Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify before the Committee on Appropriations as I begin my service to the Senate community. It is an honor to be elected the 37th Senate Sergeant at Arms, and I pledge to you that I will serve the Senate faithfully.
I am respectfully requesting a total budget of $198,240,000, which is an increase of $40,656,000, or 25.8% over the fiscal year 2003 budget. The $40.6 million increase will fund a variety of programs.
Over half of this amount (56%, or $22.7 million) is for one-time acquisitions that provide substantial long-term benefits to the Senate community. This includes $13.5 million for a new mail processing/warehouse facility and $9.2 million to relocate the Senate Recording Studio and furnish the Senate space in the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC).
The new mail processing/warehouse facility will enable us to eliminate $1.5 million annually in recurring costs, including lease expenses and outsourcing expenses for package processing. The current warehouse facilities do not meet minimum GSA requirements and the costs to meet those requirements would be significant. Other long-term benefits this facility will afford are volume discounts for Secretary of the Senate and Sergeant at Arms purchases; a longer useful life for furniture and fixtures warehoused for use in the Capitol; and specialized storage to meet the needs of the Senate Curator and the Senate Librarian.
Relocating the Senate Recording Studio to the Capitol Visitor Center and furnishing the Senate side of the Visitor Center will move the Recording Studio into a state-of-the-art facility in the CVC and provide furniture, fixtures, and equipment to outfit and support its operation. The relocation will cost $7.7 million and the furnishings will cost $1.5 million.
The balance of the requested increase (44% or $17.9 million) will fund initiatives that are ongoing. We are requesting $5.9 million to fund a full year of maintenance of recent security enhancements at the Alternate Computing Facility and the outsourcing of package processing – upon approval and completion of the mail processing/warehouse facility, the funds for outsourcing package processing will be eliminated. The IT Support Contract will require $4.7 million to provide additional resources to install, support, and maintain the Senate’s computing infrastructure. Funding of the COLA and salary increases will cost $4.2 million. The final $3.1 million are spread across the programs in the Office of the Sergeant at Arms.
Mr. Chairman, I come before you with six weeks of experience as Sergeant at Arms. In that short time, I have already seen some of the accomplishments this hardworking and dedicated office has achieved. I have also seen some of the challenges that we face and some of the opportunities that present themselves. Our budget request will enable us to meet the challenges we face.
The role of this office has changed dramatically over the years. The duties and responsibilities of the Sergeant at Arms have expanded, become more complex, and increasingly interdependent, requiring us to balance the Senate’s competing needs.
We balance the need to keep the “People’s House” open so that the American people and the world may see our great democracy at work with the need to keep the Capitol safe for Members, staff and visitors. We balance providing efficient, common services with delivering individual services and solutions to Senate offices. We work to use the taxpayers’ money responsibly while providing outstanding service and support to the Senate. The Office of the Sergeant at Arms will provide you the best security, service, and support that we can, and we will work with this Committee in doing so.
Our testimony today will focus on the Senate’s progress in two key areas: the Senate’s security and emergency preparedness and the services and support the Office of the Sergeant at Arms provides to the Senate community.
Security and Emergency Preparedness
Before September 11, 2001, the preparedness of the Capitol complex paralleled the preparedness of the rest of the United States. While we had more security in place than the rest of the country, we pursued it on an as-needed basis, not in a comprehensive or integrated way. When we identified specific threats, we responded. For example, the Capitol Police implemented security upgrades in the three years following the tragic shootings of Detective John M. Gibson and Officer Jacob J. Chestnut in July 1998. We had also started working on security of the mail, and had some rudimentary continuity of operations plans in place, but we had no comprehensive strategy for ensuring the safety of the Senate. No one had ever attacked the Senate at the level we experienced in 2001, so we did not fully comprehend how much we needed additional security measures to save lives and restore Senate operations.
September 11, 2001, provided a wake-up call, and we responded. Thankfully, with the preliminary work we were doing, we were in a position to respond rapidly when the bioterrorist anthrax attacks occurred on October 15, 2001.
Security Strategy
The wake-up call of September 11 and the Senate’s experience with our nation’s largest bioterrorist attack on October 15 underscored the need for an enhanced, comprehensive security strategy for the Senate in 2001. The strategy that emerged ensures the continuation of the Senate under any circumstance and protects Members, staff, and visitors, while maintaining the essential public nature of the Senate. I am committed to continuing that tradition and strategy.
