tified by the Postal Service. And on our big mainframe, in a particular secure part of the mainframe, are all of the postal change of address records for the whole country.

I am very happy to say that HIS was the first computer center in the history of this service, with the U.S. Postal Service, to qualify the first time they tried. It usually takes more than one try. But HIS' computer center qualified the first time, and now Members of Congress will be able to take their mailing lists, have them matched by the HIS mainframe, and all of the comparisons, all of the changes in address that the Postal Service has, will be made in the Members' mailing lists.

Mr. FAZIO. This is their official mailing lists which are used only for the purposes of franking.

Mr. Rose. For official purposes, yes, sir. And one of the things that we specifically had to agree to with the Postal Service is that this mailing list that is resident in our computer will not be used for helping Members build new mailing lists, but only to help them correct the ones that they have.

Mr. FAZIO. So it is just simply to get rid of a lot of expensive returned mail that goes to people who are no longer resident.

Mr. ROSE. Exactly, or who have moved outside of the zip code

area.

Mr. FAZIO. Right.

Mr. Rose. Secondly, the Office of the Doorkeeper and the Office of the Postmaster, to take proper advantage of this, needed some high-speed equipment for sorting the mail once it is produced, sorting it according to the zip code and the carrier route, and in most instances by injecting a bar code on the bottom of the envelope.

This equipment, all acquired with the reprogramming of funds as you have just described, is now in place, is virtually ready to go into operation. Thus Members will be able to get the minimum postage charge for communications with their constituents.

Mr. FAZIO. Right. I appreciate that, and it certainly facilitates the purposes by which we were able to generate support to change the franking rules.

Mr. ROSE. Yes, sir.

Mr. FAZIO. Dave, do you have any questions for Hamish and Charlie?

Mr. OBEY. None at this time.

Mr. FAZIO. Let's just take care of the rest of these for the record. We will make sure that they are presented to you, and you can answer them in written form.

[The information follows:]

REIMBURSEMENTS

Question. What are the major systems and support you provide the major customers who provide $12.75 million in reimbursements?

Response. H.I.S. provides to all its paying customers mainframe central processing, large volume data storage, input/output processing, high speed laser printing, data communications facilities for direct online access (both local area and wide area networks), technical support for day-to-day operations, user assistance and administrative support. In addition to the above, the Clerk of the House receives specialized support for software development and systems operations directly from H.I.S. staff, primarily in the application areas of financial management, payroll, legislative information, office systems management, and computerized information for

Question. What portion of your overall staffing (of 249) are working on these? Response. Of the 249 H.I.S. staff, at least 139 are involved in reimbursable customer support; they translate into a total of 85 man-years. Fifty-one (51) deal with general technical assistance, operations support, user assistance, and administrative support. Thirty-four (34) work in direct user application support and software development.

Question. How do you allocate the cost of your reimbursement program, as opposed to the funds which require direct appropriation? Are they actual (based on detailed cost accounting) or estimated.

Response. In order to arrive at the request for the direct appropriation, we first estimate the reimbursements for the period based on usage forecast by the paying customers. We subtract that estimate from total funds necessary to fulfill our commitments to all our customers. As the cost of servicing the paying customers affects all object classes, we allocate the reimbursements across the board in the ratio of total reimbursements to total funds.

Question. For the record, list the customers, actual reimbursable, and projected workload receipts, and the major services and support you provide to each. Response. The following are actual reimbursements in FY 1991, current estimates for FY 1992, and the FY 1993 projection:

1 Others include the Doorkeeper, Sergeant At Arms, Legislative Counsel, Law Revision Counsel, Members, etc.

The major services and support H.I.S. provides to each customer include: Clerk of the House-Financial management systems, legislative information databases, publications systems, inventory tracking, office equipment information system, telecommunications, print services, legislative operations support, and software development.

General Accounting Office-Information resources management systems, financial management systems, administrative system, electronic mail, data storage, and communications support for access by 14 regional offices.

Congressional Budget Office-mainframe database management systems (ADABAS) used for various budget and fiscal analysis processing, and number crunching the President's Budget information.

Prospective Payment Assessment Commission-mainframe data processing and communications facilities.

Eastern Europe Task Force-staff expertise and technical consulting in identification and acquisition of computer technology and telecommunications for legislative institutions.

