OFFICE OF THE SERGEANT AT ARMS AND DOORKEEPER STATEMENT OF HON. HOWARD O. GREENE, JR., SERGEANT AT ARMS AND DOORKEEPER OF THE SENATE ACCOMPANIED BY: JOYCE A. McCLUNEY, DEPUTY SERGEANT AT ARMS ELIZABETH MCALHANY, ACTING DIRECTOR, SENATE COMPUTER CENTER ROBERT W. McCORMICK, DIRECTOR, SENATE TELECOMMUNI- RUSSELL JACKSON, DIRECTOR, SENATE SERVICE DEPARTMENT OPENING REMARKS Senator MACK. Again, I thank you for the effort you and your staff have put into this. As I mentioned before, I know a great deal of effort and angst went into putting this together. I appreciate both your time and involvement this morning. [Pause.] I do not intend to make any additional opening statement now. We have your prepared statement and I will turn to you now and ask you to make whatever statement you would like. You might want to introduce the members of your staff. And, for the benefit of some of you all who maybe were not in here when I made reference to the work and the effort that has gone into the preparation for today's hearing, as I said to the Secretary of the Senate as she left, I know there was a tremendous amount of effort and a great deal of angst that goes into preparation of these hearings, and I want you to know I appreciate the effort that you have put into this. It is always difficult trying to reorganize and restructure an organization. It is particularly difficult when you have to take into consideration the effects of the decisions that we make on the individuals who work with us, the effects that it has on them, and I appreciate the sensitivity that you have shown as you have gone through this process. Again, if you want to make your opening statement, if you want to introduce the members of your staff, I would be delighted to have you do that. Mr. GREENE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is very similar to the one I submitted earlier. There are a few minor changes so there is no sense going through it and taking your time. Let me make a few brief remarks and introduce these people and then we can get to the nuts and bolts. I am joined today by Joyce McCluney, Deputy Sergeant at Arms; Elizabeth McAlhany, Acting Director of the Senate Computer Center; Robert McCormick, Director of Senate Telecommunications; Russell Jackson, Director of the Senate Service Department; Carol Collett, Director of Human Resources; and Chris Dey, Chief Financial Officer. I will skip most of this since we have already submitted it. I do want to get to the nuts of this thing. Conclusions reached through this evaluation process, which has been tough for 3 months, enabled us to submit a funding request for fiscal year 1996 of $92.6 million, a $15 million or 14-percent decrease from fiscal year 1995. The funding request for salaries is $31.7 million; $1 million or 3.2-percent below the fiscal year 1995 level of $32.7. We expect that staffing levels will decrease by somewhere between 60 and 70 to 72 people; hopefully, it will not be that high. Our expense funding request is for $60.9 million, a decrease of $14 million or 18.7 percent from the 1995 level of $74.9 million. PREPARED STATEMENT It has been a difficult 3 months, but we are a little bit above 12.5 percent, so hopefully the committee will take that into consideration. [The statement follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF HOWARD O. GREENE, JR. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to present the funding request for fiscal year 1996 for the Office of the Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper. I am accompanied by: Joyce A. McCluney, Deputy Sergeant at Arms; Elizabeth McAlhany, Acting Director of the Senate Computer Center; Robert W. McCormick, Director of Senate Telecommunications; Russell Jackson, Director of the Senate Service Department; Carol Collett, Director of Human Resources; and Christopher C. Dey, Chief Financial Officer. I would like to thank the Committee for its support during the past several months as we have attempted to respond to the leadership's directive to reduce operating costs. To meet that goal, we conducted an exhaustive programmatic budget review. The objective of this review was to identify the cost and priority of each major service or function performed by the organizations of the Sergeant at Arms. We then undertook an evaluation of the services and functions to determine how we could reduce their costs. The conclusions reached through the evaluation process enable us to submit a funding request for fiscal year 1996 of $92.6 million, a $15 million, or 14 percent, decrease from the fiscal year 1995 appropriation of $107.6 million. Our funding request for salaries is $31.7 million, $1 million or 3.2 percent below the 1995 level of $32.7 million. We expect that staffing levels will decrease by 6072 full-time employees. Our expense funding request is for $60.9 million, a decrease of $14 million, or 18.7 percent, from the 1995 level of $74.9 million. The result of this review is a well-thought program for cost savings. This program will be ongoing. We have consolidated operations, reduced service hours and response times and restricted product and service options. These are real cuts which will have a real effect on member offices, committees and support