Our strategy accomplishes its objectives by establishing a layered defense based on threats that we know and those we can anticipate. It creates security plans and takes actions to prevent incidents from occurring. It includes training and exercise programs to ensure preparedness. And the strategy identifies the resources we need to manage the consequences and respond appropriately to ensure the Senate’s continuity of operations if an incident does occur. It eliminates single points of failure, and develops system redundancy, mobility, and flexibility to ensure that the Senate can continue to function even in the face of an emergency.
The programs and resources to implement this strategy are in place. The people who implement the programs know the urgency of completing them, and continue to move forward quickly, and deliberately.
Our Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness (OSEP) coordinates its activities with those of the U.S. Capitol Police and other agencies to implement Senate security, emergency preparedness, and continuity of operations plans and programs. It combines its efforts with other offices within the Sergeant at Arms organization to make sure that all of our work takes security concerns into account. And OSEP works with every Senate office, here and in Senators’ home states, to bring the Senate community the equipment, information, assessments, and training it needs.
The Senate funded many of our programs with an emergency supplemental appropriation to support life-safety, threat reduction, emergency preparedness, continuity of government and operations, and consequence management and recovery programs. The emergency appropriation totaled $632.9 million for the entire legislative branch. The Office of the Sergeant at Arms received $58.2 million to fund Senate-specific security and continuity-related programs. We worked with this Committee and the Committee on Rules and Administration to establish the best ways to use these funds, and I want you to know that we are using them wisely.
My office and the Office of the Secretary of the Senate are working with the Architect of the Capitol, the Attending Physician, and the United States Capitol Police to ensure that all of our interdependent, but separately funded, programs are integrated and synchronized. The efforts of these groups have substantially improved the Capitol’s overall security posture and established a solid foundation for future improvements. We could not have done this without the dedicated support of the Senate Leadership, this Committee, and the Committee on Rules and Administration
Security
A hallmark of the Senate’s comprehensive security strategy is taking reasonable precautions to prevent incidents from occurring. Risk assessment falls under this area, as do perimeter security, many activities of the USCP, mail and package handling, and the security assessments we have done for virtually all Senate state offices across the country.
Risk Assessment. To increase our understanding of the threats we face, we assembled a Legislative Branch Emergency Preparedness Task Force (LBEPTF) that started a thorough threat and vulnerability assessment of the Senate in September 2001. The Task Force expanded its assessment to House facilities in October 2001. LBEPTF completed the assessment in January 2002 and published it in April 2002. It resulted in many immediate improvements (e.g., fire alarm markings and functionality, exit markings, and publication of evacuation plans). The assessment also identified long-term actions for the Senate’s security and preparedness and we have moved forward on those actions.
U.S. Capitol Police. One urgent need that has been identified is that the U.S. Capitol Police force (USCP) was not sufficiently staffed, trained, or equipped to accept the expanded duties the new threat situation required. To address this problem, with agreement of the Congress, the U.S. Capitol Police force will increase its full-time equivalent (FTE) staff positions and its capabilities. There were 1,481 FTEs in 2001, and the size of the force is growing. At the same time, the USCP increased its internal ability to respond to hazardous devices and materials by adding personnel, equipment, and vehicles to its Hazardous Devices Section.
The USCP also increased the number of posts and added more roving patrols including vehicle, bicycle, and K9 patrols. Importantly, the USCP has established or increased its liaison positions and officer exchanges with intelligence organizations and other law enforcement agencies throughout local and federal government. The Office of the Sergeant at Arms works closely with the USCP on increased security procedures for daily and special events, access control, and screening measures.
I am a member of the Capitol Police Board, and this year, I chair the Board (the chairmanship alternates with the House Sergeant at Arms annually). My position on the Police Board helps ensure that the security efforts of the USCP align with the priorities and direction of the Office of the Sergeant at Arms.
Perimeter Security. I am pleased to inform you that the implementation of the initial phase of the Perimeter Security Plan, first proposed in 1998, was completed in 2002. After September 11, 2001, we were asked to develop a plan to provide a similar level of protection to Senate Office buildings. My office and other security experts developed a plan, and the Committee on Rules and Administration recently approved it. The Architect of the Capitol will soon begin implementation of the enhanced perimeter security plan.
