PREPARED STATEMENT OF EMILY J. REYNOLDS Secretary of the Senate April 8, 2004 Mr. Chairman, Senator Durbin and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for your invitation to present testimony in support of the budget request of the Office of the Secretary of the Senate for Fiscal Year 2005.
Detailed information about the work of the 26 departments of the Office of the Secretary is provided in the annual reports which follow. I am pleased to provide this statement to highlight the achievements of the Office and the outstanding work of our dedicated employees.
PRESENTING THE FISCAL YEAR 2005 BUDGET REQUEST
I am requesting a total Fiscal Year 2005 budget of $21,286,000.
The Fiscal Year 2005 budget request is comprised of $19,586,000 in salary costs and $1,700,000 for the operating budget of the Office of the Secretary. The salary budget represents an increase over the Fiscal Year 2004 budget request as a result of (1) the costs associated with the annual Cost of Living Adjustment in the amount of $717,000; and (2) an additional $570,000 for merit increases and other staffing.
The net effect of my total budget request for Fiscal Year 2005 is an increase of $722,000.
Our request in the operating budget, which is the same as Fiscal Year 2004, is a sound one, enabling us to meet our operating needs and provide the necessary services to the United States Senate through our legislative, financial and administrative offices.
In reference to the salary budget, first and foremost, this request will enable us to continue to attract and retain talented and dedicated individuals to serve the needs of the United States Senate.
IMPLEMENTING MANDATED SYSTEMS
Two systems critical to our operation are mandated by law, and I would like to spend a few moments on each to highlight recent progress, and to thank the committee for your ongoing support of both.
Financial Management Information System (FMIS) The Financial Management Information System, or FMIS, is used by approximately 100 Senators’ offices, 20 Committees and 20 Leadership and support offices. As a result of a five year strategic plan developed by the Disbursing Office, the Appropriations Committee subsequently approved a five million dollar appropriation of a multi-year program to upgrade and expand FMIS for the Senate.
With these funds, the Disbursing Office continues to modernize processes and applications to meet the continued demand by our Senate offices for efficiency, accountability and ease of use. Our goal is to move to a paperless voucher system, improve the Web-FMIS system, and make payroll and accounting system improvements. In addition, we are working cooperatively with the Sergeant at Arms to prepare auditable financial statements for the Senate.
In 2003, specific progress made on the FMIS project included:
* Implementing three releases of Web FMIS, the accounting system used by offices, which included making the online ESR function available to all offices and piloting online review and sanctioning capability to the Rules Committee Audit staff; making changes to the reporting functionality; making changes to the underlying technology; and providing additional office/committee functionality such as credit documents and the ability to create budgets for a new fiscal year.
* Implementing two releases of the Senate Automated Vendor Inquiry (SAVI), the system used by Senate staff to see payment information and to prepare expense summary reports (online ESR’s). Those releases were designed both to streamline access to data necessitated by the full Senate implementation of online ESR and to enhance security.
* Implementing software enabling the Rules Committee Audit staff to conduct the first and second post payment audits. This was done in conjunction with the delegation of sanctioning authority to the Financial Clerk for vouchers of $35 or less. These statistically valid samples were returned with zero errors, and the threshold was consequently increased by the Rules Committee to $100 or less, effective January 1, 2004.
* Piloting payments to external vendors via direct deposit.
* Revising requirements for imaging of supporting documentation and electronic signatures. For FY 2004, the following FMIS activities are underway:
* Full scale implementation of Rules Committee on-line review of Web FMIS-produced vouchers is now completed.
* Implementation of two WEB FMIS releases that will simplify the system architecture, upgrade the technology used, provide simpler disaster recovery and provide the platform for the imaging of supporting documentation and electronic signatures.
* Conduct a pilot for the use of laser checks.
* Implementation of a new release of the SAVI system that enables e-mail notification of payments to vendors and staff.
* Implementation of a new release of the online ESR component of SAVI that will incorporate suggestions made by users.
* Investigate the use of electronic signatures, imaging of supporting documentation, and receipt of electronic invoices.
During FY 2005, the following FMIS activities are anticipated:
* Implementation of a Web FMIS release to provide additional reports useful to office with improvements in the software used to create reports.
* Conduct a pilot of the technology for paperless payment processing.
A more detailed report on FMIS is included in the departmental report of the Disbursing Office which follows.
Legislative Information System (LIS)
Our second mandated system, which this Committee has also generously supported, is the Legislative Information System, or LIS, which provides Senators and staff with text of Senate and House legislative documents from their desktop computers. In addition, LIS provides real-time access to legislative amendments and the current status of new legislation within 24 hours. LIS originates from the 1997 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, which also established a requirement for the broadest possible exchange of information among legislative branch agencies. This exchange process is now the focus of the LIS Augmentation Project, or LISAP. The overall objective of the LISAP is to implement the extensible markup language, or XML, as the data standard to author and exchange legislative documents among the Senate, House of Representatives, the Government Printing Office and other legislative agencies. Two years ago, the Appropriations Committee appropriated $7 million to the Secretary for the LISAP, to carry out the Senate portion of the December 2000 directive given to both the Secretary and the Clerk of the House by the Senate Rules Committee and the House Administration Committee respectively. Thus far, we have spent approximately $4 million of our appropriation, and I am pleased to report that considerable progress has been made and the project is on budget and running smoothly.
