Mr. STEED. The committee will be in order. The committee resumes consideration this afternoon of the budget requests for the Library of Congress, and we will now take up the request for the Legislative Reference Service, salaries and expenses. The request is for $3,675,000 and is detailed on page 139 of the justifications and page 119 of the committee print. We will insert pages 139 through 141 of the justifications in the record at this point. (The pages follow :) 1968 regular bill__. Funds are requested to cover the cost of within-grade increases allocations as fellows: Salaries Personnel benefits. Total 2. Pay above the stated annual rate_-_ Fiscal year 1969 requires the payment of salary funds for 1 3. Annualization of pay increase.. Public Law 90-206 granted pay increases to Government em- Salaries Personnel benefits. Total 4. New positions (29). To meet an increase in workload resulting from a substantial 1 GS-13, 1 GS-12, 1 GS-11, 9 GS-9, 1 GS-8, 2 GS-7, Contribution to retirement_-_. Group life insurance_. Contribution to health insurance_. Total Total increases__. $3, 239, 000 110, 323 3, 349, 323 3,675, 000 +325, 677 +$54,849 51.341 3.508 54, 849 +12, 450 +43, 284 37,662 5,622 43. 284 +$215.094 199,979 12,998 667 1,450 215, 004 +325,677 Mr. STEED. This shows a net increase of $325,677. That amount assumes the supplemental request for 1968 of $110,323 would be added to the total budget for 1968, is that correct? Dr. MUMFORD. Yes, sir. Mr. STEED. You might make a general analysis of the increases set out here. Dr. MUMFORD. Mr. Chairman, aside from the mandatory increases and the assumed supplemental for the pay increase, this is based on an increase in workload resulting from a substantial growth in the volume of inquiries and indepth research requirements. BACKGROUND OF BUDGET REQUEST FOR LRS If I may, I would be glad to have Mr. Jayson, the Director of the Legislative Reference Service, speak to this. Mr. STEED. First, I believe we ought to also include pages 144 through 158 in the record. (The pages follow:) BACKGROUND TO THE 1967 BUDGET REQUEST Three years ago, in August 1965, following an intensive review of the Legislative Reference Service initiated by the Joint Committee on the Organization of the Congress, the Service reported that it was facing a critical situation, that it could no longer meet the information and research demands of the Congress with timely, good quality response and still continue to provide the spectrum of services that Congress expected of it with its then resources. Since 1946, when the Service was established on a statutory basis, the research requests had mounted steadily and rapidly. By 1965, the LRS staff found itself overwhelmed. The impact on the quality of the work product, on the morale of the research staff, and on the effectiveness of the organization as a whole had reached serious proportions. During this period the subject range of congressional interest had enlarged immeasurably; Federal responsibilities had grown in scope and complexity; constituent communications with and demands upon the Members had expanded enormously; and in consequence the work of the individual Member of Congress, his committees, and his staff had spiraled impressively. This in turn was reflected in a massive increase in the workload of the Legislative Reference Service. By 1965 LRS's workload had increased almost fivefold. Its staff on the other hand, was less than double. The problem was complicated by Congress intensive demand for more research in depth, for more personalized reports and draft statements, and for more rush and short deadline work. The result was that by 1965, despite innovations in techniques and realinements of staff for more effective handling of inquiries, there were arrearages in every division of the Service throughout the year; individual researchers were heavily backlogged; quality was being sacrificed to the demands of quantity; and constituent inquiries forwarded by congressional offices were encroaching on the time needed by researchers to respond to the Members' own legislatively related inquiries. To meet this critical situation, a 2-year program was proposed to enlarge the staff from its then 219 budgeted positions to sufficient strength to handle a workload such as existed during fiscal 1965. Specifically, it was requested that the staff be increased to a total of 304 over a 2-year period. The Appropriations Committees acted favorably on this request, although not approving it in full. Over the past 2 years the number of budgeted positions has increased to 281, but still 23 short of the estimated minimal need for the workload which existed in fiscal 1965. There have been no developments during this past year which detract from the rationale of the 2-year proposal discussed at the previous appropriations hearings. To the contrary, the workload has continued to rise-it escalated very sharply during calendar 1967-and the problems, while alleviated in some degree by the previously authorized increase in personnel, are still serious. For fiscal 1969, the Service requests a budget increase of $215,094 to provide the 23 positions to bring the staff to the level considered minimal in 1965, plus six additional positions, for a total of 29. The increase in workload since fiscal 1965 on which the 2-year program was based clearly warrants this increment. INCREASED WORKLOAD The Service's workload, measured in terms of inquiries handled, rose to unprecedented levels last year. During calendar 1967,* the period of the first session of the 90th Congress, LRS handled in excess of 132,400 inquiries, some 18,400 more than calendar 1966. The total reflects a dramatic increase in workload covering the past 3 years: during 1967 the Service handled almost 40,000 more inquiries than it did in 1964. This represents a 43-percent increase within this brief period. The sharp rise in workload was evident in every month of the year. Table I provides a month-by-month breakdown of inquiries answered by the Service during the period calendar 1964 through 1967. It shows also the percentage of increase for each month over the corresponding months of the previous years. TABLE 1.