COMBINING LEGISLATIVE STATUS AND BILL DIGEST REPORTS Senator BARTLETT. Would it be feasible in your opinion to consider combining a legislative status report with the Bill Digest report into a single publication? Mr. JAYSON. Yes. As a matter of fact, our Bill Digest has an action. section which indicates what happens to each of the bills as it moves forward through the legislative process. But the Bill Digest is more of an encyclopedic publication at least in the sense that it tries to keep track of almost every bill introduced and as each moves through Congress. The status report is intended more as an informal checklist of the major legislation. In the last session I think there were over 20,000 bills and measures introduced, that is, in the first session of the 90th Congress, and most of them would be included in the Bill Digest. The Legislative Status Report would, we contemplate, rarely have more than 200 bills listed. It could be part of the Digest and distributed with the issues that come out currently. Senator BARTLETT. Would that represent a plus or minus or neither, the incorporation of the one into the other. Mr. JAYSON. In the sense of advantage? Senator BARTLETT. Would there be any advantage to putting them together in the terms you have described? Mr. JAYSON. I believe it would probably be handier to the membership and their staffs if this Legislative Status Report were separate because, for example, when they get requests from constituents and others as to the status of a particular bill, they could easily turn to that report. It is less bulky and it is arranged by subject matter. PUBLICATION BY AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING When we talk about putting this out more frequently through automatic data processing, what we intend to do is to put it out on a trial basis, provided that this committee finds that this is not a "publication" within the meaning of the prohibition which generally appears in our appropriation legislation, and that this committee believes we should go forward with it. We would put this on tape so that it would have to be typed in toto just once, and then as additions. occur through legislative action which have to be noted, we would put them into the tape and then have a printout from which the final report would be multilithed. Senator BARTLETT. I won't ask you to comment on this necessarily and it is nothing I would have in mind for the present or the early future but looking ahead to some distant time I should think that we might give consideration to the use of automatic data processing to produce a combination bill digest, legislative history, legislative status report daily. You don't have to worry about that now. DIGEST OF PUBLIC GENERAL BILLS Mr. JAYSON. We are at the present time thinking about this be cause as you know we have put the content of the Bill Digest into the machine this year for the first time, and one of the objectives is to have an instantaneous recall of legislative history to the extent of every thing of that nature that is in the data base, on tape. This is within our plan, not perhaps getting out a legislative status report on a daily basis as yet, but it is within our plan to be able to retrieve these things very quickly. In the pending reorganization bill, the Legislative Reference Service will be obligated to provide a legislative history every time a bill is called up for committee hearing. Through automatic data processing we will be able to do it quickly, efficiently and accurately. Senator BARTLETT. You would just have to have a staff member present to do a quick and accurate job, wouldn't you, or if you did not, what source would you depend on? Senator COTTON. He means furnish the history up to the point of the hearing. Senator BARTLETT. Up to the point of the hearing. Mr. JAYSON. By having the content of the "Bill Digest" on tape, we could get a quick recall of the legislative history, and even whether similar bills were introduced in prior Congresses and if so what happened to them. Senator BARTLETT. I understand. Are there any further questions, Senator Cotton? ESTIMATED SAVINGS Senator COTTON. If the initial expense were met of that kind of machinery, which is not a very accurate word, would it save man-hours in your staff? Mr. JAYSON. In the long run it would, once the data is put in the machines, yes. This is going into the machine right now and as you know our Bill Digest comes out above every 2 weeks. From now on we will continue to have legislative history going into the tapes as well as the rest of the content of the Bill Digest, and there is no reason why any of it could not be read out quickly when the system is complete. But, of course, on this Legislative Status Report we have brought together the various major bills under subject categories. The Bill Digest does not do that at present. Senator BARTLETT. Senator Yarborough, do you have any questions? SUPPORT FOR BUDGET REQUEST Senator YARBOROUGH. Mr. Chairman, unfortunately I have just received an urgent call from a higher governmental office than mine, and I have to answer it under protocol. Senator BARTLETT. I did not know there was any such Senator YARBOROUGH. I mean in official protocol, not in the estimation of Senators. I say that not through any personal egotism, not through any egotism for the Senate as a whole on our having any higher character than anybody else, but I think being elected by the people that a Senate has a high priority. I think this is a modest request that the Library of Congress has asked for. To us in the Senate, the Legislative Reference Service is one of the most necessary offices of assistance we have. I abhor the constant loss to the executive of our power. We don't use the power. They take it up. We have a modest budget here. We don't give ourselves enough staff. I look at this modest budget and I cringe at the thought of these few million dollars when we voted $180 billion to the executive departments. Unless we hire enough staff for the Legislative Reference Service, we cannot expect the service we need. I have had TITLES CATALOGED AND