Physical security measures represent one aspect of perimeter security and the Capitol Police force represents another. The physical security measures include bollards and pop-up vehicle barriers. The Capitol Police force staffs the revised access checkpoints and enforces procedures, staffs the expanded use of K9 patrols, enforces the restriction of oversized vehicles, and supports other measures that safeguard against vehicle-borne threats. Together, the Police and enhanced physical security measures prevent attacks from vehicles or their contents.
To prevent other attacks, we improved visitor access and screening procedures for all Senate Office Buildings. When we offer public Capitol tours, we screen the visitors outside the Capitol. We enhanced that screening as well as the screening of visitors on staff-led tours coming from the Senate Office Buildings.
The Office of the Sergeant at Arms has also undertaken other, less visible, security improvements and safety systems that significantly improve the Senate’s overall security posture. We implemented extensive security at the Capitol Visitor Center project during its construction that includes background checks of workers, off-site vehicle screening, physical inspections, a vehicle x-ray system, K9 explosive detection sweeps, and strict access control and monitoring measures.
Mail Handling. Throughout the October 2001 anthrax event, we gathered information that would be useful in our efforts to prevent similar incidents; to prepare in the event an incident does occur; and to create plans, training, and resources to manage the consequences and respond appropriately to an incident and ensure the Senate’s continuity of operations. We worked with the Department of Defense, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the United States Postal Service, package delivery service companies, local couriers, the Committee on Rules and Administration, and Senate offices to develop procedures to improve the safety and security of Senate mail.
During January 2002, this office established the Legislative Mail Task Force (LMTF), made up of representatives from medical and scientific agencies as well as those described above. Its purpose is to ensure safe and timely mail delivery. The LMTF remains operational and is still investigating ways to provide better and safer mail delivery to the legislative branch.
We sealed mailing chutes and removed unmonitored mailboxes in the Senate Office Buildings and the Capitol to eliminate the possibility of a harmful agent being deposited in them. We also adopted mail handling safety procedures that include irradiating, x-raying, testing, and holding all mail until we receive negative test results.
We worked with all offices across the Senate, conducting briefings and providing information so staff would know how to identify suspicious mail and report it promptly to the Capitol Police and Senate postal officials. We also advised Senate offices that they should only accept letters and packages from uniformed Senate Post Office employees displaying a valid ID, or from bona fide couriers.
These procedures have become the model for other agencies in the legislative branch. Since resuming mail delivery to the Senate, we have delivered over 25,000,000 safe letters and have reduced the time to deliver them from an average of several weeks to six days. Moreover, we leveraged our existing people and resources to create our own mail-handling program, costing the Senate several million dollars less than other legislative branch agencies that outsource their mail handling programs.
Package Handling. The Package Tracking and Management System that we developed and implemented last summer is a great example of cooperation within the Office of the Sergeant at Arms to bring new services to the Senate community. Our IT Support Services staff developed this new Web-based system using requirements from the Senate Post Office, the Committee on Rules and Administration, and our user community, along with vital participation from our Customer Support and Training areas. The system enabled us to deliver more packages during its first four weeks of use than our vendor had been able to deliver during the previous five months. The technology cost less than $50 thousand to implement, compared to our package vendor’s proposed $1.5 million solution. Using the system we developed in-house, we deliver safe packages three days (on average) after we receive them, which is considerably less time than the several weeks that was the norm under the previous system. We are working with the Committee on Rules and Administration to see if we can reduce that time even further.
Capitol Visitor Center (CVC). Congress had planned to build a Capitol Visitor Center for several years, not only to improve security, but also to provide better visitor services. Until September 11, the project moved slowly. After September 11, as part of the emergency supplemental appropriation, funds for the CVC were approved, and construction began.
In 2000, almost three million people visited the Capitol and during peak season over 18,000 people visited the Capitol each day. Tons of equipment, food, and other material move into and out of the Capitol daily. These provide critical services but they also create risks to the Capitol complex.
The CVC will help us better control the flow of visitors and material moving in and out of the Capitol, without reducing public access. Once the CVC is completed, we will have just as much public access through fewer access points, and we will have better screening and control of everyone and everything that comes into the Capitol. That screening will take place in the CVC instead of near Capitol doors.
Because of the design of access points, we will be able to better screen, and isolate and remove an individual or group that poses a security risk. Deliveries to the Capitol will go through the CVC, which will include a remote delivery-vehicle screening facility. This facility will make it both easier to deliver goods to the Capitol and safer to accept those goods. The design incorporates many blast-resistant features as well as systems that will minimize the risk of airborne hazards within the CVC and the Capitol.
