▶ 0:08:47The subcommittee will come to order. The subject of today's hearing is the fiscal year 2026 budget request for the architect of the capital and the Library of Congress. I'd like to thank ranking member Espot, committee members, and our two main witnesses, the architect of the capital, Mr. Thomas Austin, and the librarian of the Congress, uh, Dr. Carla Hayden, for being here today. Dr. Dr. Hayden is joined by Miss Shira Pearlmutter, the register of copyrights and the director of the US Copyright Office, and by Miss Karen E.
▶ 0:09:17Donfrieded, uh, director of the Congressional Research Service. Both of their testimonies have been submitted for the record, and members are welcome to address uh, questions to either uh, in addition to Dr. Hayden. The architect of the capital's fiscal year 2026 uh, request is 1.3 billion. In addition to the round-the-clock personnel requirements, the budget focuses on the life, safety, uh, physical security, and critical infrastructure needs of the Capitol campus. Mr.
▶ 0:09:46Austin, I welcome you to your first appearance before this subcommittee. I also want to extend my congratulations and thanks to you and your employees for the incredible work that you have already accomplished this Congress. From the 119th transition to the 60th inaugural ceremonies to the office uh of the architect of the capitol has shown uh its dedication and professionalism in completing the enormous tasks required for these events.
▶ 0:10:12The Library of Congress fiscal year 2026 request is offsetting amounts totals uh $91 million a 5.8% increase from the enacted fiscal year 2025 CR. The budget would support the professionals and staff across the library, including the Congressional Research Service and the vast collection of books and other media.
▶ 0:10:34It would also support upgrades to the preservation, storage, digital collections, and website modernization, data an uh analytics capability, and digital The library recently opened two new exhibits including collecting memories treasuries treasures from the Library of Congress and uh two George's parallel lives in an age of revolution in addition to the to growing its collections by 2.5 million new items.
▶ 0:11:03Thank you again to our witnesses for being here. And now uh I would like to recognize the ranking member for his opening remarks. Thank you uh Chairman Balado. Good morning uh Dr. Hayden, Mr. Austin and agency leadership. I echo the chairman's uh in welcoming you to discuss your agency budget uh and your request for fiscal year 2026. Dr.
▶ 0:11:29Hayden, thanks for the recent call and of course uh um Mr. Austin. Uh it's great to see you again and uh I look forward to helping your goals and objectives as the new architect of the capital. Dr. Hayden and Mr. Austin, you and your teams are here today representing uh the living museums Congress, which is the capital and of course the Library of Congress.
▶ 0:11:56They are living museums of uh Congress. They interact with our folks on a daily basis. their collective histories, okay, are so important to us. As ranking member and and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, I am concerned about the future of your agencies.
▶ 0:12:14Uh the ideas uh presented in the recent executive orders uh such as restoring truth and sanity to American history are disturbing and I hope these ideas will not influence the future directives of the legislative branch. In fact, I would call them rather than uh restoring truth and sanity to America, imposing lies and distorting the the truth of America more so.
▶ 0:12:43And I and I hope that we can direct u our efforts in the right direction. Okay. They pretend really to ignore if not erase uh the diverse history of our nation.
▶ 0:12:57uh and of course uh America is is built on these diverse uh histories uh collectively haven't been shaped by migrations from Europe from you know from Ireland from Italy from a Jewish background of Greek background and now new voices that must be included in the history of our nation that cannot be ignored and certainly not erased.
▶ 0:13:26And so we we welcome you and we hope that we can work together uh to have some level of sanity and equilibrium so that everybody's respected that no one is pushed down. You don't need to push anybody down to go up. We all ships can rise at the same time. If we work together and we work with with a clear view of where we need to go for the future. So uh thank you both for being here.
▶ 0:13:51I hope to uh have a an an honest and transparent uh discussion with you. Uh and uh again, America is made up of many voices. It is reflected right here in this room. We need not to ignore any one of them and certainly not to erase them. Thank you. Uh Mr.
▶ 0:14:14Austin, your full testimony has been submitted for the record and you are now recognized to provide a summary of your written Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Chairman Valido, Ranking Member Espant, and members of this committee. I am honored to make my first appearance before you to represent the men and women of the architect of the capital and discuss our budget request for fiscal year 2026. I would like to thank the members of your staff, particularly Lori Rowley, April Lyman, and Fay uh or Fay Cobb for their expertise and consistent professionalism.
