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 Dore 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.

Mr. SHIPLEY. But you have a multitude; we have a multitude of junk mail, if that is what you want to call it, but I don't have a handle on it.

. Mr. ROTA. Later on I will explain the whole procedure exactly how we compiled the figures.

Mr. SHIPLEY. All right.

Mr. ROTA. The figures in Table 1 reflect only that mail which has been reported by the Postal Service.

Also, if you will note, the actual number of employees handling the mail in 1970 and 1971 was greater than the number handling mail today. This is true even though we are now servicing 1,016 mail stops compared to the 630 being reached in 1970.

A batch of mail was reflected as one single unit of mail from the Post Office, whether in a large carton, mail bag or however else they would package it, but inside of each such bundle would be thousands of pieces of mail. I know it appeared as though it would go to the Member, the Speaker or other addressee, but it wouldn't; it would go to the Post Office, and we would have to go through all of this mail, so when we are processing that one Postal Service unit it may be anywhere from 5,000 to 15,000 pieces of mail, with the postcards it would be as high as 15,000. In addition there are very well organized groups who use real thin sheets, I am sure you received them in your office, onion skins that they sign, stamp, and send to the Postmaster to try to get delivery, to drop all of the mail at one time rather than to send it through the Post Office to assure delivery on a certain date.

Another example of the tremendous volume of mail handled by the House Post Office is shown in a study conducted by a member of the staff of the Joint Committee on Congressional Operations. This study, compiled last summer, estimated that the House Post Office delivered approximately 8.4 million items of mail per month to each office. This figure covered only that mail described as going to a Member's office and did not include mail delivered to the various committees, subcommittees, and other offices currently served by the House Post Office.

It would be almost impossible for us to give you an actual count. We haven't the manpower nor the facilities really to count them. As an approximation we figure that it's probably well in excess of 100 million pieces. But there is no real way we can really put our finger on it.

INCREASE IN SERVICES PROVIDED MEMBERS

In spite of the additional mail that the House Post Office is processing, our improved efficiency has enabled us to provide additional services to the Members and their staffs. Table 2 is a listing of the new services implemented since I became Postmaster.

In 1972, I initiated full-counter services enabling persons to purchase money orders and send registered mail until 6 p.m. during the week and until 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

In 1972, the House Post Office began limited X-ray scanning of selected incoming mail to detect the presence of explosive or otherwise dangerous devices. As of this time all incoming mail is being carefully subjected to X-ray analysis.

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In 1972, I initiated special messenger services to the State Department and to the Social Security Administration so that Congressional mail is now delivered directly to these agencies bypassing the Governent Mails Section of the City Post Office.

In 1972, the House Post Office began providing special pick-ups to any office at the request of that office.

In 1973, the House Post Office began the Orange Bag Service, which provides the Members with a form of special handling of their mail going to their districts. This service actually expedites the delivery of the mail, making 24-hour service possible.

Since 1972, the House Post Office has delivered the Green Bound Congressional Records to the Members' offices.

Since 1974, the House Post Office has delivered newspapers which were previously handled by the District News Service.

In 1974, the House Post Office began servicing House Annex No. 1. Currently we have 150 stops in this facility.

In 1975, the House Post Office began servicing House Annex No. 2. Currently we have 354 stops in this facility.

In 1975, the House Post Office began delivery of all Special Delivery mail which had been handled by the City Post Office.

In 1977 the House Post Office began a pick-up and delivery system with the Library of Congress, the Congressional Research Division which eliminated delays caused by processing the CRS mail through the City Post Office.

In fact, Mr. Gude and I got together to set this up. If the mail were to go downtown, it could take three days for it to get to the Hill. Now we have a car that goes over, picks up the mail (leaving the House mail there) brings it over to the House Post Office where it is sorted and delivered, in the next mail delivery.

Mr. SHIPLEY. You remember, Adam, they were spending about $10,000 for postage and we told them to quit it, and get Bob to deliver it.

Mr. ROTA. We started that last year, and we now have the same arrangement with the White House. We have a messenger service four times a day going to and from the White House. None of this mail is reflected in the figures from the Postal Service.

Mr. SHIPLEY. Do you have any figures on what is sent over from the Library of Congress, how many pieces of mail? Have you ever tagged it?

Mr. ROTA. No, sir.

Mr. SHIPLEY. Without going to any difficulty, if you can, have somebody check it out.

Mr. ROTA. We can check with the Library of Congress.

Mr. SHIPLEY. We can ask them when they come before us.

Mr. ROTA. All right.

We will be handling things other than just the mail coming from the Library of Congress. Such as books which are actually mailed to the Members. They have their own book messenger service. Mr. SHIPLEY. The Library part?

Mr. ROTA. Yes, sir, but we handle all of the excess.

Mr. BOYDSTON. Also, requests for research they are doing for Members of Congress.