groups. Through this review, we have established spending priorities, seeking to provide that level of service which is essential to the business of the Senate. Services which are not directed to that end have been eliminated or scaled back. For example, we are reducing the funds available for computer upgrades and enhancements, in light of reduced equipment costs and reduced product offerings; we are reducing some hours of service to a normal eight-hour business day instead of twelve-hour days; we are eliminating second or third shifts in some areas; and we are deferring upgrades to our telecommunications network. We are also establishing asset replacement guidelines to slow the growth in equipment inventories and to ensure that we obtain the full economic benefit, in addition to the full functional benefit, from equipment before we replace or upgrade it. With our heavy investment in rapidly changing hardware and software technologies, we must develop sound policies to ensure that we choose the right technology to fit the circumstance in question and that the technology acquired is fully utilized. We have not yet reduced our funding requirements for state office rentals since that program is undergoing study in consultation with the Committee on Rules and Administration to determine the appropriate space allocations in light of budget reductions. We expect to offer a plan to reduce office rental costs later this year to be effective with the commencement of the 105th Congress. Expenses to support the 400 state offices exceed $25 million and comprise 42 percent of our expense budget. These support costs include office rents, telecommunications and computer and other office equipment. The programmatic review that has taken place over the past three months will form the basis of a Strategic Plan to Year 2000 for the Sergeant at Arms. We intend to submit this plan to the Committee on Rules and Administration as well as the Committee on Appropriations no later than September 30, 1995. The materials which have been provided to the Committee detail the 1996 funding requests and results of the programmatic budget review for the Office of the Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. My staff and I are prepared to answer any questions you may have. OPERATIONS Senator MACK. Again, let me just say at the outset, all of this is driven by-frankly, I think most people have felt for a long time that we need to take a look at the operations. Year after year, pretty much operating the way that we have operated in the past, and there has really been kind of no real turning point until the election last year. And basically, the people in the country have said, you know, we need to do things differently; we need to get prepared for the 21st century. We need to operate government more effectively and efficiently. And then, as you know, the Republican conference in the Senate passed a resolution calling for a $200 million reduction in the appropriations account for the legislative branch. That is what I am operating on. And included in that resolution was a directive that you have been following, trying to reach the 12.5 percent. You have done better than that; it is somewhere in the neighborhood of 14.5, 14.6, 14.7 percent. Again, you are to be commended and your staff is to be commended for doing that. I think what I will do is just go through a series of questions. I do not, frankly, think that this will take long because in a sense I want to reward you for the effort that you have gone through to accomplish that and not put you through a long list of questions. And having said that now, as we all have gotten used to around here, there is a vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate. So, now that we have gotten to this point you will have to wait a little bit longer, Howard, while I go vote. I will go vote and be right back. [A brief recess was taken.] FUNCTIONS OF THE SERGEANT AT ARMS Senator MACK. I think before I get into the questions, it might be helpful-I suspect there are a number of people who may be watching this on C-SPAN who have absolutely no idea what the Sergeant at Arms does in the U.S. Senate, the various functions that are carried out, so you might want to take a moment to just go through that. And if you all individually want to make a com ment with respect to those duties, we would be glad to hear from you. Mr. GREENE. Just quickly a sort of general overview, Mr. Chair man. The Sergeant at Arms serves as the chief law enforcement and protocol officer and is the chief executive officer of most of the support services in the Senate. Responsibilities include, chief law enforcement officer, maintaining security in the Capitol and the Senate office buildings and the grounds, protection of Members, controlling access to the Senate Chamber, authority to arrest and detain any person in violation of Senate rules. Additional duties include memberships on boards of directors of the Capitol Police, congressional special services, Capitol guide, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, GA. The protocol responsibilities include the many ceremonial functions in the Senate such as security for the inauguration of the President of the United