I both react to cell phones. Excuse me, David.

CVC HOUSE EXPANSION SPACE

Mr. DOOLITTLE. Would the gentleman yield for just a moment? Just to ask Mr. Obey, is the blue part in that chart the new space for the Intelligence Committee?

Mr. OBEY. No. This is all the new space for the House. This is the part that is supposed to be for the Intelligence Committee, this meeting room right here. These are labeled service-level House meeting rooms, but that is not the Intelligence Committee space. My problem is what happens on the middle level. My problem is that on the middle level of the Visitor Center, we have this huge theater, as you know, that will seat 450 people. We then have two rooms for the public's orientation before they tour the Capitol. But for the Congress' working space, they have essentially one large room, which, for all practical purposes, is a media center. It is a propaganda center. It is a place where Members can do their best to make themselves look good.

And the problem is if you take a look at this room, it has a huge area set aside for a committee dais, but very little room for the public at large. This is the only large room that we are going to get for the over $40 million that we are going to be spending on the House expansion.

As I pointed out in the conference last week, you remember, Mr. Chairman, that Senator Domenici was upset by the lack of space in conference in room HC 5 and complained about the presence of staff. Both staff had a job to do. The problem is that the room is essentially too small for a decent conference room. And while we are getting a nice fancy hearing room, we are still not getting any space that will give us a significantly larger room for conferences, and we are only getting one committee hearing room for all of that money.

The problem with this room, for instance, is that it is going to have vaulted 25-foot ceilings. And my problem with that is that I think if that space had been planned better, we would have had room for at least two working committee rooms. And because we don't, it is seriously deficient.

Now, there are five other rooms. You have two rooms here, two rooms here, and another room here. Those are not sufficiently large or shaped the way they need to be in order to be hearing rooms. They are essentially small meeting rooms. And thank God for small favors, at least we are getting some working space for our dollars. I don't see any place except for this room where you can have a large enough room for hearings. And I see any additional space that deals with the number-one problem, which is to have additional large rooms for conferences between us and the Senate. So that is my problem. I see this layout-to me, Mr. Hantman, it looks

One other problem we have, in the Visitor Center itself, in addition to the two orientation rooms for the public, we have this huge 450-seat theater. When I asked what the purpose of that was, I was told there were two purposes. Number one, so that we could entertain large constituency groups. I don't know of any Member of Congress who brings 450 people at a time to the Hill, but so be it. The other thing I was told is that this will serve as a substitute Chamber for the House when the House Chamber itself is being remodeled.

My problem with that is twofold. Number one, if you look at the original description of this room, it indicates that it is included at the request of the Library of Congress as another theater. Secondly, I noted in an article in Congressional Quarterly 2 weeks ago, entitled "Extreme Makeover Ways and Means Addition," and it points out that that room which has just been redecorated was originally planned to be an alternative meeting site for the House of Representatives and in fact, was used that way for almost 2 years from 1949 to 1950 when the Capitol was renovated, I believe, during the Truman era. So my problem is that in addition to the management problems that we have seen, I question very much whether we are getting the space we need. And I would like to ask, even at this late date, isn't there any way that we can get more usable working space rather than the show space which we are getting for the incredible amount of money that we are spending?

Mr. Chairman, I thank you for your indulgence and didn't want to take this much time, but I wanted to set the stage for Mr. Hantman's testimony, because I am the person who has indicated that I don't want to sign any more work orders if this is what we are going to get for our money.

OPENING REMARKS BY CHAIRMAN LEWIS

Chairman LEWIS. Thank you very much, Mr. Obey.

Mr. Hantman, before we move forward from here, let me continue with my opening comments. The fiscal year 2006 budget request for the Architect assumes direct appropriations of $440.9 million ($440,916,000). This is an increase of 152.6 million ($152,602,000), or 52.9 percent over fiscal year 2005. I would like to point out that your budget contains some large-ticket items for projects totaling $149.7 million, including requests from clients. Without these items, your requested net increase is $2.9 million, or 1 percent.

This budget request does not include funds for the operations of the Senate office buildings that is estimated at $65.6 million. The other body will consider their own needs in terms of those operations.

Before I begin by way of asking for your testimony, Mr. Hantman, let me say that I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the daily work and the accomplishments of your employees. We sometimes overlook the highly qualified and skilled employees who keep the Capitol and its surroundings in stellar condition. I am certain that you are very proud of the work they perform and we should all extend our gratitude to them for that work.

After the initial budgetary review, we will concentrate on ques

Center, questions on various AOC operations, jurisdictions and projects. Much of that questioning will be inserted in the record.

