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Wage rates of journeymen employees, 1954 through Mar. 21, 1962

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REBINDING LIBRARY MATERIALS

Mr. STEED. In the presentation of the Library's budget, they said that in some of the rebinding of old books that they are faced with that they were able to obtain prices from outside commercial firms that were better than your prices. Are you aware of that situation?

Mr. HARRISON. Yes, sir, I am aware of it. I think it goes much deeper than it sounds. You can get all types of binding. I went into this while I was still with the Joint Committee on Printing because I did not like to hear anybody say they could get work done cheaper anywhere else than they could at the Government Printing Office.

However, I believe that, quality for quality, the Printing Office can do it as cheap as anybody. We have some very fine technicians in our bindery, technicians that are almost becoming extinct, to do fine work. If our Library wants permanent binding that will stay with them, then I think they are going to have to pay for it. I do not believe they can get comparable binding for permanency, as we can give them, for less money. I think it is a question of what they want in the way of quality. If they want binding that will be with them-they are going to have to buy it from us because there are very few binderies in the country today that can do the type of work we do, very few.

Mr. STEED. Then it is largely a matter of quality, that if they want less quality at a cheaper price, you are not prepared to compete in that field?

Mr. HARRISON. No, sir, because we do not believe library binding as such should be handled in that way. I believe, in the long run-and that is what our librarians should be thinking about, because this Library expects to be there long after we are gone our binding is not more expensive. If they buy a cheap binding, put it on their shelves, in 25 years they have to do it again because it just does not hold up. I feel when we put out a library binding in the quality that we do, that they can forget about it. It is going to be there to stay.

SELECTED UNIT PRINTING COSTS

Mr. STEED. Would you be able to give us a tabulation or a list showing the actual cost of printing a page of the Congressional Record, a page of a committee report, a page of a committee hearing, and so forth? You can insert that in the record.

Mr. HARRISON. All right. We would be glad to do it, Mr. Chairman. (The information follows:)

Average cost per unit of printing and binding chargeable to the congressional appropriation

1. Congressional Record_.

2. Miscellaneous publications_

3. Miscellaneous printing and binding_.

4. Publications for international exchange..

5. Speech and document envelopes..

5. Document franks_.

6. Calendars___

1963 estimate -per page-- $90.00 .____do____ 17.00

--per 1,000__ 24.00

.125

-per copy-per 1,000. __do_

5.00

4.00

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11. Federal Register (not including U.S. Government Manual and Public Papers of the Presidents) ___

12. Supplement to Code of Federal Regulations...-

per page__ 47.50 __do____ 14.00

PROPOSED NEW FIREPROOF ANNEX BUILDING

Mr. STEED. I think it would be well at this point to go into the new building matter a little more. We will insert the law authorizing the building at this point.

(The law referred to follows:)

Public Law 87-373, 87th Congress, H.R. 3019, October 4, 1961

(75 Stat. 803)

AN ACT To provide for the construction of a fireproof annex building for use of the Government Printing Office, and for other purposes

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is hereby authorized to be constructed in accordance with plans to be prepared by the Administrator of General Services and approved by the Public Printer, a fireproof annex building for use of the Government Printing Office, including the mechanical equipment for the building, connections with the present Government Printing Office buildings and utilities, interconnections with the Capitol Power Plant in accordance with plans to be approved by the Architect of the Capitol, access facilities over or under public streets, other necessary appurtenances or facilities, and such mechanical and other changes in the present Government Printing Office buildings as may be necessitated thereby.

SEC. 2. (a) To carry out the purposes of section 1 of this Act, the Administrator of General Services is authorized to acquire on behalf of the United States, by purchase, condemnation, donation, transfer without reimbursement, or otherwise, such publicly or privately owned real property in the District of Columbia (including streets and alleys or parts thereof) as may be located in the area extending west of the property line at the rear of the Government Printing Office Building Numbered 3, along H Street west of North Capitol Street to the alley connecting G and H Streets and south to Jackson Alley, including that portion of Jackson Alley adjacent to the proposed site bordered on the south by present Government Printing Office property and to the north by lots numbered 823, 824, 47, 48, 49, 68, 67, and including the "T" shaped public alley bounded by lots 64, 65, and 66 on the north, lot 67 on the east, Jackson Alley on the south and lot 68 on the west, in square numbered 624 in the District of Columbia.

(b) Any proceeding for condemnation ordered under subsection (a) shall be conducted in accordance with the pertinent provisions of the Act entitled “An Act to provide for the acquisition of land in the District of Columbia for use in the United States", approved March 1, 1929 (16 D.C. Code, secs. 619–644).

(c) The Administrator of General Services is authorized to provide for the demolition and removal as expeditiously as possible of any buildings or other structures on, or constituting a part of, such real property as may be acquired under, or made available for the purpose of this Act.

(d) The Administrator of General Services is authorized to cause the building herein provided for to be constructed pursuant to the applicable provisions of the Public Buildings Act of 1959 (73 Stat. 479), but without regard to the requirements of sections 7 and 8(a) thereof.

SEC. 3. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated to the Government Printing Office such sums as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act, and such sums may be available for transfer to the Administrator of General Services to remain available until expended.

Approved October 4, 1961.

