| |||
| Publications | Issue List | Vote Analysis | Main Page | No. 14 | July 18, 2001 |
| S. 1172 -- Legislative Branch Appropriations, Fiscal Year 2002 |
Calendar No. 80
Reported unanimously by the Committee on Appropriations as an original bill, July 12, 2001. Senate Report No. 107-37.
NOTEWORTHY
- The Senate may take up S. 1172 this week.
- The Committee recommends $1,943,008,000 in budget authority for fiscal year 2002. That amount is about $103.9 million below the budget estimate but about $103.1 million above the appropriated level for the current fiscal year. [See the summary chart on page 2 of this Notice.]
- The bill does not include funds for the operation of the House of Representatives. The House will provide its own number when it passes its version of the bill.
- The Committee recommends $603,735,000 in budget authority for the Senate, an increase of $81.7 million above this year's appropriated amount. Details of this increase are shown on page 3 of this Notice.
- The bill contains $1 million for a Capitol Visitors Center. This appears to be a "place holder" amendment so that the funding will be placed on the agenda of the Senate-House conference. Congress already has appropriated $100 million for the center which is expected to cost about $265 million.
BILL PROVISIONS
The major funding decisions of the Committee are summarized in the following chart:
Title I, Senate Operations. Among the $81.7 million in new costs of the Senate's congressional operations for fiscal year 2002 are the following:
- An additional $11.7 million for salaries (including an additional $4.7 million for agency contributions) for Senate officers and employees;
- Funds to hire an additional 24 employees within the Office of the Sergeant at Arms to "operate, maintain, and monitor State offices and D.C. networks and the enterprise-wide applications on a round-the-clock basis";
- Additional funding for the Sergeant at Arms in the amount of $11.4 million for the "Recording Studio digital technology upgrade and relocation project" and $8.7 million for the purchase of computer equipment and software for members' offices and committees;
- An additional $18.6 million for personnel costs, office expenses, and agency contributions in Senators' personal offices. (As of April 30 of this year, 3,984 individuals were employed in Senators' offices, both in the Nation's Capital and around the country.);
- An additional $24.3 million "for inquiries and investigations" by all Senate committees. This amount is "consistent with S. Res. 54, authorizing expenditures by the Committees of the Senate for fiscal year 2002"; and
- An additional $7.0 million for the Secretary of the Senate for the Legislative Information System Augmentation Project.
Title I, Joint Items. The bill provides an additional $13.8 million for the salaries of Capitol Police Officers and an additional $5.6 million for general expenses of the Capitol Police.
Title I, Other Congressional Operations. The Congressional Budget Office gets a budget boost of $2.3 million; the Architect of the Capitol gets an additional $10.4 million, which amounts to $67.6 million below the request (largely due to the decision to defer funding for the Capitol Dome renovation project); the Capitol Power Plant gets an additional $8.1 million; the Congressional Research Service gets an additional $7.7 million; and for congressional printing and binding, the Government Printing Office gets an additional $9.7 million.
Title II, Other Agencies. The Botanic Garden gets an increase of $2.5 million, primarily attributed to the highly anticipated reopening of the Conservatory which is planned for November of this year. The Library of Congress gets an appropriation that is significantly lower than this year because this year there was a one-time appropriation of nearly $100 million for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. The Committee recommends a one-time appropriation of $2.5 million to help with the upkeep and repair of the privately owned Congressional Cemetery, which has fallen into disrepair. "The Committee expects that these funds will be augmented by privately contributed contributions." In FY 1999, Congress provided $1 million to the cemetery. The General Accounting Office gets a boost of $35.8 million. The Committee recommends $10 million for the Center for Russian Leadership Development. The Center was established last year "as an individual legislative branch agency" that will "enable emerging political leaders of Russia at all levels of government to gain significant, first-hand exposure to the American free market economic system and the operation of American democratic institutions through visits to . . . the United States."
Miscellaneous Provisions. The bill allows both the Senate and the Congressional Budget Office to implement a student loan repayment program in order to recruit and retain highly qualified employees.
Section 309 of the bill amends the U.S. Code to allow employees of the Architect of the Capitol (including employees of the Senate restaurants) and of the Botanic Garden to receive back pay for an "unjustified or unwarranted personnel action."
Section 310 of the bill requires the Architect of the Capitol to develop and maintain an accounting and financial management system that complies with applicable federal accounting principles and standards. Among other things, the accounting system must allow for the systematic measurement of performance. To enable the Architect to make the necessary changes in the financial management system, section 311 of the bill gives the Architect flexibility in paying employees in senior management. The Committee expects the Architect "to hire expeditiously a chief financial officer and ensure that other key management positions are filled by the most qualified and capable individuals."
On pages 28-29 of its report, the Committee urges prompt and effective changes in the Architect's office: "The Committee is very troubled by persistent management shortcoming within the Architect of the Capitol's operation, including an unacceptably high level of worker injury [the highest in the Federal Government - more than 4.5 times the government average]; inadequate financial management; the lack of strategic planning; personnel problems, including some unqualified individuals in key positions; and project management."
As noted on page 1, a Capitol Visitors Center continues to be of interest to Senators and Representatives, although there are differences over the project and its funding.
Title 2, United States Code, is amended to allow the Majority and Minority Leaders each to hire six individual consultants (rather than four), and the President pro tempore is allowed to hire two consultants rather than one.
Title 2 is further amended to raise the administrative and clerical allowances for Senators' offices. For a State with population less than 5 million persons, the allowance is raised from $1,399,205 to $1,449,205. A preliminary list of the allowances for all States is shown in the report at pages 20-21.
POSSIBLE AMENDMENTS
At press time, we were unaware of any amendments.
Top Publications Issue List Vote Analysis Main Page