But from there, Mr. Hantman, if you would proceed with your testimony and know that it will be included in its entirety in the record, we will begin somewhat of a free exchange between your office and the members. Welcome, Mr. Hantman.

STATEMENT BY THE ARCHITECT

Mr. HANTMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee. And I thank you for your kind words about the staff of the AOC. We have a lot of dedicated professionals over here who take great pride in the work that they do, and this recognition is very important to them. And I want to thank the committee for its support, without which we could not have completed many critical projects, continue to provide exemplary service, and assure continuity of operations throughout the Capitol complex.

Mr. Chairman, the AOC has served Congress since 1793, the year President Washington helped to dedicate the cornerstone and construction of the Capitol Building began. Today our responsibilities include the care and maintenance of nearly 300 acres and approximately 15 million square feet of historic buildings, which will soon include the Capitol Visitor Center.

When we implemented our strategic plan 2 years ago, we developed goals that guide us in setting priorities when submitting budget requests, balancing our workload, and assessing and measuring our accomplishments. As we work to achieve these goals, we regularly evaluate our efforts so we can continue to excel to meet and exceed customers' expectations and grow as an organization.

As you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, we are requesting $506 million across all AOC-managed appropriations to sustain operations and renovation activities while addressing security concerns, upgrading fire and life safety elements, and attending to customers' requests and priorities.

Major capital projects included in this budget request are the construction of Library of Congress storage modules 3 and 4 at Fort Meade; the planned construction of the U.S. Capitol Police offsite delivery center; the installation and upgrade of life safety and security measures; completion of additional fire egress and protection projects; and numerous renovation projects planned for the Capitol complex.

CVC OVERVIEW

Mr. Chairman, as we discussed already, our most noteworthy project is the Capitol Visitor Center, the largest addition to the U.S. Capitol in its history. Included in the 580,000 square-foot center is the construction of expansion space for the House and the Senate. It is important to recognize, Mr. Chairman, this is a complex and ever-changing project, changing and having to be modified as it is being built. It is very different from the project we started with. Contractors have had to reprice and build sections of the project to incorporate new requirements dictated by issues related to increased security requirements, House and Senate expansion space needs, and unforeseen site and Capitol conditions. All of

these issues have added more than $140 million in new work to the project.

We needed to resolve these issues, incorporate the new work, and, at the same time, mitigate risk to the occupied and functioning Capitol Building. The magnitude of these changes has significantly impacted the schedule as well as the cost. Yet, despite many challenges, the project supported the Presidential Inauguration activities, including President Bush reviewing the troops as they marched across the new granite pavers installed across the East Front plaza.

The construction of those portions of the Visitor Center currently under contract is scheduled to be completed in fall 2006. My budget request for the CVC contains several components, the most significant being the construction cost to complete of $36.9 million. In addition, it was anticipated that operations and maintenance costs would require $15.3 million, but with the fall 2006 opening, it is now estimated this will be $10.4 million instead of the $15.3 million. We have included these expenses in the AOC budget submission until a determination is made as to who will have oversight of this new facility. We also included $20 million for start-up and opening project costs, for gift shops, Visitor Center services, Capitol police furniture, fixtures and equipment, House recording studio, data network wiring, and the equipping of House shell space. Since the equipping of the House shell space was also included in the CAO budget request, we have reduced our estimate to $9.1 million from $20 million for this portion of the budget.

For practical reasons, we need to bring some personnel on board shortly to begin planning for the operation and maintenance of the facility as well as arranging for necessary visitor services. The doors, Mr. Chairman, cannot be opened without staff, tour guides, food service workers, custodians and others in place, ready to serve and assist the millions of people who visit the Capitol each year. The need for the CVC is clear. Visitors to the peoples' House need to be welcomed in a more respectful and secure manner while they learn about and experience the workings of the Congress.

Mr. Chairman, the progress we have made on the CVC in the past 12 months has been remarkable. Several members of this committee have already toured the facility, and I invite those who have not yet done so to join me in an inspection tour of this historic addition to the Capitol.

AOC INITIATIVES

With regard to our work in the House office buildings in fiscal year 2004, we completed more than 64,000 work orders. To date in this fiscal year, we have completed 31,000. We have been working on a number of priority projects, including modernizing elevators, upgrading public restrooms, designing a staff fitness center, completing election-year moves, and upgrading the audio and visual equipment in several committee rooms.

As part of our strategic planning, one of our objectives was to develop a comprehensive employee feedback program. In September 2004, I invited employees from across the AOC to participate in 25

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