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 year's 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 costs are estimated at $36,000.

H.I.S. offers Members four cost-saving measures; address standardization, sorting, barcoding, and National Change of Address (NCOA) 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 of 169,872 at a cost of $60,128, annual savings of at least $12,000 would be expected on undeliverable mail.

NCOA system acquisition cost was $404,362. Annual system maintenance costs are estimated at $84,752.

Question. For the record, provide actual H.I.S. revenues, expenditures, and appropriations since 1985 (either calendar year or fiscal year).

Response. The following depicts the funding situation for H.I.S. listing actual revenues and expenditures for calendar years 1985 through 1990, and for fiscal year

1991:

Question. The Federal Register and Congressional Biographical Directory are on line in your mainframe. Who uses these products—what are the annual costs to provide these services?

Response. The Federal Register and the Congressional Biographical Directory are new information services scheduled to be released in 1992 over the Member Information Network (MIN). The new services will be available to all users of the Member Information Network, primarily Members and Committees and staff, as well as the Leadership, and House support offices. (MIN is not available to external organizations.)

The Register data is provided by the Government Printing Office, and the Biographical Directory is provided by the Office of the Historian of the House, both at

tion to accommodate the new services, at a cost of approximately $5,000. Operational cost of MIN will be affected minimally, and, together with the addition of sufficient data storage capability, the cost is estimated at $15,000 annually for both services.

Question. You developed a system to support the Sergeant at Arms and the Member payroll system. Is there a reimbursement for the operational costs of this system? Who operates this on what computer? What is the annual cost and annual projected reimbursement?

Response. The Sergeant at Arms operates the Member Payroll System on a separate IBM minicomputer selected and managed independently of House Information Systems. H.I.S. recently developed electronic funds transfer and TSP/FERS interfaces. The operation of both of these subsystems is on the H.I.S. mainframe and costs approximately $20,000 annually, for which H.I.S. is reimbursed by the Sergeant at Arms.

Question. List all LBO's you support and annual reimbursement.

Response. In addition to the House (Members, Leadership, Committees and Subcommittees), H.I.S. supports or provides services to fourteen Legislative Branch Organizations, seven of which reimburse H.I.S. for the cost of services. Services are provided by H.I.S. to the following LBO's:

Question. What services does H.I.S. provide to the Eastern Europe parliaments through Mr. Frost's task force?

Response. H.I.S. support to the Special Task Force on the Development of Parliamentary Institutions (the Frost Task Force) includes determination of Eastern Europe parliament automation requirements, request for proposals (RFP) processing (i.e., specification preparation, development, publication, response evaluation, and award recommendation), acceptance testing of delivered computer equipment and software, and contract followup and support. H.I.S. staff also serve as liaison between Eastern Europe parliamentary staff and U.S. providers of equipment and software.

Question. Is this project going to terminate or is it indefinite?

Response. In so far as it is dependent upon current funding appropriation for assistance to ex-communist parliaments, the project will terminate in FY 1993. If, however, the scope is expanded to the Baltic States and Russia, H.I.S. support to the Task Force could continue for two or three years more.

Question. For the record, describe these activities the personnel, staff hours, and costs (actual and projected).

Response. Four H.I.S. technical staff are allocated to the Frost Task Force (a technology assessment specialist, communications specialist, security officer, and a technology analyst). These four primary staff, along with occasional assistance of other H.I.S. staff, currently devote an average of 250 to 350 hours per month to the project. Actual staff cost in FY 1991 was $105,750; current projections for FY 1992 are 3,700 hours at a cost of $185,000. The FY 1993 H.I.S. budget reimbursement estimate includes $100,000 for continuing support to the project. All costs are reimbursed to H.I.S. from the Task Force account.

Question. Outline the "electronic clipping service" you have in your budget. When

Response. The "electronic clipping service" is a feature of the new Integrated systems and Information Services (ISIS) database. The clipping service will allow users to create profiles of their own search criteria and apply them to incoming newswire stories. Each day, as newswire stories are received, ISIS will select the stories in which Members and Staff are interested, and deliver them electronically, regardless of whether or not the user is logged on.

The clipping service is available now in pilot form on the PC/ISIS platform running Advanced Revelation. In June, 1992, it will be released on the Macintosh and VT100 ISIS platforms, and will be available to all users in January, 1993.

The software to accomplish this task was procured in FY 1991 for $49,000. H.I.S. development costs are estimated at $11,000. The operations cost of providing the clipping feature is estimated not to exceed $9,000 annually.