CVC construction and the implementation of the 1998 Perimeter Security Plan created one challenge: Parking. When the CVC construction project was approved, planners found that as many as 350 staff members would have to move to parking spaces farther from the Capitol. Our Parking team worked with the Architect of the Capitol, the U.S. Capitol Police, and the Committee on Rules and Administration to create 359 parking spaces. Many of the spaces came from reconfiguring existing parking spaces (i.e., converting parallel parking spaces to diagonal spaces and converting the former locations of construction trailers into parking lots). These efforts have already saved over $1 million in leases for parking spaces, and we expect that they will save over $3 million before the CVC construction is finished. The solution is secure, near the Capitol, and convenient for Senators and staff. It also makes good use of existing resources and taxpayers’ dollars.
State Offices. In 2001, we had little information on the level of security of Senators’ state offices. Some assessments had been done over several years, but we had old, inconsistent information. We moved aggressively to address this problem by establishing a plan to conduct comprehensive, on-site security assessments at all Senators’ state offices. We finished the assessments for all offices that were in place in the fall of 2002, and implemented a system whereby every newly established office will be assessed as well.
These surveys will enable the Sergeant at Arms to understand fully the security needs of our state offices, make recommendations, prioritize security needs, and improve security. This will be an on-going, multi-year project and will involve physical modifications, monitoring, and staff training.
As we think about the security of the Senate since the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we are proud of our progress. We have moved forward on a wide range of initiatives, and as a result, have the pieces in place to keep threats out of the Capitol and the Senate Office Buildings.
Emergency Preparedness
Emergency preparedness addresses how people will learn about an event and respond to it. Since September 2001, the Office of the Sergeant at Arms has enhanced the Senate’s preparedness through alarms and equipment, emergency notification, and training.
Alarms and Equipment. In response to the LBEPTF Risk Assessment, we worked with the AOC and the USCP to test and, where necessary, upgrade the alarms and emergency equipment in every Senate Office Building. We worked with Senate offices to ensure each has an emergency action plan, we implemented evacuation procedures and assembly areas for every building, and we regularly conduct evacuation drills. We also recently added wireless annunciators to notify people of an incident, provide instructions on appropriate steps to take, and provide more information as an event unfolds. The Architect of the Capitol is upgrading building fire alarms, and is integrating both the alarms and the annunciators into the USCP command center system. With the Capitol Police, we are conducting office security briefings to review and reinforce office emergency action plans.
Emergency Notification Procedures. We have established redundant and flexible communications, taking advantage of existing systems and expanding them to enhance and streamline our emergency notification capabilities. We provided BlackBerry devices and updated electronic pagers to Senators and key staff. The USCP has a telephone system that can call individuals at pre-designated numbers in case of emergency. Approximately 1,000 Senate telephones are connected to the Group Alert System, which the USCP controls and can activate when needed, under direction from the Sergeant at Arms. A wireless alert broadcast system and the ongoing upgrade of building alarms and public address systems will further improve emergency notification. The evacuation alarm systems already include both audible and visual alarms. Together, these systems provide broad emergency notification capabilities to the Senate. With the establishment of the Alternate Computing Facility, we will be able to implement additional emergency notification measures.
Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Protection. In the fall of 2001, the Capitol Police Board recognized the need to expand protection in this area. One result was the purchase of a large number of Quick2000 Escape Hoods, which provide rapid protection from chemical, biological, or other hazardous particulates for Members, staff, and visitors to the Capitol. We have distributed Quick2000 Escape Hoods to each office and throughout the Senate Office Buildings. Along with the Capitol Police, we have trained almost 6,000 Members and staff on the notification process and on the donning of these hoods. We are undertaking other projects that further expand our ability to protect the Senate from chemical, biological, radiological, and other airborne hazards.
Continuity of Operations and Government
The events of the fall of 2001 underscored the need for strong continuity of operations and continuity of government planning. The Senate has demonstrated its ability to respond to attacks, but we need to enhance and rehearse our plans so we will know what to do in advance of an incident.
As part of the Legislative Branch Emergency Preparedness Task Force, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency assessed our infrastructure and recommended ways to improve it. We are now working to implement their recommendations. This will help ensure that the Senate can continue to function even in extreme emergencies.
Infrastructure Protection. The Office of the Sergeant at Arms was working to protect essential infrastructure services in the summer of 2001. We accelerated that work significantly after September 11. We are implementing alternate locations for critical communications services, we upgraded our telecommunications backbone, and we expanded our conferencing capability. We also created continuity plans for critical enterprise computing and data services and have security measures in place for computing networks.
