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tioned earlier, we are requesting $118,307,600 for fiscal year 1980. However, if all Members used their full allowance, we would need over 126 million dollars. Inasmuch as the Committee has not held its hearings on the proposed changes, we cannot ascertain the exact increase, if any, at this time. We are confident, however, that one hundred percent budgeting of this account will not be necessary.

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The word "Contingent" in the heading is oftentimes misunderstood. Funds in this section are not requested to cover unforeseen expenses or obligations happening only by chance. Rather, the estimates which account for over one-third of the total House request pertain to specifically authorized or approved programs.

Approximately 80 percent of the Contingent Fund estimates relate to the allowances of Members and obligations of the investigating committees. I will now examine each of the Treasury Accounts and Line Items in detail.

Mr. COLLEY. Mr. Chairman, page 34, next to the last paragraph, is referring back to your discussion on the supplemental this morning. That paragraph summarizes how much underfunded we are in the 1980 request basing it on what we have seen the Members use every year.

TRANSFERS FOR COMPUTER USE

Mr. MICHEL. Mr. Chairman, might I ask here do you have any statistics to show how many Members are transferring out of their Clerk Hire for that computer business or is it just for expense? Is it that expense item, and then we use that for computer and whatever?

Mr. HENSHAW. They transfer out. Do we have a figure?

Mr. COLLEY. Yes, sir, on page 38 in the testimony, when we get into allowances and expenses. In 1978, 59 percent of the Members allocated over $2.5 million to official expenses.

Mr. MICHEL. I don't know how much that breaks down to in computer services, do you?

Mr. LAWLER. Under that allowance now, as it goes into official expenses, there is no way to earmark what portion of the transfer may have been for computer services. We do have statistics that show approximately 8 percent of our request for the allowances and expenses is spent on computers.

Mr. MICHEL. OK. Thank you.

HISTORY OF NUMBER OF CLERK HIRE EMPLOYEES

Mr. BENJAMIN. Mr. Conte?

Mr. CONTE. Yes, Mr. Chairman.

I had asked for that table and I guess this would be the place to get it. I looked at pages 55 and 56, and you have the amount of money appropriated from 1971 to 1980. Could you put in a comparable table showing total number employed for that period of time? Mr. COLLEY. In the ten-year period? Yes.

Mr. HENSHAW. Yes, sir.

Mr. CONTE. Thank you.
[The information follows:]

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1/

Number of House employees in the month of December except
for 1980 estimate

2/ Number of House employees as of January 1979

3/ Does not include pending pay supplemental of $5,142,400.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Other questions?

CONTINGENT EXPENSES OF THE HOUSE-ALLOWANCES AND

EXPENSES

Mr. HENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, we will now present for the subcommittee's consideration estimates for a group of Treasury accounts and line items commonly referred to as the Contingent Fund of the House.

The estimate for fiscal year 1980 is $62,376,700. In addition to funds for the Members' Official Expenses Allowances, this estimate includes amounts for House supplies, furniture, furnishings, stenographic costs for committees, reimbursements to the Civil Service Retirement Fund for reemployed annuitants, Government contributions for employees' benefits and certain miscellaneous items. The next page of my testimony graphically depicts the various categories of allowances and expenses, which is on page 37. [The chart follows:]

1980 Allowances and Expenses

[graphic]

1980 Estimate $62,376,700

$39,418,800

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OFFICIAL EXPENSES OF MEMBERS

Mr. HENSHAW. A schedule comparing the Appropriations for the various categories for fiscal year 1978, 1979, and 1980 appears on page 59 of the Subcommittee Print.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Would you withhold at that point?

Mr. HENSHAW. Yes, sir.

Mr. BENJAMIN. I am going to ask you to include in the record pages 38 through 44 and open yourself to questions from the subcommittee at this time on official expenses of Members. [The page follows:]

35-533 - 79 28 (Pt. 2)

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