.. + $ 49,900 Rental of equipment ... equipment rental. enced in fiscal 1986. $1,048,100 is requested in fiscal 1988 to provide for current level costs of It consists of an increase of 5 percent or $49,900 for costs experi Printing + $ 17,100 A current level increase of $17,100 is requested for printing in fiscal 1988 and is ment Printing Office in Circular Letter No. 267 of April 30, 1986. due to a 4 percent increase in printing costs in the fiscal 1988 forecast by the GovernThe increase consists of $13,300 for publications printing, and $3,800 for forms printing. Photo duplication + $ 3,200 A total current level increase of $3,200 is requested in fiscal 1988 and is due to a 5 percent increase in the costs of labor and materials experienced in fiscal 1986. 7,100 Other services, miscellaneous ....... + $ A current level increase of $7,100 is requested for contract services in fiscal 1988 and is due to an increase of 4 percent experienced in fiscal 1986 for miscellaneous contract services for foreign language translations, advertising for vacancies in support of affirmative action recruting, and the seminar and institute program. Services of other agencies + $ 1,500 services in fiscal 1986. The Library experienced à 4 percent increase in the costs of data base subscription A current level increase of $1,500 is therefore requested to offset these inflationary increases for use of government data bases. 167. An increase of $800 is requested for tuition and training in fiscal 1988. Tuition fees charged by local colleges and universities attended by Library of Congress staff have increased approximately 4 percent from the 1985/1986 school year to the 1986/1987 school year and is therefore the basis for this increase. Professional & consultant services .. + $ 12,000 A current level increase of $12,000 is requested for professional consultant services in fiscal 1988 and is due to an increase of 4 percent experienced in fiscal 1986 for such services, which CRS relies on to augment staff resources and expertise in providing public policy analysis to the Congress. Data base services + $ 26,000 The Library experienced a 4 percent increase in the costs of data base subscription services in fiscal 1986. Therefore, a current level increase of $26,000 is requested to offset these inflationary increases for use of commercial data base services. Office supplies .... + $ 9,900 A total current level increase of $9,900 is requested for this account in fiscal 1988 and is due to a 4 percent increase in costs experienced in fiscal 1986. Books and library materials .........+ $ 60,400 A total current level increase for books and library materials of $60,400 is requested to cover the 8.9 percent inflation experienced in 1986 over 1985 for U.S. periodical prices, as reported by the Library Materials Price Index Committee of the American Library Association. Since 99 percent of the funding for books and library materials is devoted to acquisition of public policy and other reference serials, this increase is necessary in order to maintain the resources currently received. Of the total requested, $59,800 is for books and library materials and $600 is for pamphlets and documents. 168. Increases of $20,000 for regular travel and $20,000 for attendance at meetings 169. The increase of $135,000 is requested to permit the Service to continue to replace malfunctioning and unrepairable word processing equipment and to acquire additional microcomputers for such reference and research applications as statistical analysis, data base management, and computer graphics. The funds support acquisition of 25 microcomputers and related peripheral equipment. This request was part of the original fiscal 1987 budget submission, half of which was withdrawn in light of the extreme stringencies required by deficit reduction requirements at that time. Offset reproduction + $ 9,500 Offset reproduction services, provided by the Library's Print Shop, are used to duplicate CRS products--InfoPacks, CRS Reports, the Subject Catalog of CRS Reports, and CRS White Papers. We have developed this family of products to make the most effective and efficient use of staff in responding to a large number of recurring questions on legislative issues. The fiscal 1986 funding cut resulted in reduced readiness to respond immediately to such questions, created some inefficiencies in our complex reference system, and resulted in some reduction of service to the Congress. Last year we took a $25,000 cut to this allotment to avoid RIF or furlough actions. We are requesting partial restoration of $9,500, which is essential to meet demand for the present complement of CRS products. Other services, miscellaneous .... + $ 33,600 An increase of $33,600 is requested to restore support for the seminar/institute program, translating services, and acquisition of survey materials. Cuts in these activities were necessitated in fiscal 1986 to help avoid RIFS and furloughs; the request will permit the partial restoration of these activities. 170. Deep cuts to training were taken in fiscal 1986 to avoid RIFs or furloughs; partial restoration is needed in order to provide training which contributes to increased productivity through improved skills, and to help staff handle new subject area assignments when workload requires. The increase of $34,000 will support approximately 271 courses, providing training for 31 percent of the Service's staff. Professional & consultant services.. + $ 78,000 An increase of $78,000 is requested to provide the Service with sufficient resources to continue to support the Congress with research projects which require expertise unavailable on the CRS staff. Support for the Congress in such areas as civil service retirement, health care financing, privatization in less developed countries, and financing rental housing has largely depended upon the ability to obtain analytical services and proprietary modeling tools from consultants to supplement staff availability and expertise. Data base services + $ 28,000 The request is to restore $28,000 of the fiscal 1986 base cut. This allotment supports use of commercial automated research and reference tools which are essential to the Service in the following ways: (1) it provides access to information that may only be available in automated form, an increasing phenomenon as electronic publishing increases; (2) it improves staff productivity--a ten minute search may provide an answer that might take two hours or two days if conducted manually; (3) data base use permits development of time-shortening search strategies that are not possible to employ in the manual searching process; (4) analysts have access to proprietary data, such as econometric models or legal materials that would be otherwise unavailable; and (5) the Congressional Record data base available through the Library's SCORPIO system is purchased through this allotment. 171. |