-INQUIRIES ANSWERED CALENDAR YEARS 1964-67 A most significant aspect of these figures from the viewpoint of workload is the exceptional rise in Member (including committee) inquiries since the end of calendar 1964. Member inquiries have always reflected the more substantive workload of the Service. Responses to these inquiries call for more effort and more research in depth. During calendar 1967 there was an increase of some 14,200 Member inquiries over 1966-and an extraordinary increase of 30,500 Member inquiries, up 76 percent over 1964. On top of that, constituent inquiries rose 17 percent during the same period. Table II provides a breakdown of the inquiries handled by the service during calendar 1964 through 1967 by reference to their source. It also gives a breakdown of the types of responses employed by the service in answering those inquiries. In this connection it should be noted that not only Member inquiries but also those inquiries which require written responses are generally regarded as reliable indicators of the service's substantive workload. During 1967, total written responses were 13 percent greater than 1966, and 44 percent greater than 1964. *Reference is made to calendar year totals because LRS's workload is substantially parallel to the workload of Congress itself, and congressional workload is more readily understood in terms of its sessions which open at the beginning of the calendar year That the last 3 years have brought an accelerated concentration of the more substantive type of inquiries is also evidenced by the sharp rise in the ratio of Member to constituent inquiries. In calendar 1964, the almost 40.000 Member (including committee) inquiries handled by the Service comprised 43 percent of the total volume of inquiries. In calendar 1967, Member inquiries rose to over 70,000 and comprised 53 percent of the total. A comparison of the last 3 years with 1964 is shown in table III: TABLE III-MEMBER-CONSTITUENT INQUIRIES COMPARED BY PERCENTAGES OF TOTAL The Member and committee inquiries not only comprise the bulk of the heavy workload of the Service, but they are the category in which improvement in quality and timeliness of response are most needed, and this of course has been the major objective of the previously authorized increase in staff. To that end, a principal priority of use of new personnel was for the establishment of a new division (the Congressional Reference Division) in which most of the constituent inquiries were to be concentrated. It was expected that by diverting the mass of constituent inquiries to this new division, the researchers in the subject divisions would have that much more time available to work on Member and committee inquiries. The newly created Congressional Reference Division handled thousands of constituent inquiries during the past calendar year: more than 75 percent of all constituent inquiries cleared by the Service were cleared in this division. But we now find that the anticipated advantage to the subject divisions has been substantially diminished by the sharp increase in Member and committee inquiries during the same period. In short, most of the time gained by the researchers by relieving them of so many constituent inquiries has been absorbed by the increased volume of Member inquiries. INCREASED WORKLOAD COMPARED TO INCREASED STAFF The figures previously presented showing the unprecedented increase in workload during the past 3 years, characterized by a sharply rising concentration of Member inquiries, demonstrate that the estimate of overall staff need which was given to the Joint Committee on the Organization of the Congress in August 1965, and which was discussed thereafter with the appropriations committees 92 655-68-38 as the basis of a 2-year program to strengthen staff, is now definitely outdated. The estimate was based upon the Service's workload as of fiscal 1965. During fiscal 1965 the Service handled approximately 100,000 inquiries. But the fiscal 1968 total is expected to be in excess of 125,000, up 25 percent, with at least 55 percent in the Member category. Under the 2-year program, to the extent that it was authorized, staff was augmented by approximately 28 percent during this period. The plain fact is, however, that the benefits that it had been hoped would be gained through the 2-year program, even if it had been authorized in full, have already been substantially nullified by the increased demands upon the Service by congressional offices. Nevertheless, the staff increase over the last 2 years has resulted in some improvement in quality and service. It has enabled the Service to cope with this greatly increased demand. It has permitted the Service to devote a greater proportion of its staff time to Member inquiries (viz in fiscal 1965, 80.9 percent of all research time was used in responding to Member inquiries; in 1967, despite an increase in the volume of constituent inquiries, the total research time devoted to Member inquiries rose to 84.4 percent). It has enlarged the Service's range of subject specialties, particularly in the area of science. It has permitted the development of the new Congressional Reference Division where most constituent inquiries are now handled. It made possible the improvement and expansion of the Digest of Public General Bills and Resolutions, and its production through use of automatic data processing methods. These improvements enhance its usefulness as a legislative tool. But the fact remains that the gap between the overall increase in workload as compared to the overall increase in staff through the years since LRS was established is still a very wide one. During 19 of the 21 years since enactment of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, the number of research and reference inquiries placed with the Service has exceeded that of each prior year. Increase in staff has lagged and continued to fall far behind increase in workload. Table IV compares the growth in inquiries and in staff on a percentage basis beginning with fiscal 1947, as the base year, through (estimated) 1968. Table V shows the total number of congressional inquiries answered by the Service during fiscal years 1947 through (estimated) 1968, the number of budg eted positions in the Service in each of those years, and the percentages of increase in positions and in volume of inquiries over 1947. The figures show that while the staff has somewhat more than doubled over this period, the volume of inquiries has gone up more than fivefold. |