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STATUS REPORT/HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING ANNEX NO. 2-LIST OF OCCUPANTS AND AREAS ASSIGNED AFTER MARCH 15, 1979-Continued

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NOTE. This information was prepared by the Office of the Architect. Similar statistics are being developed by the Architect for Annex 1 and will appear under the Architect's testimony.

HOUSE SPACE

Mr. BENJAMIN. Do you have furnishings other than Annexes 1 and 2 and the 3 major House office buildings?

Mr. COLLEY. No, sir, except the House side of the Capitol. We have the House side of the Capitol, 3 House office buildings and Annexes 1 and 2. But the Building Commission's directive is that anyone who is located in these buildings, whether they are House or not, are to receive furnishings.

The Congressional Budget Office, for example, serves both the House and the Senate. The joint committees that we have serve both bodies. It is a reciprocal arrangement. If the Senate has a joint committee housed there, they provide the furnishings. It is simpler to do it that way rather than moving things back and forth.

Mr. BENJAMIN. How much space is still available in House Annex 2?

Mr. COLLEY. I cannot answer that. We can obtain the answer from the Architect or Building Superintendent for the record. [The information follows:]

The Architect stated that 110, 102 square feet are unassigned as of March, 1979.

REPORTING HEARINGS

Mr. BENJAMIN. We will take up reporting hearings.

Mr. COLLEY. For reporting hearings, $1,650 million. This request covers all costs of stenographic services and transcripts in connec

35-533 79 29 (Pt. 2)

tion with any meetings or hearings of a committee, including special and select committees.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to insert in the record at this time the page rates established for stenographic transcripts as approved by the Committee on House Administration.

[The information follows:]

Rates per page of stenographic transcript-Effective January 3, 1979

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Mr. BENJAMIN. Would you be kind enough to indicate why this has increased or is going to be increased $149,000?

Mr. COLLEY. The only reason it has increased is that it is in anticipation of what we will have to pay for this service. The workload of the committees is a key factor. The rates have gone up during the past year. It is our best judgment as to what we will need.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Is this the service that is contracted out?

Mr. COLLEY. Partially. We have 10 official reporters to committees, such as the gentleman we have reporting here, who function under the Clerk of the House.

When we cannot cover all the hearings, commercial firms are requested to provide the service. A major portion of this payment obviously goes for those costs to the firms downtown. Obviously when we have 20, 30 hearings each day, such as today-there were many, many subcommittee meetings of the House Committee on Appropriations, for example-we cannot possibly handle it all in

house.

Mr. BENJAMIN. What will determine when you have to send it out on contract if it is just ordinary copy?

Mr. COLLEY. Beg pardon?

Mr. BENJAMIN. When do you determine if it should be contracted out if it is just ordinary copy?

Mr. COLLEY. The reporters function under the general supervision of their chief reporter, and Mr. Guthrie of our staff endeavors to make assignments to the commercial firms on the basis that assures them all equal treatment. The committees themselves request the service. We endeavor to provide it, either one of our own people or downtown firms. It does not really matter what type of copy it is.

Mr. BENJAMIN. It matters on the rate, does it not?

Mr. COLLEY. The rates are the same as last year. The copy-are you talking about sales, whether it goes up when they are permitted or not permitted?

Mr. BENJAMIN. Is this the rate you are giving us, the sales of the transcript? You gave us a chart that says rates per page of stenographic transcript effective January 3, 1979.

Mr. COLLEY. Daily copy is the copy that has to be back almost overnight. Ordinary copy is 3 days.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Not as to the time; my question is, when do you make a decision as to whether it should be contracted out instead of just held over and done in-house.

Mr. COLLEY. Well, the need is determined by the requester of the service, such as the committee chairman, the committee staff director, the committee chief clerk, whomever is having the hearing, schedules the hearing, and calls upon us for a reporter. If we do not have enough reporters to do it in-house, we use a downtown firm. If the committee wants the copy back overnight, this is the cost to get it back. If we can wait 3 days and have more time to get it back, it is at the cheaper rate.

Mr. BENJAMIN. The reemployed annuitants reimbursement――

REPORTERS OF DEBATES AND TO COMMITTEES

Mr. MICHEL. Let me ask a couple of questions here.

How about the reporters of debate?

Mr. COLLEY. They function under the Clerk of the House and operate on the House floor.

Mr. MICHEL. Did you pass that item?

Mr. BENJAMIN. Yes.

Mr. COLLEY. They are under the personnel section.

Mr. MICHEL. What do they get paid, reporters of debate? Why don't you just supply that for the record? How does that com

pare

Mr. HENSHAW. It is in the record.

Mr. COLLEY. Page 25 there is a listing of all of those reporters. The chief reporter, $43,936, and there is a range, transcribers, assistant clerk.