One recommendation of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency was to procure a new fiber system. We are working to procure a new fiber system that will enhance the Senate’s day-to-day network operations and enhance Briefing Center operations.
Alternate Computing Facility. In conjunction with the House and other legislative branch agencies, we are establishing an Alternate Computing Facility that will back up the computing and telecommunications infrastructure.
Other initiatives to enhance the Senate’s telecommunications infrastructure include projects to ensure that essential telecommunications services will be available in the event Capitol Hill is evacuated and to provide redundant and mobile communications and broadcast capabilities. One example is the ongoing fitting-out of the mobile recording studio vehicle and procurement of mobile communications vans to ensure the Senate maintains flexibility and mobility in these communications and broadcast services.
Fly-away Kits. We are creating a recommendation for a suite of technology that offices should acquire for their continuity of operations. The suite will include standard and supported portable computers, storage devices, printers, and network components that offices can use in an emergency situation. The offices will be able to configure the equipment off-site if they no longer have access to their Capitol Hill spaces and local IT resources.
Information Security. The Office of the Sergeant at Arms has a significant focus on information security. Sergeant at Arms IT security experts worked with experts from the General Accounting Office to evaluate the Senate’s security controls and to recommend improvements. We implemented the recommendations and significantly improved the Senate’s overall computer security. Because of good technical and management controls, the Senate computing infrastructure remained secure despite threats from various viruses and worms, including the “SQL Slammer” worm in January 2003 (SQL stands for Structured Query Language).
Briefing Centers. We have established Briefing Center facilities for emergencies that deny the use of the Senate Office Buildings and the Capitol. All Briefing Centers are within walking distance of the Capitol. In the event of an emergency, one Briefing Center will be activated and all Senators informed of that location.
Briefing Centers will provide security, communications, information, and caucus space for Members (and one designated staff member because of the limited space available) during the critical period immediately following an incident. The essential function of accounting for Senators also takes place at this location. While we envision a Briefing Center being in place only for a brief period, the Sergeant at Arms and the Secretary of the Senate have provided the ability for the Senate to do legislative business, if necessary.
Alternate Chambers. We have established Alternate Chamber facilities if the Capitol is not available but the Senate needs to be in session. The Sergeant at Arms and the Architect of the Capitol have completed all the modifications of the infrastructure, including connectivity to the Legislative Information System, communications, and broadcast systems so that the Secretary of the Senate can provide the full range of legislative services in an Alternate Chamber.
An additional Alternate Chamber location is established off Capitol Hill and that site is on-track to be available this year. Alternate Chamber locations on and off Capitol Hill, as well as other continuity of government locations, will enable the Senate to continue to meet its Constitutional obligations in the event that the Capitol or District are not available.
Transportation. We expanded our transportation resources to make sure we can move Senators and key staff in an emergency. We added three 24-passenger buses, two 15-passenger vans, and a 10-passenger van to our fleet. Additionally, we have arrangements to provide additional transportation and support if the Senate needs to move away from Capitol Hill.
Continuity Planning. Senate offices are well along in developing continuity of operations plans, and we are working to complete this critical program as soon as possible. These plans are updated every year. The Office of the Sergeant at Arms continues to conduct training and provide assistance to offices as they enhance their plans and the supporting documents.
Exercise of Plans. The Office of the Sergeant at Arms, with the Secretary of the Senate, conducted a series of seminars and small-scale exercises from May 2002 to July 2002 culminating in a successful full-scale exercise in August 2002 that tested continuity plans and procedures. This exercise tested alert and notification systems and the activation of a Briefing Center and the Alternate Chamber. It demonstrated that the Senate’s supporting legislative systems will operate in the Briefing Center and Alternate Chamber environments. In December 2002, the USCP completed an exercise of its internal command and control operations. The Sergeant at Arms’ Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness regular exercise program will help institutionalize these plans and provide the framework to evaluate and adjust them as needed.
Preparing for the Future
The Senate established necessary plans and programs to meet its security, emergency preparedness, and continuity planning requirements. We need to maintain the momentum of the last 18 months to be prepared now, and to meet evolving threats. We have a framework to ensure the process continues.
The Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness (OSEP) is the group of professional staff within the Sergeant at Arms Office charged to build on that framework. OSEP’s mission is to consolidate and sustain the Senate’s security, preparedness, and continuity planning. These efforts will ensure that this great body is able to adapt to the changing threat environment, to develop and coordinate security and emergency plans and policies, and to implement change. We trust the Senate will continue to provide the resources for OSEP to conduct necessary, periodic exercises that rehearse mission-critical systems and evaluate Senate readiness. OSEP should also conduct semi-annual Leadership briefings to report on the state of preparedness of the Congress and on the progress of evolving security plans.
The United States must have enduring Constitutional government. By working with common goals and the strong support of the Senate and Congressional Leadership, we have created the foundation to make sure that our Constitutional government will ensure. We must build on that foundation, so this institution continues and our security remains effective.
Service and Support for the Senate
My office has dozens of other accomplishments that support the Senate. Let me highlight some of them.
The Office of the Sergeant at Arms has a long tradition of providing customer support, infrastructure improvements, and transition support. We work with the Senate community to streamline and simplify Senate processes. This work sometimes may be invisible, but it provides the infrastructure that supports this very public institution. We employ a staff of dedicated, innovative, and cost-conscious individuals who are committed to the best interests of this institution and those we serve.
We also have a long tradition of introducing new technologies to the Senate that serve as platforms for great forward-looking improvements in productivity and constituent services. Some brief examples are the microcomputer, which was not adopted by Senate offices as automatically as you might imagine today; the introduction of local area networks, and then connecting them using a Senate Fiber Network; and the Internet. These technologies have been leveraged to radically change the way we do our jobs.
Implementing the Senate Messaging Infrastructure (SMI)
The Senate Messaging Infrastructure is another of the fundamental technologies that will alter the way we do our jobs, though we cannot yet foresee all the benefits. Its implementation will support many of our security initiatives and enable us to provide services that support key Senate functions. The Office of the Sergeant at Arms is almost finished with the full implementation of this important program.
Even though we have not quite completed our implementation, the Senate already has a much more robust, reliable, and maintainable e-mail infrastructure. Since the end of January 2003, we have seen almost no enterprise-wide e-mail problems and Senate offices have received their e-mail reliably, quickly, and efficiently.
Let me briefly describe the history of the Senate Messaging Infrastructure. In the summer of 1998, we began a project to investigate and implement a replacement for Lotus cc:Mail, which the Senate had been using since 1987, and which the vendor would no longer support. The project’s goal was to establish an enterprise-wide system as the basis on which the Senate could deploy multiple services far into the future. Although e mail is currently our principal focus, the Senate Messaging Infrastructure will support the Senate in ways we cannot yet foresee in addition to the ways we are already anticipating.
After studying the alternatives and consulting with the Senate community, we recommended to the Rules Committee that the combination of Microsoft Outlook and Exchange was the best choice for the Senate. In May 2000, the Sergeant at Arms asked for Rules Committee approval to begin implementation.
In June 2000, the Committee approved a $6.4 million contract with Compaq Computer Corporation to begin implementing Outlook and Exchange. These systems include functionality and capabilities far beyond basic electronic mail, including calendaring and group scheduling, contacts management, note organization, and task management. The systems also provide a base infrastructure for other Senate applications, including the BlackBerry Communications system. Many other products are available to add to enterprise messaging systems, such as instant messaging and video conferencing.
After a successful pilot, the migration from Lotus cc:Mail to Microsoft Exchange began in August 2002 and is now 80% complete. We have migrated 110 of 138 Senate offices, and 28 remain to be migrated. E-mail flows smoothly, even as the volume of e mail continues to grow larger and larger. We now process nearly two million Internet e mail messages a week and we have processed as many as 500,000 in a single day.
The messaging infrastructure encountered periods of instability last fall and at the beginning of this year. We stopped the migrations in mid-January to find out why. We found two reasons: (1) our migrations reached previously unknown product limitations and (2) we had to upgrade our software. By March 15, we successfully stabilized the centralized system components and all 110 migrated offices by making the necessary upgrades. On March 26, we presented technical options to the remaining 28 offices for completing the migration. We expect that all offices that choose to migrate will be completed before the summer begins, and we are exploring more long-term design alternatives to overcome the product limitations. We regularly brief the Senate offices’ systems administrators and administrative managers on our progress.