▶ 0:14:45I welcome this opportunity to share more about the AY's work in preserving the historic buildings and grounds that inspire our nation while serving the 20,000 daily occupants and 3 million annual visitors to our Capitol campus. To begin, I would like to acknowledge and express my deepest gratitude to the 2500 dedicated Architect of the Capital employees for all of their hard work which makes it possible for this agency to successfully carry out its mission to serve Congress and the Supreme Court, preserve America's capital, and inspire memorable
▶ 0:15:15experiences. All of which require round-the-clock care for the 18.5 million square feet of historic facilities, 570 acres of grounds and thousands of works of art that make up our historic campus. As you know, I began my tenure in June of 2024, and it is the greatest honor of my professional career to serve as the 13th architect of the capital.
▶ 0:15:39Thank you for entrusting me to serve as a steward of the historic and vital buildings that make up the Capitol campus, ensuring the preservation, functionality, and safety for members of Congress, staff, and One of my top priorities is consistent communication with the architect of the capital staff, which I believe is essential to building and maintaining faith and confidence in our agency's leadership.
▶ 0:16:03Whether discussing the particulars of everyday operations or our broader visions for the future of the agency, I am equally committed to practicing clear and timely communication that ensures accountability and coordination with this committee, Congress, and internal entities. For fiscal year 2026, the architect of the capital is requesting a combined total of $1.3 billion. This request is focused on three key priorities.
▶ 0:16:30Life safety, physical security, and the critical infrastructure needs of the Capitol campus. Additionally, this budget request ensures adequate funding is available for the staffing levels necessary to oversee our planning and project management needs and to deliver quality services to Congress. This agency is dedicated, this agency is dedicated to delivering exceptional services through its strategic initiatives. This commitment helps create a safer and more efficient workplace.
▶ 0:16:58Across the agency, we dedicated time and attention to safety training, procedures, and operations. I am proud to report that our employee injury rate is significantly less than that of the private sector. This budget request recognizes these essential measures with a concentrated effort to avoid hazards, risks, and interruptions. We are equally committed to the safety and functionality of the campus for all those who work here and visit.
▶ 0:17:23This involves proactively addressing the entire range of facility management challenges, big and small. Everything from trimming tree limbs before they become a safety hazard to ensuring compliance of life and safety code to long range master planning for the future of this campus. Security is also a key priority.
▶ 0:17:43With the support of this committee and in coordination with the US Capital Police and the House Sergeant-at-Arms, we have made significant progress over the past few years and will continue to improve the security posture across this campus. Another top priority for the agency is the critical infrastructure needs of the historic Capitol campus. To assist in addressing challenges of aging infrastructure, we are developing the enterprise asset management system.
▶ 0:18:08This robust system will enhance datadriven decisions and help prioritize projects aimed at reducing our very significant and growing maintenance backlog. I recognize the importance of a well-coordinated holistic multi-year approach to facilities management focused on maintaining and preserving the capital campus while also modernizing the facilities.
▶ 0:18:29We are committed to working closely with you and your staff as well as the committee on house administration to ensure the architect of the capital meets the needs and expectation of the US office of representatives and the American people. With the support of Congress and an incredibly talented and skillful team, I am proud that we have accomplished much over the past year and I look forward to the success of future projects.
▶ 0:18:53The FY26 budget request is not only critical to facing the challenges posed by our aging infrastructure, but also ensuring we account for the future needs of this campus. Chairman Valado, Ranking Member Espat, and members of the committee, thank you again for your continued support and consideration of the architect of the capital's budget request. I am honored to be here, and I look forward to your questions. Thank you, Mr. Austin, for your testimony. Dr. Hayden, your testimony has also been submitted for the record, and you are now recognized to provide a summary of your written testimony.
▶ 0:19:24Thank you, Chairman Valadeo, Ranking Member Espad, and members of the subcommittee. I appreciate this opportunity to provide testimony and support of the libraryies fiscal 2026 budget requests. The mission of the Library of Congress is to engage, inspire, and inform the Congress and the American people with a universal and enduring source of knowledge and creativity. And above all, the library exists to serve.
▶ 0:19:52Service to Congress remains the foundation for the library's mission every day with analysis, policy, consultations, briefings, programs, and constituent engagement. The library's resources are authoritative, expansive, and evergreen. In a time of rapidly evolving technology in a fastchanging world, the Library of Congress stands as it has for over 225 years.
▶ 0:20:19As a steward of the largest collection of information and resources ever assembled, not as a memorial, but as a living source of knowledge and creativity for Congress and the betterment of the nation. The library meets its responsibility to collect, preserve, and share the collection every day by constantly renewing the collections and the services it provides to Congress and the American people.
