With low ceiling heights the travel distance from floor to floor is insufficient for the car to attain top speed. Therefore car speeds in excess of 300 feet per minute are of no advantage in low-ceilinged buildings.

OLD SENATE OFFICE BUILDING ATTIC 1965 FIRE HAZARD ELIMINATION

Senator MONRONEY. How about the elimination of fire hazards then existing on the attic floor of the old building?

Mr. RUBEL. Under the appropriation one contract has been completed. A total of 329 sprinkler heads have been installed in the attic, including the necessary water-flow alarm systems. That work was completed last December and a second contract, under the same appropriation, was awarded in the early part of June for the fire doors and fire partitions. This part of the work now is in progress.

CONTINUING FIRE HAZARD

Senator MONRONEY. Do you have the right to suggest to Members or do you suggest to Members, as I think you should, the elimination of fire hazards in their own storerooms up there that have the aisles filled with stacks of papers and things of that type.

Mr. CARAWAY. Since we put the sprinkler system in. I think everything is all right now. We try to keep them straight. We have a man up there of our own who tries to keep them straight.

Senator MONRONEY. Do you mean you have the right to go in and move the storage around to prevent any undue fire hazard?

Mr. CARAWAY. We do with someone from the Senator's office. We do not like to go in there on our own.

Senator MONRONEY. But would you be willing if there were a fire hazard to contact the Member and say, we would like to clear up this fire hazard if we can use someone from your office to supervise that? Mr. CARAWAY. Yes, sir. We do that.

Senator MONRONEY. So, any fire hazard that you run onto can be corrected without any undue delay or difficulty?

Mr. CARAWAY. Everything up there is a hazard because it is all paper storage.

Senator MONRONEY. And you use a lot of old-fashioned inflammable storage cases, do you not?

Mr. CARAWAY. We are replacing many of those wooden cabinets with steel cabinets. That will help out some.

Senator MONRONEY. It still leaves a hazardous condition to be on top of the building.

Mr. CARAWAY. That is right.

NEW SENATE OFFICE BUILDING STORAGE

Senator MONRONEY. You don't have much storage in the new building.

Mr. CARAWAY. There are lockers

Senator MONRONEY. Both the north and the south end of the building have storage.

Mr. CARAWAY. That is right.

Senator MONRONEY. But it is open storage.

Mr. CARAWAY. It is open. However, they are in lockers, the same as the other place.

Senator MONRONEY. But it is grille wire opening so that if fire should break out, there would not be any inflammable petitions or anything of that type.

Mr. CARAWAY. That is right, sir.

REHABILITATION OF OLD FIRE DETECTION SYSTEM

Mr. RUBEL. You may be interested to know that when the new sprinkler system was installed in the attic we also rehabilitated the old fire detection system. It is a very sensitive system and it operates on the principle of rise in temperature.

In addition, under the second contract presently in progress, we will install some manual fire alarm stations in the attic. Such stations were previously installed on every other floor in the building. Now in the event of a fire in the attic, anyone can send in an alarm which, in my opinion, is a very important addition to the original installation. So far as fire protection in the attic is concerned we have done everything possible with the type of equipment available today.

ALL FIRE SIGNALS REPORTED TO PLUMBING SHOP

Senator MONRONEY. You do not use, however, what is used in most businesses, a watchman system that the man must make his rounds and turns his key in the clock every hour or whatever time he is supposted to. I think it is an ADT system.

Mr. RUBEL. There are several types on the market.

Senator MONRONEY. Who is there to watch it?

Mr. RUBEL. The plumbing shop attendants.

Senator MONRONEY. Its signal must be known to somebody.

Mr. RUBEL. All fire signals are reported to the plumbing shop. Senator MONRONEY. Your plumbing shop has duty officers 24 hours a day?

Mr. RUBEL. Yes, sir.

Senator MONRONEY. Air-conditioning shop the same way?

Mr. CARAWAY. Just the plumber is there 24 hours a day.