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

Question. Outline your activities with supporting the overall telecommunications network for the Legislative Branch. Response. House Information Systems (H.I.S.) fully supports the idea of a Legislative Branch network and is actively working with several Legislative Branch agencies to effect network connections for the exchange of electronic mail and other documents. We are also working with the Library to allow direct network connections by House offices to the SCORPIO database. Our efforts with the General Accounting Office include access by them to the image databases at the Library of Congress and the replacement of leased lines between GAO and the H.I.S. computer in the Ford Building. Each of these activities will be using the technology that will allow these organizations to be part of a fully connected Legislative Branch Network.

H.I.S. continues to use existing network connections to the Government Printing Office for publications data and has cooperated with the Senate in establishing connections for the Attending Physician and the two Veteran' Affairs Committees. Discussions have been held with the Office of Technology Assessment to allow them to access House networks.

H.I.S. is chairing the Legislative Branch Telecommunications (LBT) Standards Committee and a Task Force, with representatives from all the Legislative Branch organizations, to recommend the design of a high-capacity data network. H.I.S. staff participates in several other task forces and committees under the LBT Network Team headed by the Architect of the Capitol.

Question. We asked the Architect of the Capitol to undertake the development several years ago. Have you seen much progress to date?

Response. The Legislative Branch Telecommunications Network (LBTN) Team was formed by the Architect of the Capitol to realize the provisions of Section 305 of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 1987, P.L. 99-591. The Legislative Branch organizations have been meeting since October 1986. The team has succeeded in providing a forum for cooperation, particularly in the discussion of common telecommunications issues and definition of standards. In the formative years progress was slow while the team defined its role and changed its philosophy of implementation from depending on outside consultants to relying on existing Legislative Branch staff.

Among the successes of the LBTN Team are:

1. The Common Services procurement for long distance telephone service. 2. A video-teleconferencing pilot conducted by the General Accounting Office. 3. Establishment of the LBT Applications Committee, which identified many needs for communications among the Legislative Branch organizations.

4. Establishment of the LBT Standards Committee, which has reached agreement on standards for messaging, building wiring, video teleconferencing, wide area networking, local area networking, and the inter-connection of telephone systems. 5. Establishment of the Task Force on Network Architecture on December 5, 1991 to design a high-capacity data network for the Legislative Branch. The task force is scheduled to present its recommendations to the LBT Standards Committee on March 16, 1992. This report, if accepted, will be a significant contribution toward realizing a data network.

Question. How do you see this project helping the House and our Legislative workload generally?

Response. Basically, the House needs quality information in a timely fashion. The Telecommunications Network for the Legislative Branch has the potential to provide House offices with access to a wealth of information currently residing on a

quires a common network with a common means of access and established standards.

An integrated legislative information system would improve the accuracy, reliability and currency of information available to the U.S. Congress. The applications would include:

1. The CRS/Library of Congress Image Database of Public Policy Literature. 2. Electronic Exchange of Legislative Information, which would include exchange between organization computers in addition to dissemination of information directly to the users.

3. Improved access to Legislative Branch support agency databases and documents. OTA, GAO, and CRS have been identified as having extensive stores of information that potentially could be made available through a high-capacity network. 4. Access to the National Network (the INTERNET). This would include electronic mail, exchange of documents, access to a variety of datafiles, and participation in hundreds of technical, scientific, and public affairs discussion groups.

H.I.S. sees further potential benefits in establishing common command languages and user interfaces, a common systems architecture, reduction of duplication of development efforts, and the procurement of commercial information systems.

FY 1993 RESTRAINT

Question. Unquestionably, this will be a tight budget year for our bill. Give us your analysis of how your budget would be allocated with:

(a) No increase;

(b) 2% increase.

Expand for the record.

Response. The following chart shows the direct appropriation requested in FY 1993 compared to the funding levels implicit in (a) and (b) above:

Situations (a) and (b), the difference between which is $172,300, will both have a severe detrimental effect on the services and support that H.I.S. is expected to provide Members, Committees, Officers of the House and the Legislative Branch Agencies.

For situation (a), which would mean a reduction of $1,520,000, Appendix One shows the revised allocation by Object Class.

The effect of situation (b), the smaller reduction in the amount of $1,347,700, is set out in Appendix Two.

Appendix Three contains a brief description of the programs and categories that would be the most seriously affected. Both Appendices show the same reductions in all Object Classes except Salaries, where Appendix One absorbs the additional