Mr. MICHEL. One starting out as a reporter of debate in the House would get what?

Mr. COLLEY. $43,417.

Mr. MICHEL. How does that salary range compare then with the-is it 10-permanent hearing reporters?

Mr. COLLEY. Reporters to committees, $40,389. Then we have transcribers in both groups; their salaries are less.

Mr. MICHEL. All right. How do you make a choice between whether or not, for example, the 10 reporters ought to be expanded to 20, depending upon how much work you have always had to farm out to these commercial firms? Is it cost-effective to have more permanent hearing reporters?

STENOGRAPHIC STUDY UNDER WAY

Mr. COLLEY. I cannot give you a final answer on that.

The Committee on House Administration, using the General Accounting Office to assist them, has undertaken a study of this very question. We have endeavored during the past year to more effectively utilize the committee reporters. We have covered additional hearings, simply by improved management.

We received considerable complaints from the commercial reporting firms who had been receiving business. But this overall question of whether we should expand our reporting corps, or abandoning the reporting corps and going strictly commercial, is now being looked at by the Committee on House Adminsitration.

Mr. MICHEL. When are they supposed to come up with a report on that, do you know?

Mr. COLLEY. I will have to get that for the record.

Mr. MICHEL. I think it is very important. We are not in business up here to keep the reporting firms downtown in business. We have to see that we get the most cost-effective job done and that is the way I would have to opt in the end.

Mr. HENSHAW. If I could add just another comment. We just took the two groups over, the Clerk's Office, in March of 1978. So we have looked at the whole operation of both to see what is costeffective.

Mr. MICHEL. Who was it under before that?

Mr. HENSHAW. Before that under the Parliamentarian, or the Speaker's office. The Speaker directed us to take it over, see what was cost-effective and how we possibly could work the two groups together, the committee reporters and the official reporters of debate.

Mr. COLLEY. We are looking at the overall question of not only the committee reporters but the debate reporters on the floor. The summary of debate reporters, which is the summary you receive on your computer terminals, using new techniques of taping, this sort of thing, and the use of computers; that whole area of reporting is involved in a management study, to see what we would recommend for the future.

Mr. MICHEL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Let me ask for the record that you provide the calculations used to project the 10 percent increase in the outside contracts for fiscal year 1980 in light of the expenditures of 1977, 1978 and 1979.

[The information follows:]

ANALYSIS OF INCREASE (DECREASE) IN

EXPENDITURES AND APPROPRIATIONS FOR STENOGRAPHIC SERVICES

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In FY '79 a recess period from October through December justified a reduction in the appropriation compared to FY '78 (which did not have the same similar recess period). Since FY '80 also may not have this recess period, then comparing FY '80 and FY '78 the increase of $52,000 is significant in that it accounts for the continued increase in use of this account. Therefore, the increase of FY '80 appropriation over FY '79 of $149,000 is due to (a) no recess period in FY '80 and (b) an increase in spending.

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Percentage increase adjusted to reflect an average 12 month period.

REEMPLOYED ANNUITANTS REIMBURSEMENT

Mr. BENJAMIN. We will insert reemployed annuitants reimbursements and government contributions into the record and then open it for questions.

[The information follows:]

REEMPLOYED ANNUITANTS REIMBURSEMENT

For reemployed annuitants reimbursement, $661,500. As you may recall effective October 1, 1976, P.L. 94-397 required the House to compensate the Civil Service Retirement Fund for an amount equal to the annuities paid retirees under the Civil Service Retirement System while working for the House.

The Committee on House Administration further established by regulation, that the amount of an employee's annuity shall be charged against the employing Member's Clerk Hire funds or a Committee's investigative funds if the annuitant was hired after September 21, 1977. The number of reemployed annuitants on House payrolls is decreasing. In December 1978, 103 reemployed annitants were on House payrolls. Even though the dollar amount of an annuity is not charged against certain employing offices due to the "grandfather" provision, the House will still reimburse the Civil Service Fund. Similar to the philosophy of transfers from Clerk Hire to a Member's Official Expenses Allowance, the amount of the annuity reduces the available Clerk Hire, but the payment to Civil Service is actually charged to this appropriation. I might point out, Mr. Chairman, that we are not funding twice for this expense. Although the Clerk Hire Allowance is burdened by an annuity, the "Members' Clerk Hire" Appropriation is adjusted to reflect the amount included in this category.

GOVERNMENT CONTRIBUTIONS

For Government Contributions, $14,632,100. These funds are used to pay the Government's (House) share of the following employee benefit programs: life insurance, retirement and health benefits. Benefits for Members are funded within the line item "Compensation and Mileage for Members". I submit for the record a schedule depicting employees participation in these programs.

Mr. MICHEL. No questions.

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