Mr. ANDREWS. It shows on pages 199 and 200 the total number of eating places, ranging from the House restaurant to the carryout food services in the Rayburn House Office Building.

Mr. STEWART. That is right, sir.
Mr. ANDREWS. Off the record.
(Discussion held off the record.)

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES

Mr. ANDREWs. What is the grand total number of employees working in the eating places on Capitol Hill on the House side?

Mr. CoWAN. 220, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. At present?

Mr. COWAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. How many are you asking for 1967?

Mr. COWAN. The same number.

Mr. ANDREWS. No increase?

Mr. COWAN. That is right.

RECEIPTS, EXPENDITURES, AND LOSSES

Mr. ANDREWS. This reflects a deficit in the operation of these eating places, does it not?

Mr. COWAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. And you have no rent to pay, no utilities to pay, but only help and food

Mr. COWAN. And incidental expenses such as laundry and things that go along with the restaurant operation other than electricity, heat, utilities.

Mr. ANDREWS. Do you have any record here in this justification of the total income from all of these eating places last year?

Mr. COWAN. Yes, sir; I have a figure as of March 1, 1965, to February 28, 1966, income on food sales: $1,105,526 for that period. Mr. ANDREWs. Where is that shown?

Mr. Roof. It is not in the justification, Mr. Chairman. It is on a record we keep, a tabulation we have for two 12-month periods before and after the Rayburn Building opened.

These statements cover March 1964 to March 1965, and March 1965 to March 1966.

Mr. ANDREWS. Off the record.

(Discussion held off the record.)

Mr. ANDREWS. Referring to page 202, where you show the receipts from operations, expenditures and losses for the period 1958 through 1966, would you say that your receipts from operations have shown a steady increase since 1958 through February 28, 1966?

Mr. COWAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. And so have the appropriations for operations provided by Congress?

Mr. COWAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. How do you explain that?

Mr. COWAN. Well, sir

Mr. ANDREWS. Your business has increased?

Mr. COWAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. And the appropriations for operations provided by

Congress have increased.

Mr. CowAN. Mr. Chairman, labor costs have increased tremendously, and so have food costs over this period of time. It is a matter of public knowledge that the food cost index in that period has risen by 13 percent, during which time

Mr. ANDREWS. In what period of time?

Mr. COWAN. Since 1957. I have noticed that type of information in newspapers and noticed it also at grocery stores where I get my personal food. There has been a tremendous rise in food costs and labor costs during this period we are talking about here.

Labor went from $494,000 to $707,000 in 1 year.

Mr. ANDREWS. What year was that?

Mr. COWAN. In this comparable period from March 1964 to March 1965 and from March 1965 to March 1966.

WAGES AND SALARIES OF WAITERS

Mr. ANDREWS. Give us an example of wages and salaries paid to waiters.

Mr. COWAN. The waiters at the moment are starting at $1.31 an hour.

Mr. ANDREWS. What does that figure come to a month? Do you have figures on that?

Mr. COWAN. No, sir; not that way.

Mr. ANDREWS. Are they paid $1.31 an hour for just the time they work?

Mr. COWAN. Yes, sir; 40 hours a week. All over 40 hours is at time and a half for the full-time waiters.

Mr. ANDREWS. Suppose they do not work 40 hours a week?

Mr. CowAN. If they work a lesser period than 40 hours a week they get paid for only the period of time they work.

Mr. ANDREWs. In other words, if a man works only 10 hours a week he gets paid for 10 hours?

Mr. CowAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. If he works 40 hours he gets paid 40 hours at $1.31 an hour?

Mr. COWAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWs. Overtime is at time and a half?

Mr. COWAN. Yes, sir. On an average 44 hours per week they would receive about $60, plus whatever tips come their way.

Mr. ANDREWS. In addition to that hourly wage are they given food?

Mr. CowAN. Yes, sir. Two meals a day for the full-time employees; one for part time.

Mr. ANDREWS. Every day they work they get two meals a day? Mr. CowAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. That runs into money, doesn't it?

Mr. CowAN. It certainly does. I have a figure on that if you will bear with me.

Mr. ANDREWS. Let us have it.

Mr. RooF. $19,464 for this period March 1964 to March 1965.

Mr. COWAN. And employees' meals for the later period, $27,767.

Mr. ANDREWS. What period are we talking about now?
Mr. COWAN. From March of 1965 to March of 1966.

Mr. ANDREWS. How do you arrive at that figure?

Mr. COWAN. Estimated at 30 cents cost per meal, which is a very low cost. We charge it to the expenses at 30 cents per meal, breakfast and lunch.

Mr. ANDREWS. They can take any meal they want on the menu, eat all they want?