Others-legal information database systems, U.S. Code online retrieval, digitizing on CD ROM, mail operations, desktop publishing, colorgraphics, survey processing, office systems database conversions, mainframe data processing and communications.

INCREASES

Question. What is the overall cost-comparison between the cost and operational capability of your old and new systems?

Response. The cost of the old mainframe computer in FY 1991 was $1.875 million. In FY 1992, the mainframe will cost $1.095 million, a savings of $780,000. In FY 1993, the cost of the new mainframe will be $962,000 a further savings of $133,000. The new system will process at the same speed as the old one, 83 million instruc

tified by the Postal Service. And on our big mainframe, in a particular secure part of the mainframe, are all of the postal change of address records for the whole country.

I am very happy to say that HIS was the first computer center in the history of this service, with the U.S. Postal Service, to qualify the first time they tried. It usually takes more than one try. But HIS' computer center qualified the first time, and now Members of Congress will be able to take their mailing lists, have them matched by the HIS mainframe, and all of the comparisons, all of the changes in address that the Postal Service has, will be made in the Members' mailing lists.

Mr. FAZIO. This is their official mailing lists which are used only for the purposes of franking.

Mr. ROSE. For official purposes, yes, sir. And one of the things that we specifically had to agree to with the Postal Service is that this mailing list that is resident in our computer will not be used for helping Members build new mailing lists, but only to help them correct the ones that they have.

Mr. FAZIO. So it is just simply to get rid of a lot of expensive returned mail that goes to people who are no longer resident.

Mr. ROSE. Exactly, or who have moved outside of the zip code

area.

Mr. FAZIO. Right.

Mr. ROSE. Secondly, the Office of the Doorkeeper and the Office of the Postmaster, to take proper advantage of this, needed some high-speed equipment for sorting the mail once it is produced, sorting it according to the zip code and the carrier route, and in most instances by injecting a bar code on the bottom of the envelope.

This equipment, all acquired with the reprogramming of funds as you have just described, is now in place, is virtually ready to go into operation. Thus Members will be able to get the minimum postage charge for communications with their constituents.

Mr. FAZIO. Right. I appreciate that, and it certainly facilitates the purposes by which we were able to generate support to change the franking rules.

Mr. ROSE. Yes, sir.

Mr. FAZIO. Dave, do you have any questions for Hamish and Charlie?

Mr. OBEY. None at this time.

Mr. FAZIO. Let's just take care of the rest of these for the record. We will make sure that they are presented to you, and you can answer them in written form.

[The information follows:]

REIMBURSEMENTS

Question. What are the major systems and support you provide the major customers who provide $12.75 million in reimbursements?

Response. H.I.S. provides to all its paying customers mainframe central processing, large volume data storage, input/output processing, high speed laser printing, data communications facilities for direct online access (both local area and wide area networks), technical support for day-to-day operations, user assistance and administrative support. In addition to the above, the Clerk of the House receives specialized support for software development and systems operations directly from H.I.S. staff, primarily in the application areas of financial management, payroll, legislative information, office systems management, and computerized information for

Question. What portion of your overall staffing (of 249) are working on these? Response. Of the 249 H.I.S. staff, at least 139 are involved in reimbursable customer support; they translate into a total of 85 man-years. Fifty-one (51) deal with general technical assistance, operations support, user assistance, and administrative support. Thirty-four (34) work in direct user application support and software development.

Question. How do you allocate the cost of your reimbursement program, as opposed to the funds which require direct appropriation? Are they actual (based on detailed cost accounting) or estimated.

Response. In order to arrive at the request for the direct appropriation, we first estimate the reimbursements for the period based on usage forecast by the paying customers. We subtract that estimate from total funds necessary to fulfill our commitments to all our customers. As the cost of servicing the paying customers affects all object classes, we allocate the reimbursements across the board in the ratio of total reimbursements to total funds.

Question. For the record, list the customers, actual reimbursable, and projected workload receipts, and the major services and support you provide to each. Response. The following are actual reimbursements in FY 1991, current estimates for FY 1992, and the FY 1993 projection:

1 Others include the Doorkeeper, Sergeant At Arms, Legislative Counsel, Law Revision Counsel, Members, etc.

The major services and support H.I.S. provides to each customer include: Clerk of the House-Financial management systems, legislative information databases, publications systems, inventory tracking, office equipment information system, telecommunications, print services, legislative operations support, and software development.