▶ 0:20:46With congressional support, the library is extensively modernizing and operate optimizing its systems, processes, and I'd like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for the ongoing and extraordinary support of this committee and Congress.
▶ 0:21:04And I especially appreciate the funding you've provided for the major information technology investments that we are implementing and continuously improving to meet user expectations for greater access with new and enhanced tools. I'd also like to give special thanks for your continued support for the library's visitor experience initiative.
▶ 0:21:26The library's treasures gallery opened to the public in June of 2024 and we're excited to open the library's new education center, the source, by the end of 2025 in time for the nation's celebrations. I am pleased to report that the construction and fabrication for the orientation gallery is now underway, too.
▶ 0:21:49I come before you today to discuss the library's fiscal 2026 appropriations request of 946.2 million, which represents a 5.4% increase over the library's current funding, which had been set at a fiscal 2024 appropriation levels as we operate under a continuing resolution.
▶ 0:22:12Given the current economic conditions, we have revised programmatic increases and minimized outyear costs, deferring all but the most time critical requests. Our staff are at the heart of the Library of Congress, and our employees represent the apex of their professions, bringing unparalleled knowledge, expertise, and experience to bear. With modernization and automization, they have allowed us to expand productivity in some areas and to do more with less.
▶ 0:22:42It is worth noting that the library staffing level has remained largely unchanged since fiscal 2015. In fact, the library's permanent workforce steadily declined from over 5,000 employees in the early 1990s to its current level of approximately It is critical that this relatively low staff level be adequately supported.
▶ 0:23:08And as such, the library's fiscal 2026 appropriations request does include 30.9 million in mandatory pay and price level increases. And as a result of the continuing resolution, the library has had to absorb the cost of mandatory pay and high inflationary price level increases in fiscal 2025.
▶ 0:23:31The need to absorb these expenses threatens our ability to execute the library's full range of programs and services. The library has three modest programmatic requests for fiscal 2026 that if funded would provide the resources we need to develop strategic initiatives that deliver greater access and enhanced services.
▶ 0:23:55These requests would also enable the library to keep pace with digital advancements and deliver exceptional service. For a preservation object storage upgrade, the library is requesting 5.4 million to replace and upgrade the decades old digit digital preservation system at the library's on premises sites.
▶ 0:24:19For web application delivery and management improvements, the library is requesting 2.5 million annually to better serve the millions of users who access the library's data, collections, and services through its primary public websites and for continuous development of the enterprise copyright system.
▶ 0:24:39The library is requesting an appropriation of 6.8 8 million for the US copyright office for three years to accelerate development and delivery of the registration component of the enterprise copyright system ECS reducing the time to completion by approximately two Recent stakeholder concerns, evolving technological demands, and congressional focus make it imperative to more quickly address the limitations
▶ 0:25:09of the existing online copyright registration system, which has been used to support copyright registrations for over 15 years. In keeping with the library strategic goals, the library is resubmitting the three requests that were not funded in fiscal 2025. And these support CRS data analytics capacity, our digital collections processing capacity, and accessibility.
▶ 0:25:40Given the current economic conditions, these requests have been revised to reduce overall funding and eliminate permanent staff hires where possible. We thank you for supporting the Library of Congress and for your consideration of our fiscal 2026 budget request. Thank you, Dr. Hayden. We will now begin the question portion of the hearing.
▶ 0:26:03I'll call on members based on seniority of those present when the hearing was called to order, alternating between the majority and minority, and then we'll call on members in order of their uh arrival. Each will have five minutes, and I now recognize myself for my five Uh Mr. Austin, as you've been architect of the capital for nearly a year now, can you share with us what you've uh learned from your organization and so far and uh the trajectory you plan to take the agency moving forward?
▶ 0:26:35Mr. Chairman, thank you for the question. So, this is a very much longer answer, but but I'll try to put it down as just a few observations. Number one, the AOC has incredibly talented, diverse, and committed workforce. uh they look at this as much more than just a job. They understand the privilege of working here on Capitol Hill and the mission that we support. You know, and despite all the distractions over the past year, couple of years with the AOC, their commitment to this mission never wavered.
▶ 0:27:01I'm also very impressed by the breadth of the mission that we have, you know, from the day-to-day things like custodial minor repairs to the broad strategic things uh with our master plan for the next 20 to 50 years of the campus. It it it runs the full gamut. So I'm continually challenged every day by being in this position. But it's a wonderful challenge to have. Uh some of the things uh some of those initial challenges I wanted to address over the last 12 um months or so was number one was the hiring actions especially at the wage grade and at the senior at the executive level.