Mr. CowAN. Just about. We restrict them from time to time if we are short on certain items.

Mr. ANDREWS. You estimate that costs 30 cents?

Mr. COWAN. That is a ridiculously low figure right at the moment. It has not been adjusted in the past few years.

Mr. ANDREWS. I don't recall many items on the menu for 30 cents except a cup of coffee or something like that.

It

Mr. CowAN. This is supposed to be the cost to the restaurant. was reasonable a few years ago at wholesale costs but it is not any

more.

COST OF HAMBURGERS

Mr. ANDREWS. I hear more complaints about your hamburgers on the menu than any other one item. If I remember correctly a hamburger is 70 cents.

Mr. COWAN. 70 cents includes potato chips.

Mr. ANDREWS. Not over 2 cents worth of potato chips. A hamburger is something which is understood universally. They range in prices now from about 15 cents to $1.50. People complain to me. Why they do that I don't know because I have nothing to do with your hamburgers, but I get more complaints about the cost of a hamburger, 70 cents.

Mr. COWAN. Mr. Chairman, actually it is underpriced at that, on a 5-ounce hamburger, considering current meat costs.

Mr. ANDREWS. I am not expert on hamburgers but I have eaten hamburgers for a quarter that were about as big and good as yours for 70 cents. I ate it in a place where a man paid rent, utilities, and paid for his help.

I think you would contribute to the morale of Capitol Hill by giving them a good hamburger at a reasonable price-I don't know what the price should be for a hamburger, but the public takes it out on hamburgers.

Mr. COWAN. They eat a lot of them.

Mr. ANDREWS. It is the cheapest thing on your menu.

Mr. COWAN. It is made of pure choice ground chuck.

Mr. ANDREWS. That is what a hamburger is supposed to be.

We could go on and on about the menus down there. I guess you are doing the best you can.

Mr. COWAN. That is right.

EMPLOYEE MISCONDUCT

Mr. ANDREWS. Do you have trouble with your waiters, any of them?

Mr. COWAN. Nothing out of the ordinary, I believe, Mr. Andrews. We do have trouble from time to time to be sure.

Mr. ANDREWS. What kind of trouble?

Mr. COWAN. Absence.

Mr. ANDREWS. I have had people tell me you have had some there drinking on the job-not drunk but drinking.

Mr. ČOWAN. It has happened, yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. What do you do with them?

Mr. COWAN. Well, I suspended one for 30 days a little while back but upon reconsideration, reduced his suspension to 15 days.

Mr. ANDREWS. By and large you have a mighty good group of waiters down there. I can say the same of all your employees. Mr. COWAN. Thank you, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. One of the penalties of serving on this particular committee is that you have to listen to all these complaints about things on Capitol Hill, ranging from misconduct on the part of waiters at times, and only certain waiters at that, and the price of hamburgers. Mr. Langen?

OPERATING LOSS

Mr. LANGEN. Do I understand that with the increased request for funds of $332,000 that it is anticipated for fiscal year 1967 this will be the amount of loss in operating the restaurants for fiscal 1967? Mr. COWAN. Yes. sir.

Mr. LANGEN. And that the gross receipts of the total operation will be well in excess of $1 million?

Mr. COWAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. LANGEN. So that this might represent nearly a 30-percent loss?

Mr. CowAN. I don't believe it will run that high. The figure will be something in excess of this $1,105,000 that we were talking about for the fiscal year-for the present fiscal year. Possibly the ratio of volume to deficit is 25 to 30 percent.

Mr. LANGEN. By way of some kind of analysis of the cost of operating the various restaurant facilities, and certainly the chairman raised a legitimate question in calling attention to the fact that there is not involved in the cost such items as rent, maintenance of a building, lights, or many of those items that are characteristic of private operation-in analyzing the cost of operation what percentage of that cost is labor?

Mr. CowAN. Sixty-four percent in this study period we have mentioned. That includes all personnel items, such as leave, meals, and benefits.

Mr. LANGEN. What is the cost of the food?

Mr. COWAN. 47.3 percent.

Mr. LANGEN. In both of those instances, and having made some little inquiry with regard to the operation of resturants across the country, generally their cost of labor runs about 30 percent, so that in this instance it is about twice what would be the experience under a normal operation.

Mr. COWAN, Yes, sir.

Mr. LANGEN. Is the same thing true with price of food? You say that cost is about 40 percent?

Mr. COWAN. Forty-seven.

Mr. LANGEN. That is substantially higher than the cost of food in the operation of a normal resturant. This has nothing to do with the receipts that you take in but this is a direct cost of operation. Mr. COWAN. This is the wholesale cost.