LANGUAGE PROPOSED TO BE INSERTED BY THE COMMITTEE IN THE LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATION BILL FOR 1965 TO PROVIDE THE FEDERAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM FOR THE SENATE Effective July 1, 1964, the contingent fund of the Senate shall be available for reimbursement to the General Services Administration for use of any facilities under its jurisdiction for official long-distance telephone calls by or on behalf of Senators or the President of the Senate when such facilities are used, in acccordance with rules and regulations prescribed by the Committee on Rules and Administration, in lieu of regular commercial communications systems. Except as may otherwise be provided by such rules and regulations, the provisions relating to long-distance telephone calls under the heading "Contingent Expenses of the Senate" in the Legislative Branch Appropriation Act, 1947, as amended (2 U.S.C. 46c, 46d), shall not be applicable to calls with respect to which reimbursement is authorized to be made pursuant to this paragraph. SYSTEM ADEQUACY Mr. CHEATHAM. As time went on after September 11, 1964, we inquired occasionally over the telephone of the General Services people and they kept informing Mr. Duke that the telephone company was undergoing a broad survey and would soon give GSA a report. Before the end of 1964 GSA representatives admitted that they made the offer, appearing in Mr. Boutin's original letter of last May 1964, somewhat prematurely. Not only could they not give us an accountability listing, that is, a list of calls made by each office but they found that their network system lacked the capacity to accommodate unlimited congressional business without the system breaking down. Senator MONRONEY. This is what we feared when we had the offer in the first place. Mr. CHEATHAM. That is right, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Duke had entertained apprehension. A year ago when he presented Mr. Boutin's offer to you, he asked you to leave in effect the present system for long distance which this committee created some years ago until the General Services Administration system had been given a thorough trial. That would afford insurance and Senators could switch back to the regular commercial system if the General Services Administration system did not work. Early this year Senator Jordan asked us to make a presentation to his committee. We informed him as I have just informed you, that General Services had never been able to respond to Mr. Duke's letter of September 11, 1964. Without favorable answers to the questions in that letter, there was no information to supply the Committee on Rules and Administration. FEBRUARY 1965 LETTER OF ADMINISTRATOR, GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION Finally, on February 5, 1965, Mr. Knott, who succeeded Mr. Boutin, replied to Mr. Duke. However, his letter is not responsive to the questions that we asked. We forwarded that to Senator Jordan. (The letter referred to follows:) Hon. B. EVERETT JORDAN, U.S. SENATE, OFFICE OF THE SERGEANT AT ARMS, Washington, D.C., February 9, 1965. Chairman, Committee on Rules and Administration, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you for your letter of February 1, 1965, in which you explained the discussion among members of your committee advocating changes in senatorial allotments for long-distance telephone calls and as to the possibility of utilizing the Federal Telecommunications System. On September 11, 1964, I wrote the Administrator of General Services advising that your committee would undoubtedly wish to survey the feasibility of accepting his offer to make FTS available. A copy of that letter is attached. Yesterday I received a letter from the Acting Administrator dated February 5, 1965, a copy of which I am also enclosing. This first response to my September letter is the outcome of a meeting stimulated recently by members of my staff with Mr. Robert Conrad, Commissioner of Transportation and Communications. If and when I receive something practical from GSA I will notify you accordingly. With kind personal regards, JOSEPH C. DUKE, GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION, Hon. JOSEPH C. DUKE, Sergeant at Arms, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. DUKE: This letter refers to your correspondence of September 11, 1964, concerning the possible provision of Federal Telecommunications System (FTS) service to the U.S. Senate, about which there have been several discussions between our respective staffs both preceding and following your letter. As discussed in your office on February 2, 1965, we are not yet in a position to provide a final answer to your letter. There is mutual recognition on the part of our respective staffs of the diverse operational and administrative communications requirements of the U.S. Senate and a further recognition of the need for a detailed and comprehensive study of the present and projected long-distancetelephone