Senator MONRONEY. What about your wiring? Who is in charge here during the hours that the building is closed?

Mr. CARAWAY. We have a man in the plumbing shop who is on 24 hours a day and he has keys to any place that he has to get into. Of course, the guard people are here.

AROUND-THE-CLOCK BUILDING RESPONSIBILITY

Senator MONRONEY. The guard people are often youngsters working their way through college. I think it is pretty important-the investment we have in this nice building—and a paper fire on the attic floor, while it probably would not burn down the building, it would disable this material and damage and blacken these fine marble walls.

Do you have somebody of responsible management authority on duty around the clock?

Mr. CARAWAY. I have responsibility in my place now. I cannot speak for the Police Department.

Senator MONRONEY. Your people would be responsible, then.
Mr. CARAWAY. Yes, sir.

Senator MONRONEY. This is not a patronage type of job or like an elevator operator left there to report. These men are trained

Mr. CARAWAY. They have been here for years.

Senator MONRONEY. They have been trained and know what to do in the event of an emergency?

Mr. CARAWAY. That is right.

Senator MONRONEY. The fire warning is piped to the plumber?
Mr. CARAWAY. That is correct.

Senator MONRONEY. Could it be piped into two offices so you have safe warning of fire?

Mr. CARAWAY. This system is piped into the guard room.

Senator MONRONEY. Are these experienced veteran police officers in the guardroom?

Mr. CARAWAY. I would not like to answer about the Police Department.

GRAVEYARD SHIFT POLICE EXPERIENCE

Senator MONRONEY. Is anyone here from the Sergeant at Arms Office?

How experienced are the men on the graveyard shift in the two office buildings? How experienced are they as police officers?

Mr. CHEATHAM. At this moment?

Senator MONRONEY. At this moment.

Mr. CHEATHAM. May I ask your indulgence while I make a telephone call?

Senator MONRONEY. I think it is quite important that we have experienced officers on the graveyard shift.

Mr. CARAWAY. I know there is a lieutenant on duty. I think we keep one around the clock. There is always a lieutenant on duty.

OLD BUILDING ATTIC FIRE PROTECTION

Mr. RUBEL. May I elaborate on my previous remarks concerning the fire protection in the attic.

I realize now that I did not cover the subject too thoroughly. If a sprinkler head is operated in the attic by an abnormal rise in temperature, immediately there is a flow of water in the sprinkler piping system. If that flow reaches 10 gallons a minute of water then an alarm is registered in the plumbing shop indicating that a sprinkler head has functioned.

Likewise, if the automatic fire detection system senses a rise in temperature to 135° Fahrenheit in the attic, a separate alarm is registered in the plumbing shop.

Now we are installing additional manually operated fire stations so that any person in the attic can ring an alarm. Such alarms also will be registered in the plumbing shop, and anyone on duty in the plumbing shop and they are on duty 24 hours a day-receiving any one of these three signals would immediately call the Fire Department and within a few minutes the fire apparatus will be here.

ADDITIONAL ALARM-RECEIVING STATION IN POLICE OFFICE OF OLD BUILDING

Senator MONRONEY. What I am driving for, you have a man_representing Mr. Caraway on duty through the graveyard shift and you

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have a fail-safe safety system in case the plumber might have to step out for some call or have a problem in another part of the building or in another building to have that also piped in at a small extra cost to the man watching from that office?

Mr. RUBEL. I failed to mention that before. There will be a second alarm-receiving station in the police office of the old building. In case the plumbing man is out on duty the police on duty will get the alarm signal.

Mr. CARAWAY. You have that in this building now.

LEGISLATIVE GARAGE

Senator MONRONEY. The Legislative Appropriation Act for fiscal 1965 provided that the legislative garage would become the Senate garage as of July 1, 1965, under the jurisdiction and control of the Architect of the Capitol, subject to regulation by the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. The act further provided forthe continued assignment of space and the continued furnishing of service in such garage for official motor vehicles of the House and Senate and the Architect of the Capitol and Capitol Grounds maintenance equipment.