General Accounting Office-Information resources management systems, financial management systems, administrative system, electronic mail, data storage, and communications support for access by 14 regional offices.

Congressional Budget Office-mainframe database management systems (ADABAS) used for various budget and fiscal analysis processing, and number crunching the President's Budget information.

Prospective Payment Assessment Commission-mainframe data processing and communications facilities.

Eastern Europe Task Force-staff expertise and technical consulting in identification and acquisition of computer technology and telecommunications for legislative institutions.

Others-legal information database systems, U.S. Code online retrieval, digitizing on CD ROM, mail operations, desktop publishing, colorgraphics, survey processing, office systems database conversions, mainframe data processing and communications.

INCREASES

Question. What is the overall cost-comparison between the cost and operational capability of your old and new systems?

Response. The cost of the old mainframe computer in FY 1991 was $1.875 million. In FY 1992, the mainframe will cost $1.095 million, a savings of $780,000. In FY 1993, the cost of the new mainframe will be $962,000 a further savings of $133,000. The new system will process at the same speed as the old one, 83 million instruc

(384 megabytes versus 256), and can provide up to a 10 percent improvement in workload capacity. Further enhancements will be realized with the new communications channels when used with fiber optic technology, providing faster response time for the end user.

Question. Insert in the record the overall institutional cost and savings associated with improved outgoing mail processing. Will you collect this information for us and put it in the record?

Response. The Doorkeeper, Postmaster and H.I.S. have instituted complementary programs to reduce the cost of outgoing mail. Cost savings are derived in two ways; (1) by earning discounts from the United States Postal Service (USPS) and (2) by minimizing returned undeliverable mail. The combined hardware and software investments total $1,972,196 which are estimated to generate annual savings of $6,641,481.

The Doorkeeper has installed computer-based equipment which accepts name and address data in magnetic tape or floppy disk format and can "paint" the entire address with ZIP+4 plus a USPS barcode directly onto each piece of outgoing mail. The mail can be produced and batched in USPS-preferred order. This yields savings of 15¢ per piece over prior operations. Based on an estimated annual volume of 39,000,000 pieces, annual savings of $5,850,000 are expected. System acquisition cost was $1,074,711 and annual maintenance cost will be $44,160.

The Postmaster has installed computer-based equipment for outgoing mail. Using an optical scanner, this system reads the address data on outgoing mail, translates the data scanned into a USPS barcode, and paints the barcode on the envelope. This reduces the first class unit cost by 1.4¢ per piece. Based on last years volume of 13,702,946 pieces of first class mail processed, the improved Postmaster operations would yield annual savings of $191,841. System acquisition cost was $494,123. Annual system maintenance cost is estimated at $36,000.

H.I.S. offers Members four cost-saving measures; address standardization, sorting, barcoding, and National Change of Address (NCÓA) features. H.I.S. provides two services; label printing and database purification. Through address standardization, sorting and barcoding, the unit cost of "label" mail is reduced by 6¢ per piece. Using the 1991 volume of 9,800,000 labels generated by H.I.S., annual savings of $588,000 can be expected.

In 1991 169,872 pieces of undeliverable mail were returned to the House at a cost of $60,128. Through NCOA processing, the amount of returned undeliverable_mail can be expected to drop by a minimum of 20%. Using the 1991 volume, annual savings of at least $12,000 would be expected.

System acquisition cost was $404,362. Annual system maintenance cost is estimated at $84,752.

Question. Insert in the record the overall institutional cost and savings associated with improved outgoing mail processing. Will you collect this information for us and put it in the record?

Response. The Postmaster and H.I.S. have instituted complementary programs to reduce the costs of outgoing mail. Cost savings are derived in two ways; (1) by earning discounts available from the United States Postal Service (USPS) and (2) by minimizing undeliverable returned mail. The initial hardware and software investment for the Postmaster and H.I.S. total $898,485 which are estimated to generate annual savings of $791,841 based on prior year volumes. Thus the institution could recover its entire investment in two years.

The Postmaster has installed computer-based equipment for outgoing mail. The