▶ 0:27:30At the executive level, we had more than a third of our uh vacancies uh were being staffed by temporary and that is something we've worked hard and despite having attrition of two more of those executives, we are only have three hiring actions left and we should have those complete in the next 45 to 60 days. That combined with my own appointment I believe will bring stability to the top of the organization which this organization I believe desperately needs. Um the in a more concrete thing where we're taking this agency is uh we are very much working on the master plan for the uh capital campus.
▶ 0:28:00It's called the capital campus master plan. Normally those are done in every five-year increments. Uh but the last one for this agency was done in 2012. So we are 13 years past that threshold. So we are quite far behind. But that is going to inform uh the major actions and where we're headed both with the construction activities as far as the disruption on campus but also from budget uh to the request to the appropriation staff. And we are working on that. several aspects of that.
▶ 0:28:21The house uh portions of it are essentially done, but we're working on the senate as well as working with library of congress and other entities to make sure we have a holistic view for the campus and that is going to be the focus for this next year is comm co coordination with both the house and senate appropriations as well as the committee and house administration and the senate rules to ensure that we have your needs met. Thank you. Dr. Hayden, we recently learned that a significant number of your patrons mainly use the digital resources that the library provides.
▶ 0:28:45Can you share the statistic with us and tell us more about the new e- preferred strategy you are implementing as a result of this statistic? The library of congress uh provides a significant number of materials digitally and with the e preferred strategy we are cognizant that we will need to provide direct service and materials in digital format.
▶ 0:29:15So that's E preferred and we produced in fiscal 2023 12.7 million digital images. That's more than triple of what had been available in 2019. And in terms of our usage, we have millions of users that are coming to our websites also our media uh social media websites as well.
▶ 0:29:42So the increase has been substantial and that's why most of our requests are to advance our ability to be able to provide more digital. Uh Dr. Hayden, it is my understanding that the library experienced a cyber security breach last year without disclosing any anything that would be uh that wouldn't be appropriate for a public setting. Uh can you share your current cyber security status and the steps you have taken to mitigate those risks moving forward?
▶ 0:30:13We take it cyber security uh very seriously at the library. We're very u unique in many ways because we serve Congress and uh the general public. And with that breach, we worked with the uh authorities uh security authorities and we also just received word from a second vendor that we had to come
▶ 0:30:43in and look at our systems to make sure that the threat environment was alleviated. And we just got that reassurance from the second vendor. We had to reinforce what the first vendor had worked with us on that the threat actors are not in our environment at this point. And we can provide additional uh information.
▶ 0:31:09But we have uh been very pleased with being able to report that the threat was alleviated that we had last year. All right. Well, thank you. Uh, my time is expired. I'm going to recognize ranking member Esp. Thank you, Mr. and this committee.
▶ 0:31:38Uh, I am deeply disappointed that the plaque honoring the men and women, the officers who responded to January 6 has not been the directive uh was was passed into law by in a bipartisan vote on 2022. It's been four years since the that horrible day and two years since the plaque was completed was uh done.
▶ 0:32:04This is particularly alarming because many in this campus feel they have uh ownership. They gloat about the concept that they are deeply more patriotic than anybody else in this universe and that in fact uh they have also a monopoly on the concept that they they support law and order but they fail consistently to honor the men and women that stood up to
▶ 0:32:35protect all of us in this room. My question is, uh, what or who is preventing your office from installing the plaque as directed by law, honoring the men and women that protected us from a a violent, angry, racist mob.
▶ 0:32:58When making modifications on the house side of campus or on the house side of the capitol building, past practice is that for modifications are directed by the office of the speaker. Has anybody instructed you in writing to make these modifications or this is something that you took up on your own? We have not received final instructions to install the plaque.
▶ 0:33:24So you have not received instructions two years later to install the plaque and who would instruct you to do that? M Mr. Esp again the past practices that frame modifications would come from the office of the speaker. Thank you Mr. Austin. Um just for the record Mr. Chairman we want to note that uh Mr.
▶ 0:33:47Austin has stated that the speaker of the House of Representatives has not instructed him four years after this horrible attack and two years after we had the plaque to install a plaque to honor the men and women that put their life in danger. This is outrageous and we will continue on this side of the aisle uh to call for that plaque to be installed. Mr. Um Austin um last month Mr.