States; escorting the President when he comes to the Capitol; escorting heads of state, foreign dignitaries, and other official guests to the Senate; and making arrangements for funerals of senators who die in office. That is not the easy one, either. Support services provided by the Sergeant at Arms include the computer center, the service department, the telecommunications department, recording studio, photographic studios, Senate Post Office, State office coordination, Capitol guide service, barber shop, beauty shop, Senate parking, human resources, Senate placement office, procurement and maintenance of Senate vehicles, furnishings and custodial services in the Senate, Senate pages, and operation of the media galleries. For starters. Senator MACK. Pretty broad. Any comments that you all would like to make? This is your opportunity. I think it would be helpful again if you want to kind of run through how you went through this process. Again, it is not easy to come up with roughly 15 percent reductions from the previous year's expenditure. I think it is an important statement that is being made. We have been talking about trying to reduce spending throughout Government for years, and again, from a full budget perspective we are actually going to see spending continue to increase over the next several years throughout Government at 3plus percent, and we are talking about an almost 15 percent actual reduction in the Sergeant at Arms operations. I think it might be helpful for us to hear how you went through the process. What did you do? How did you accomplish this? Mr. GREENE. Mr. Chairman, I will give it to you briefly and then I will turn it over to Chris Dey who is the expert behind this. I guess the first thing we did is we looked at the various departments and tried to look at the services provided by those departments and go in and try to condense, consolidate, and, in some instances, do away with some services that were sort of not adequately handled or maybe not properly providing service to the Senators. That was the first objective. But if you do not mind, I will turn this over to Chris Dey and let him give you a little better detail. Senator MACK. I have had the opportunity, last year I guess it was, to visit Chris and a number of you as I tried to get myself somewhat familiar with how expansive an operation you are involved in and was impressed with your command of your responsibilities. So it is a pleasure to have you here and I look forward to your comments. Mr. GREENE. Mr. Chairman, if I could interrupt you, this gentleman here, with his assistant David Salem, they are the architects of this. They deserve a lot of credit and I appreciate what they have done. Mr. DEY. Thank you. Several months ago, recognizing that we needed to make substantial reductions in the scope of our operations, we laid out a format to identify all of the services and functions in all of the different cost centers of the Sergeant at Arms. We took staffing levels for every service and applied to the levels all the expenses that we incur to support Senate offices nationwide and here in the District of Columbia. The department managers and supervisors and directors examined each service, made an evaluation of where the services could be combined with other services in the department, identified those which could be eliminated or could be re-engineered or restructured or modernized. That process covered over 200 individual services that ranged in scope from supplying telecommunications services to the State offices to work here in Washington for supporting offices, computer systems, and LAN's, so it is a broad scope that was covered. I think that all of the directors-I guess we spent about 3 months doing this, and it was a very educational exercise for all of us. Senator MACK. I would assume that having been given the goal, though I mean, this was not something that was sprung on everyone at the last minute. Establishing a goal to change direction I guess clearly helps begin the process of defining and redefining the scope of the operations of the Sergeant at Arms. Mr. DEY. That is correct. And I think we recognized on our own over the past years that we have got to modernize and streamline all of the processes, and this is one step. This is continuous. We will do it again next year and the year after that to constantly keep the service level at a very low cost but very high quality service. QUALITY OF SERVICES Senator MACK. That really kind of leads me into my next question. One of the questions that is going to be asked of all of us throughout all operations of Government as we make these changes is: What is going to happen to the quality of the services being provided? Mr. DEY. Our expectation is that the quality of the services-we are not going to sacrifice quality in the course of supporting the Senate. There will be some changes in the way the services are delivered, and our objective over the next year as we implement all of these is to make sure that we redesign the service processes so that we do not sacrifice quality. We think we can do that; we think we can move, in the service department, for example-Russell can speak in more detail. But we can go to more electronic printing, |