I understand there are 187 parking stalls in that garage; of these, 36 are for Government-owned trucks, cars for official use of House and Senate, and grounds maintenance equipment.

ADVISABILITY OF STORING HOUSE OFFICIAL CARS AND EQUIPMENT IN HOUSE GARAGE

Since the House now has 1,900 indoor parking spaces-with more to come-why couldn't the official cars of the House, and the trucks and maintenance equipment be stored on the House side?

Mr. HENLOCK. The law, under which we will operate after July 1, 1965, specifically provides that those House cars shall be housed in the Senate garage.

There are gasoline and oil pumps in the legislative garage for servicing the House cars whereas there are none in the House garages; also we have Government-paid men available in the legislative garage to wash the Government-owned cars. As far as the House cars go, out of the total you mentioned, there are only six official passenger cars of the House and three trucks.

Senator MONRONEY. It seems like with all that parking space they could take care of their own trucks and cars and have them fueled and washed.

Mr. HENLOCK. I assume that is a matter that can be worked out by the two committees.

Senator MONRONEY. I would think the officials on the House side would want their cars over there. Generally, if they need them, they have to be called up from the garage, do they not?

Mr. HENLOCK. That is right.

Senator MONRONEY. How many are there?

Mr. HENLOCK. Six passenger cars and three trucks.

Senator MONRONEY. Six passenger cars and three trucks all belonging to the House?

Mr. HENLOCK. Yes, sir.

Senator MONRONEY. Have you talked to your counterpart in the House about that? Who are they under?

Mr. HENLOCK. I assume the Speaker of the House would be the official who should be spoken to. The House Office Building Commission has charge of the House garages and the direction of them. The Architect performs his duties on the House side under the House Commission.

SENATE AND HOUSE OFFICE BUILDINGS EXPENDITURES COMPARED

Senator PROXMIRE. Are you leaving the Senate Office Buildings yet?

Senator MONRONEY. I have no other notes on it.

Senator PROXMIRE. I am rather surprised at the amount here. I see it is close to the same amount as last year, $2,468,000 for the Senate Office Building, and I notice in looking at the record most of it is for compensation and maintenance and so forth; and then I compare it with the House and the House Office Buildings with three, compared to the two Senate Office Buildings-it has $4 million, roughly.

Allowing five rooms for each Senator and three rooms for each House Member, and I know there are variations, I find the Senate per room cost much higher. The Senate cost seemed to be almost twice as high, or considerably higher than it should be in view of the number of Senators, the number of rooms per Senator.

SENATE AND HOUSE OFFICE BUILDINGS FURNISHINGS

Mr. CARAWAY. I think that can be answered by the fact that we purchase our own furniture, rugs, and everything used in the building. In the House Office Building, the furniture and everything of that nature comes under a different setup over there.

SENATE AND HOUSE OFFICE BUILDINGS PERSONNEL

Senator PROXMIRE. How about personnel? I understand that we have under the Architect of the Capitol at least as many or more Senate personnel here as there were people in the three House Office Buildings.

Mr. CARAWAY. I could not answer that.

Mr. HENLOCK. We carry 679 in the budget for the three House Office Buildings and 373 in the two Senate Office Buildings.

Senator MONRONEY. The amount for maintenance includes charwomen and elevator operators and so on.

DIFFICULTY OF COMPARING HOUSE AND SENATE FURNISHINGS

Senator PROXMIRE. Can you give me any comparison including the cost of furniture and equipment and so forth so that I can get a comparison between the House and the Senate? Could that be made available?

Mr. ROOF. The Clerk of the House handles all items of furniture and we really don't get into that. The only items of furniture we are involved in are when we construct a new building, we also furnish it initially but after that is is a matter for the Clerk. Whereas Mr. Caraway maintains the furniture and purchases additional furniture, he has a furniture repair shop; he has men in there, cabinet makers and so forth, which would not be reflected in our budget for the House Office Buildings. It is a pretty hard comparison to make.