CARDS PRINTED Senator BARTLETT. You state on page 161 that "Increases in the number of titles cataloged and in the number of cards printed for each title will require an estimated 17,500,000 more cards in fiscal year 1969 than in fiscal year 1968." How many of each card are printed initially? Mr. WELSH. That varies, sir; from title to title. On some of the U.S. trade publications we will print several thousand; on other titles we may only print several hundred. We make an analysis of each particular title relative to expected sales. Senator BARTLETT. You make reprints as needed? PRINTING EQUIPMENT Senator BARTLETT. Obviously your printing costs are rising. Please explain what you mean by the statement on page 169: “Until equipment capable of printing catalog cards on demand is installed, for example ***." Does this mean that when such equipment is available you will not have to keep these millions of cards in stock, but could print them on order? Mr. WELSH. Yes, sir. Senator BARTLETT. Will such new equipment reduce your space requirements for stocking, et cetera ? Mr. WELSH. Yes, sir. CARD DRAWING AND STOCK UNIT Senator BARTLETT. It seems that 30 new positions in this one area alone is quite a large jump. What is your present complement? Mr. WELSH. Eighty-five in the card drawing operation and 49 in the stock unit. Senator BARTLETT. How many, if any, of that number are temporary personnel? Mr. WELSH. Fifteen are temporary in card drawing and 10 in the stock unit. Senator BARTLETT. Well, considering that you have only that number now, will you explain to us why you come before the committee asking for 30 more. Mr. WELSH. Yes, sir; we are having difficulty in this particular area in maintaining an adequate service. At present from the time an order is received until the cards are drawn and the order is mailed out there is approximately a 3-week delay. This is better than it has been but it would be desirable to have it on a much, much shorter span of time. CARD SALES The business has continued to increase as has been reflected here. For example, as of the end of March we have sold about 60 million cards which is 9 million more for the first 9 months than last year. This request relates largely to the critical area where the cards have to be drawn from stock. We believe that with this additional staff based upon the same increase in orders next year as we had this year 5. Printing Pay increase at the Government Printing Office_ $32,000 Printers at the Government Printing Office were granted a 17-cent-an-hour increase in May 1967, pressmen a 23-cent-anhour increase, card reproducers 16 cents an hour and laborers an average of 10 cents an hour in November 1967. The Government Printing Office estimates that these increases will add approximately $32,000 to the cost of printing. Printing of catalog cards__ 250,000 Increases in the number of titles cataloged and in the number of cards printed for each title will require an estimated 17,500,000 more cards in fiscal 1969 than in fiscal 1968. Printing of book catalogs and other publications__ 137, 000 Increased production of cards results in larger book catalogs, which along with increased printing costs will require an estimated $137,000. "The National Union Catalog," for example, has increased from 7 to 10 volumes: "Books: Subjects" from 5 to 7 volumes. 6. Office supplies- The increased card business, larger book catalogs, and increased prices of containers used in shipping orders makes it necessary to request this increase of $26,000 in supplies. 7. New positions (40)-- +$419,000 +26,000 To meet increases in workload resulting from increased sales of catalog cards and technical publications (30): +226, 488 TITLES CATALOGED AND CARDS PRINTED Senator BARTLETT. You state on page 161 that "Increases in the number of titles cataloged and in the number of cards printed for each title will require an estimated 17,500,000 more cards in fiscal year 1969 than in fiscal year 1968." How many of each card are printed initially? Mr. WELSH. That varies, sir; from title to title. On some of the U.S. trade publications we will print several thousand; on other titles we may only print several hundred. We make an analysis of each particular title relative to expected sales. Senator BARTLETT. You make reprints as needed? PRINTING EQUIPMENT Senator BARTLETT. Obviously your printing costs are rising. Please explain what you mean by the statement on page 169: "Until equipment capable of printing catalog cards on demand is installed, for example ***." Does this mean that when such equipment is available you will not have to keep these millions of cards in stock, but could print them on order? Mr. WELSH. Yes, sir. Senator BARTLETT. Will such new equipment reduce your space requirements for stocking, et cetera? Mr. WELSH. Yes, sir. CARD DRAWING AND STOCK UNIT Senator BARTLETT. It seems that 30 new positions in this one area alone is quite a large jump. What is your present complement? Mr. WELSH. Eighty-five in the card drawing operation and 49 in the stock unit. Senator BARTLETT. How many, if any, of that number are temporary personnel? Mr. WELSH. Fifteen are temporary in card drawing and 10 in the stock unit. Senator BARTLETT. Well, considering that you have only that number now, will you explain to us why you come before the committee asking for 30 more. Mr. WELSH. Yes, sir; we are having difficulty in this particular area in maintaining an adequate service. At present from the time an order is received until the cards are drawn and the order is mailed out there is approximately a 3-week delay. This is better than it has been but it would be desirable to have it on a much, much shorter span of time. CARD SALES The business has continued to increase as has been reflected here. For example, as of the end of March we have sold about 60 million cards which is 9 million more for the first 9 months than last year. This request relates largely to the critical area where the cards have to be drawn from stock. We believe that with this additional staff based upon the same increase in orders next year as we had this year |