traffic. The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. is presently preparing such a study and developing in connection therewith a proposal for our consideration. We have been advised by the telephone company that we may expect the study and the proposal on or about February 15, 1965. Within 2 weeks after the receipt of the proposal, we will be in a position to discuss this proposed FTS service with your office in more detail. We hope that the necessary delay in fully responding to your letter has caused no undue inconvenience and will result in bringing this matter to an early and satisfactory conclusion. Sincerely yours, LAWSON B. KNOTT, Jr., MAY 1965 LETTER OF ADMINISTRATOR, GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION Mr. CHEATHAM. We had subsequent oral conferences with these gentlemen and were still advised that the telephone company was still making studies but that they had not come up with anything that would be practical. On May 20, 1965, Mr. Duke received another letter from Mr. Knott in which he says the further study of the telephone company as received by the General Services Administration about the middle of March does not in our judgment meet the requirements that you have outlined as to administrative control, grade of service, handling of credit calls, and the handling of collect and leave-word calls. May that go into the record, too, sir? (The letter referred to follows:) GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION, Washington, D.C., May 20, 1965. Hon. JOSEPH C. DUKE, Sergeant at Arms, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. DUKE: This is with further reference to the possible provision of Federal Telecommunications System service to the U.S. Senate, about which we have previously corresponded and members of our respective staffs have discussed on several occasions. In our letter to you of February 5, 1965, we advised that the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. was preparing a detailed and comprehensive study of the present and projected long-distance traffic and developing in connection therewith for our consideration a proposal covering the provision of FTS service to the Senate. This study was received by us about the middle of March and we have completed our analysis of it. In our judgment, the proposal is deficient in meeting the requirements in such areas as: 1. Administrative control; 2. Grade of service; 3. Handling of credit card calls; and 4. Handling of collect and leave-word calls. Under the circumstances and in view of our mutual recognition of the desire to provide Members of the U.S. Senate the best telephone service available, we believe it necessary to study the matter further. Additional proposals have been requested from the C. & P. Telephone Co. to insure that such service can and will be provided. We will advise you further as soon as possible and hope that you will not be seriously inconvenienced by this unavoidable delay. Sincerely yours, LAWSON B. KNOTT, Jr. LETTER OF CHAIRMAN, SENATE COMMITTEE ON RULES Mr. CHEATHAM. Shortly after the receipt of the latter letter, Senator Jordan as chairman of the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, directed a letter to Administrator Knott asking that General Services endeavor to try to submit something concrete to the Sergeant at Arms in order that he might advise the Committee on Rules and Administration. This is Senator Jordan's letter. (The letter referred to follows:) Hon. LAWSON B. KNOTT, Jr., U.S. SENATE, Acting Administrator, General Services Administration, (Attention of Transportation and Communications Service.) June 1, 1965. DEAR MR. KNOTT: The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, approximately 1 year ago, initiated a study of the application of the Federal Telecommunications System for the U.S. Senate. Pursuant to the committee's direction, the Senate Sergeant at Arms has been in communication with the General Services Administration in an attempt to obtain information on which he could predicate a recommendation to the committee. I have recently reviewed your letter of May 20, 1965, addressed to the Senate Sergeant at Arms in which it is indicated that further studies are necessary before any satisfactory proposal for application of the Federal Telecommunications System to the U.S. Senate can be accomplished. There have been considerable inquiries of me by Members of the Senate concerning long-distance telephone accommodations and as the chairman of the responsible committee involved, I am increasingly concerned about the progress in that connection. Accordingly, I am writing to express the hope that every effort will be exerted to complete the necessary further studies at the earliest possible date. With all best regards, Sincerely, B. EVERETT JORDAN, Chairman. APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE INQUIRY NOTICE Mr. CHEATHAM. Shortly after June 1, 1965, the date of Senator Jordan's letter, we were advised