We expect that we will soon integrate Exchange with other systems. For example, integrating the Senate Voice Mail system into SMI would enable the system to translate messages into a computer-readable format that could be forwarded as an attachment to an electronic mail message, or be put on a Web page for retrieval over the Senate intranet. Voice mail could even be set up to receive incoming fax transmissions and route them to the proper destination via electronic mail. We are also working with vendors to procure applications to support wireless e-mail and data; these applications will not rely on the Internet to communicate.
Integrating InfoXchange, the Senate’s fax broadcast system with Outlook and Exchange would enable offices to maintain their broadcast lists themselves, receive faxes in a centralized place, and distribute incoming faxes via e-mail. Offices could also keep their existing fax numbers but route them to a pool of telephone lines that could handle large numbers of calls. The system could translate incoming faxes into electronic files, the offices could identify their faxes, and the system could electronically mail the incoming faxes to the offices.
Through all of our work, our priorities are to establish a stable Senate-wide system that works well and can support our disaster recovery and Continuity of Operations plans, while ensuring that personal office data remains private and secure.
Serving Our Customers in the Senate Community
The Office of the Sergeant at Arms provides Senate offices the information, tools, and support they need to work efficiently and effectively. We assign customer support analysts to each office; we produce materials to help staff learn about equipment, policies, and the Senate; and we develop and host the Senate’s intranet Web site and information services.
The Joint Office of Education and Training, and Office Support Services help the Senate take advantage of the services we offer. These groups distribute information, promote new services, and arrange for briefings, including briefings on security, mail handling, SMI implementation, package management, Computers for Schools, Web services assessments, and wireless modems.
We overhauled the Senate’s intranet home page and the Sergeant at Arms sections of Webster to make them much more user-friendly and more function-based rather than hierarchical. We renewed our information services contracts and executed an ongoing promotional project to ensure that all Senate staff members know about the information resources available to them. We are also visiting every Senate office to promote Web-related support services and to gather information about offices’ Web requirements.
Finally, we developed a new publication, SAA Update that provides timely information about new and ongoing Sergeant at Arms projects to Senate offices.
Improving the Senate’s Infrastructure & Capabilities
We have enhanced the Senate’s infrastructure and capabilities with improvements in every area of the Sergeant at Arms organization. I will point out some of the highlights.
Recording and Photo Studio Digital Migration. We are continuing with the migration of the Recording Studio and the Photo Studio to digital technologies. This will provide Senators with higher quality pictures and services for their constituents. The Recording Studio project modernizes the way the Senate provides the broadcast signal of both the Senate proceedings and individual Senators’ productions by utilizing an enhanced digital television signal. It will also provide expanded desktop access to television news, Senate proceedings, and Committee hearing coverage. The Photo Studio modernization project replaces analog-, chemical- and film-based processes and systems with networked digital imaging capabilities. This will provide more immediate access for printing, ordering, and downloading images by Senate offices and will enable customers to track photo orders online.
The Recording Studio successfully relocated its operations over the past year to accommodate the Capitol Visitor Center service tunnel construction. We took advantage of the move to improve our studio facilities by accomplishing part of the digital migration. Once the CVC is complete, the Recording Studio will move into that facility, and we will finalize the digital migration project. Relocating to the CVC will enable us to cover 12 Committee hearings simultaneously, up from the four we can cover currently.
Printing, Graphics and Direct Mail (PGDM) instituted an online ordering process for all printing, photocopying, and graphics services, and produced over 1 million documents for the Senate that were ordered from desktop computers. During the past three years, we made process improvements that reduced PGDM’s staff by 13%, reduced operating expenses by $2.5 million, and saved Senate offices over $4 million in postage expenses. These improvements include establishing Quality Improvement Teams that reduced errors 86% and employee absenteeism 40%; converting leased, analog, stand-alone photocopiers to purchased, digital, networked printers that have improve service and reduced expenses by $1.2 million; and educating Senate staff on letter-addressing procedures enabling outgoing mail to qualify for maximum mailing discounts.
We enhanced our document archiving capability by introducing CD/ROM and DVD services for Senate offices. These services enable offices to access and retrieve archived information from their desktops, and send and print information, as they need it.
The IT support we provide the Senate improved when we signed a new support contract that covers the acquisition, installation, and ongoing support of Senate offices’ networks. We have seen much better performance from our new vendor. The February 2003 customer satisfaction surveys show that 94% of customers described the IT Help Desk's services as either very satisfactory or excellent. The IT Help Desk receives an average of 1,428 customer trouble calls per month.