Mr. STEED. You request $6,450,000 for 1963. What would be the time schedule as to different phases of it and ultimate completion, assuming the money is made available here?

Mr. HARRISON. We do not have a thing on that, Mr. Chairman. General Services Administration will handle the building.

Mr. STEED. What about the site acquisition? Will that involve any complications?

Mr. HARRISON. We do not believe it will, and neither do they. They have indicated that this property is scheduled for a renewal treatment in the next immediate year or two anyway.

As to the land, this is a picture here, if I may show you, that will indicate to you that there is not very much there. There is only, I believe, one respectable building. I believe they have indicated no objections to selling. The General Services Administration has indicated that the land can be obtained for $300,000, which is included in the overall cost.

Mr. STEED. Are your cost estimates, both as to land acquisition and the cost of the building, up to date? Are they recent estimates? Mr. HARRISON. They are as of October 16, 1961.

Mr. STEED. You know of no conditions that have changed since that would make any substantial change?

Mr. HARRISON. They have not made us aware of it, Mr. Chairman, if there have been.

Mr. HUMPHREY. The latest price is October 16, 1961, from GSA. They gave us this $6,450,000 price.

Mr. STEED. Have they given you any indication as to the actual construction time, once they break ground, until they would have the building ready for you?

Mr. HUMPHREY. It seems to me it was over a year.

Mr. HARRISON. That is what was in my mind.

Mr. STEED. What I was getting at is, since you indicated—and I think rightly so that substantial savings can begin to accrue after you have the new building, from the time the money is made available until some of that benefit begins to come back to us, I was interested in the general amount of time lapse in between.

Mr. HARRISON. There is not a great deal of demolition to do. Mr. STEED. You do not anticipate any interminable delay in getting the site and getting it cleared?

Mr. HARRISON. They have assured us as soon as they get the money, they are ready to go.

Mr. STEED. Have you had any unusual experiences because of weather this year like you had a year ago?

Mr. HARRISON. No, sir. The snow, as you know, has been very negligible this year. We have had some delays because of ice on the Shirley Freeway, but nothing serious. However, last year we did have some very serious times.

Mr. STEED. I take it that the need for the building is even more pressing than before.

Mr. HARRISON. Very urgent; yes, sir.

Mr. STEED. What is your projection about this building in terms of its long-range ability to meet foreseeable needs? Do you think this is going to take care of your problem for the foreseeable future? Mr. HARRISON. Could I speak off the record on that?

Mr. STEED. Yes.

(Discussion off the record.)

POSSIBILITIES OF CENTRALIZED ELECTRONIC PAYROLL PROCESSING

Mr. STEED. Mr. Horan, do you have any questions?

Mr. HORAN. Do you not want to explore a little bit the possibility of a joint operation on payroll?

Mr. STEED. Yes.

Mr. Harrison, in your statement you bring up a point that we have been giving some attention to in other phases of this bill, and that

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has to do with the matter of payroll checks. Everybody, of course, has the same problem that these new deductions and what-have-you have complicated the preparation of the checks. We were flirting with the idea, since the type of equipment that gives the most efficiency and speed in that field represents such a large investment, whether or not all the agencies involved in the legislative branch might not be able to pool their needs in a central point and avail themselves of a central service so that it would help them keep down the costs and still give them the full benefit of the latest devices in this field.

Since you have probably the biggest payroll and have gone the furthest in this matter of equipment, I wonder if you could elaborate on it and tell us whether or not in your opinion such a joint plan would be workable?

Mr. HARRISON. How many employees would be involved in that, would you say?

Mr. STEED. Well, the Library of Congress has about 2,000, and there are 4,200 on the House side. I do not know how many are on the Senate side. The other body is currently having their checkwork-they do not pay everybody in checks, they pay some by cash— but I understand they are having their checkwork done in the Treasury.

The cost of the best and latest equipment is so high that unless the equipment is used rather heavily it does not justify the cost. We were wondering if the agencies involved, sitting down in conference and pooling all their needs, might not come up with some plan that would enable everybody to benefit from the advantages of the new type of equipment through a joint venture.

Mr. HARRISON. Mr. Chairman, to give you a little brief outline of our system, we rent this equipment on a monthly basis based on a certain amount of use during that month. The monthly rental is $20.644. It is a flat rate, actual running time. Any additional time we have to pay for. In February we had to pay additional time of $1,600. That indicates the two machines that we have are utilized pretty fully. You see, we do not just make our payrolls on those. The payroll is just a byproduct, really. All our costs are handled through these machines, our annual and sick leave, our inventories, and so on. So that these machines are constantly grinding out information that helps us operate a more economical plant.

Mr. HORAN. A full month?

Mr. HARRISON. Yes, sir.

Now, if we took on an additional payroll it would require more than just writing checks. We would have to feed into the brain of this machine all the information, which would have to come to us some way, probably set up a card system here with tabulators to punch the cards, and we would have to convert the cards to tape and then run the tape through the machines. The actual running of the checks does not take a lot of time, it is the programing before that that takes the time. I would say we would have to expand our equipment and add one-third to it. We would have to have at least another machine, and we do not have space for it. I hate to keep harping on space but we do not have the space.

Mr. STEED. Some of the agencies that have a great volume of work for these machines, such as the Internal Revenue Service, I think have

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