that this committee hoped to look into this further during the consideration of the current bill Senator SALTONSTALL. This is our committee? Mr. CHEATHAM. Your committee, and that there were rumors or information being received by different members of the committee through various sources that Members of the House were utilizing this system from their Capitol offices and that some Members, of both the Senate and House, were having the system available to them in their State offices. GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION ADDITIONAL TIME REQUIREMENT The second week in June we invited the General Services Administration to meet with us and the Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Conrad, and his assistants came to see us again. They advised that it will take still another year before GSA will have its system sufficiently large to reasonably meet the needs of Congress. They do think at that time they will be able to give us some method of control. The trouble is that every time we say you gentlemen insist on the Senate having a listing of how many calls each Senator's office and each committee makes per month, General Services Administration representatives say if we do that then we need such a large number of operators to write these chits every time you make a telephone call that it makes the cost go up substantially. CHESAPEAKE & POTOMAC TELEPHONE Co. LONG-DISTANCE OPERATOR Senator MONRONEY. Why cannot you use the telephone operators here at the Capitol for that purpose? Mr. CHEATHAM. Right now, Senator, we don't use those. The Capitol operators cannot handle all long-distance and local work. The C. & P. furnishes those operators for long-distance calls. When "8" is dialed to call long distance, one of a group of telephone company operators answers. GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION OFFER OF SERVICE Senator MONRONEY. You can meter your wiring system. You can meter the calls if you want to on your long-distance calls. Mr. CHEATHAM. No, sir. Senator MONRONEY. Can't it be run into their metering system? Mr. CHEATHAM. They told us that would not be practical on the Federal Telecommunications System, as the cost would offset the savings. Two weeks ago when General Services Administration told us they could not serve Congres on Federal Telecommunications System for at least another year, General Services Administration offered us WATS, the wide area telephone service. We ask them Senator MONRONEY. Who is offering this system? Is this the telephone company? Mr. CHEATHAM. I am speaking of General Services Administration, at this meeting we had in June. General Services said they would like to offer you WATS. We asked if it were not true that the Senate may obtain directly from the telephone company the WATS service just as cheap as it could obtain it through General Services Administration and they admitted that that was true. Senator SALTONSTALL. Am I interrupting you at an important place? Mr. CHEATHAM. Well, go right ahead, Senator. This is all right. AUTHORIZATION REQUIREMENT Senator SALTONSTALL. My question is this: Whose responsibility is it? Can this committee put the system into effect where the Rules Committee has been working on it and has not reached a satisfactory solution? Mr. CHEATHAM. Senator, the General Services Administration has never given us anything further than we gave you last summer so the Rules Committee has not been given even a look at anything concrete. Senator SALTONSTALL. Can we approve this service without the Rules Committee authority? Isn't it the responsibility of the Rules Committee? Mr. CHEATHAM. It could be a responsibility of theirs. On the other hand, everything pertaining to the long-distance telephone calls has heretofore been handled in the appropriations bills by your committee. Senator SALTONSTALL. Regardless of any authority from the Rules Committee? Mr. CHEATHAM. Yes, sir. Senator MONRONEY. This is because of the new system that General Services Administration had that we referred it to the Rules Committee for investigation and a study of its adequacy. Mr. CHEATHAM. That is right. Senator SALTONSTALL. They have not come back with any answer? Senator MONRONEY. They are still in debate on arrangement. Mr. CHEATHAM. The Rules Commitee has not had anything supplied to them by the Sergeant at Arms because he has not had anything from General Services Administration other than what we gave you gentlemen a year ago. After General Services admitted that they could not give the Senate WATS any cheaper than we could get it from the telephone company Senator MONRONEY. What does WATS cost? CHESAPEAKE & POTOMAC TELEPHONE CO. OFFER OF WIDE AREA TELEPHONE Mr. CHEATHAM. I have some sheets to hand you, gentlemen. The telephone company made this offer directly. The presentation of the telephone company dated June 11, 1963, including a table, is based on the use of the WATS system only by the Senate. They were asked to exclude the House for this purpose. |