We have instituted an online catalog to begin streamlining the process of ordering IT products. We also replaced the servers and software that handle all incoming and outgoing Internet e mail with more powerful servers. This improves the Senate’s ability to handle large peaks of Internet e-mail traffic.
Supporting the Transition
The transition from the 107th to the 108th Congress was a success. The 108th Congress brought 11 new Members to the Senate, and the Sergeant at Arms organization supported them in myriad ways during the transition.
Transition Office. We coordinated all the activities of the Transition Office for the new Senators of the 108th Congress, providing full-time staff to support the new Senators until they could retain their own staffs, and assisting offices with their moves into swing suites.
Office Support During the Transition. The end of the 107th Congress and the opening of the 108th Congress saw 93 state office openings, closings, or moves, all of which we accomplished with minimal disruption. We provided demonstrations of constituent correspondence management systems to staff representing all of the new Members, and successfully installed their selections. These new installations were the first to integrate fully with the Senate Messaging Infrastructure.
The State Office Liaison helped the offices of newly elected Senators acquire and negotiate leases for commercial and federal office space in their home states. The Liaison also helped re-elected Senators negotiate renewal or relocation leases and did so in connection with security assessments.
We moved the ten new Members to their temporary suites in the Senate Office Buildings. We also have moved a total of 21 Members from their temporary or former locations into new permanent office space.
For departing Senators, the Office of the Sergeant at Arms staff met with administrative managers to provide information on archiving requirements, provided microfilm and CD/ROM services to archive Members’ documents, shipped Members’ archives to depository libraries, moved packages and mail items to Senators’ home states, and scanned more than 26,000 photo images to CD/ROM.
In addition to providing logistical and technical support, departments across the Sergeant at Arms organization provided information and guidance to new offices. Our administrative services department developed materials and our Joint Office of Education and Training provided training for administrative managers on the functions and services available to them at the Senate and on the rules and regulations of this institution.
Working Collaboratively to Improve Services to the Senate
The Office of the Sergeant at Arms is committed to overcoming organizational barriers to do what is best for the Senate. We work with Senate colleagues to provide support for training and procurement, and many of our initiatives dovetail with those of other organizations, especially the Secretary of the Senate.
Our Joint Office of Education and Training, which the Sergeant at Arms and the Secretary of the Senate jointly sponsor, provides training that supports the work being done in all Senate offices, both in Washington D.C. and in the states. The training offered includes general professional development, Senate-specific information, computer training on Senate supported software, support for security and emergency preparedness initiatives, and health promotion.
Just over the past year, the Sergeant at Arms Procurement group supported contracting for upgrades to the studios of the Republican Conference and the Democratic Technology and Communications Committee. It worked with the Secretary of the Senate to procure a new point-of-sale application for the Senate’s gift shop. And it helped the Appropriations Committee acquire a new appropriations tracking system.
In addition, the Procurement group, along with the Technology Development group, worked with the Secretary of the Senate to procure a product and the related vendor support to upgrade the Senate’s external Web site, www.senate.gov. The Secretary of the Senate manages the site and the Sergeant at Arms provides the infrastructure. Together with the Secretary’s office, the Office of the Sergeant at Arms redesigned and redeveloped an all-new www.senate.gov that integrates a powerful content management tool and improves the organization of information on the site.
Budget Built on Business Model
Mr. Chairman, in constructing our budget request, I instructed staff to use the same business model as my predecessor and his predecessor. This means that each department conducts a top-down and bottom-up review when it constructs its long-range program and budget planning activities. All of our department directors and managers look for program efficiencies and cost-cutting savings in all mission areas. They evaluate and eliminate duplication and redundancy wherever practical. We leverage technology to achieve greater efficiencies and improve program effectiveness. We believe that the fiscal year 2004 budget will provide the resources necessary to meet the needs and requests of the Senate.
Conclusion
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, the Office of the Sergeant at Arms is in a unique position: We balance keeping the “People’s House” open so that all of America and the world can see our great democracy in action against the need to keep the Capitol safe. We balance providing efficient, common services against delivering individual services and solutions to Senate offices. We work to use the taxpayers’ money responsibly while providing outstanding service and support.
As our testimony today shows, and their work – particularly over the last year and a half – demonstrates, the more than 700 people who work in the Office of the Sergeant at Arms are extraordinary public servants. On their behalf, my commitment to you and the Senate is that the Office of the Sergeant at Arms will provide you the best security, service, and support we can.