The project is currently focused on Senate-wide implementation and transition to a standard system for the authoring and exchange of legislative documents, including an XML authoring system for the Office of Senate Legislative Counsel (SLC) and the Enrolling Clerk for bills, resolutions and amendments. A database of documents in XML format and an improved exchange program will mean quicker and better access to legislative information and will provide documents that are more easily shared, reused and repurposed.
The LISAP project team is developing the Senate’s legislative editing XML application (LEXA) which was installed in the Office of the Senate Legislative Counsel (SLC) in January 2004. The attorneys and staff assistants received training and immediately began drafting some bills, resolutions, and amendments in XML with the first XML draft introduced on January 22, 2004.
The SLC’s document management system was completed in December 2003, and will be implemented this year. Several of the XML document conversion projects have been completed, including the conversion of bills, resolutions and amendments from the 106th, 107th and 108th (first session) Congresses. The conversion of the compilations of current law to XML will be completed in the next few months. The SLC and House Legislative Counsel use the compilations in drafting bills and amendments.
The SLC is working closely with the project team on continued development and enhancement of LEXA. The Enrolling Clerk and the Government Printing Office are next in line to begin using LEXA. When LEXA is fully functional for these two operations in producing XML documents, the project team will then turn its attention to other Senate offices and other types oflegislative documents.
A more detailed report on LIS follows the departmental reports.
CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER
While the Architect of the Capitol directly oversees this massive and impressive project, I would like to briefly mention the ongoing involvement of the Secretary’s office in this endeavor. My colleague, the Clerk of the House, and I continue to facilitate weekly meetings with senior staff of the joint leadership of Congress to address and hopefully quickly resolve issues that might impact the status of the project or the operations of Congress in general.
In addition, I also facilitate weekly meetings with the Architect’s office for the senior staff of the Senate Sergeant at Arms, Capitol Police, Rules Committee and Appropriations Committee, to address the expansion space plans for the Senate and any issues with regard to the CVC’s construction that may directly impact Senate operations.
Although the construction creates numerous temporary inconveniences to Senators, staff and visitors, completion of the Capitol Visitor Center will bring substantial improvements in enhanced security and visitor amenities, and its educational benefits for our visitors will be tremendous.
CONTINUITY OF OPERATIONS AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PLANNING
The Office of the Secretary maintains a Continuity of Operations (COOP) program to ensure that the Senate can fulfill its Constitutional obligations under any circumstances. Plans are in place to support Senate Floor operations both on and off Capitol Hill, and to permit each department within the Office of the Secretary to perform its essential functions during and after an emergency. COOP planning in the Office of the Secretary began in late 2000. Since that time, this office has successfully implemented COOP plans during the anthrax and ricin incidents, and have conducted roughly one dozen drills and exercises to test and refine our plans. In conjunction with the Sergeant at Arms, Capitol Police, and the Offices of the Attending Physician and the Architect of the Capitol, the Office of the Secretary has established and exercised Emergency Operations Centers, Briefing Centers and Alternate Senate Chambers, both on and off Capitol Hill.
In addition, the Office has identified equipment, supplies and other items critical to the conduct of essential functions, and has assembled “fly-away kits” for the Senate Chamber and for each department within the Office of the Secretary. Multiple copies of each fly-away kit have been produced. Some are stored in our offices, and back-up kits are stored nearby but off Capitol property, as well as at other sites outside the District of Columbia. This approach enables the
Office of the Secretary to resume essential operations within 12 to 24 hours, even if there is no ability to retrieve anything from offices in the Capitol.
Today, the Office of the Secretary is prepared to do the following in the event of emergency:
* support Senate Floor operations in an Alternate Senate Chamber within twelve hours on Capitol property, and within 24 to 72 hours off property, depending upon location;
* support an emergency legislative session at a Briefing Center, if required;
* support Briefing Center Operations at any of three designated locations within one hour;
* activate an Emergency Operations Center on campus or at Postal Square within one hour.
During the past year, the Office of the Secretary continued to update, refine and exercise emergency preparedness plans and operations. Specific activities included the following:
* Activated an Emergency Operations Center, Leadership Coordination Center and selected departmental COOP plans during the ricin incident response;
* Participated in the Capitol Police Incident Command during the ricin incident response;
* Provided supplies to temporary offices in the Capitol and Postal Square during the ricin incident response;
* Conducted an offsite Alternate Chamber exercise and a Briefing Center exercise;
* Identified and acquired all equipment and supplies required to support Senate operations at an offsite Alternate Chamber, and stored all materials at the Alternate Chamber location;
* Reviewed, revised and published the Office of the Secretary’s Master COOP plan, and all departmental COOP plans.
The central mission of the Office of the Secretary is to provide the legislative, financial and administrative support required for the conduct of Senate business. The Office’s emergency preparedness programs are designed to ensure that the Senate can carry out its Constitutional functions under any circumstances. These programs are critical to the mission of the Office, and have become a permanent, integral part of operations. With the continued assistance of the Leadership, the Sergeant at Arms, and the Appropriations Committee, the Office of the Secretary is confident that we will be successful in facing any future emergency.
An expanded version of Emily Reynolds' testimony can be obtained from the Office of the Secretary of the Senate.