▶ 0:34:17Grihalva Rahul Grihala passed away and he had a long fight with cancer and as a ranking member of the natural resources committee he was an effective leader during his tenure as a public servant. He proudly served the constituents in Arizona. And to honor his life and legacy, I would like to work with you to plant a cactus tree that was very dear and dear to him on the Capitol campus. Do I have your commitment to do that?
▶ 0:34:46Sir, we'd be honored to work with your office uh to work on it just as we are without all members. We'd be honored to Thank you, Mr. Austin, for your testimony. Dr. Hayden. Um there's been an effort to ban books in America.
▶ 0:35:00In fact, um we've seen how Defense Secretary Hess ordered the removal of almost 400 books from the Naval Academy Nimitz Library because the subject matter was seen as being related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The books banned were the following. some of them. I know why the cageberg sings by Maya Angelo. Memorizing the Holocaust by Janet Jacobs. Imagine that.
▶ 0:35:29We don't want our new generations to know about the deaf camps during the Holocaust. Booking, and another book was Race, Ethnicity, and Disability: Veterans and Benefits in Post Civil War America by Larry Long and Peter Blank.
▶ 0:35:50How would this type of policy impact the Library of Congress if you were directed to do the same there? How would it impair your mission to have information to educate children and families across America?
▶ 0:36:10As I mentioned earlier, the Library of Congress is unique among libraries because it serves all of Congress and all of the constituents that Congress serves. And so the continued growth of the library's collections have to reflect the breadth and the depth and the experiences of all of the American people.
▶ 0:36:33And so removing items from the Library of Congress's collection as you described would conflict with that mission and our mandate to provide a universal source of knowledge. Just for the record, Mr. Chairman, I would like to note that this effort to ban books is nothing more than a modern book burning exercise. Thank you and I yield back. Thank you.
▶ 0:37:00And uh now I'll recognize uh rank um u our representative Malloy for her five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um I am going to ask Dr. Donfried to come up to the table uh later in my five minutes. So, if you want to take a minute and get yourself settled, I'll do a couple of other questions first. Uh, first, Mr. Austin, uh, thank you for the shout out to the staff when you started. I just thought that was cool that you acknowledge the great work they're doing.
▶ 0:37:30I agree with you. Um, can you speak to the lessons we've learned from the Canon renewal project that we're going to take into the Rayburn renewal project? Because I work in Canon. My office is beautiful. Um, our elevators don't always work. See, it seems like there's probably some things we learned along the way. U Miss Moy, thank you for the question. So, the Canon project has been a long project. It's five phases, each of two years. So, we're a 10-year project and an a 10-year project.
▶ 0:38:00You're going to learn some lessons along the way. The project team after each one of those two-year phases held an afteraction review where we took those lessons learned and we worked with the contractor to apply them going forward. But your question specifically, what lessons we learned? Uh there were a few uh number one that we learned early in project is we need a better handle on change management whether the chains were being directed by members or staff or at the request of the contractor because differing site conditions. Uh we needed to have a better oversight on the change management so we didn't have scope creep.
▶ 0:38:29And so that was one of the ones we learned is put stricter controls in. We also wanted to make sure we had better stakeholder coordination to let the members who were impacted by the other phases that weren't under construction at the time know the impacts whether it be access or noise or dust or something like that to let them know what was happening and so they'd be aware of any interruptions that might happen with say water service electricity what have you. Uh but the biggest one we have which we're going to apply towards future project is that we think we did canon broken up into too many phases.
▶ 0:38:58So we want to do fewer but longer phases. as you mobilize and demobilize a project, you lose time and you it costs money and so to for these larger projects we're looking such as Rayburn in the future, we want to do those in fewer but longer phases. Thank you. Uh Dr. Dreed, uh thank you for what you do at CRS. As a as a former staffer and as a member, the reports, the research you do is so helpful to our offices. Um and it's good to know there's a credible source we can go to on all these political issues.
▶ 0:39:28We had a hearing last week with um Ledge Council where they said their workload is drastically increasing because people are introducing more bills. I just want to know if you're seeing the same thing at CRS. Well, first, thank you so much. I am the new director of CRS. So, I started in September, but I want to say that I began my career as an analyst at CRS. So, I spent 10 years at CRS and an analyst. And it's such a pleasure to be back.
▶ 0:39:57And really the reason it's not only a pleasure but also a privilege is because of our mission which is serving every one of you uh every committee, every congressional staffer who is involved with Congress by providing that objective, authoritative, nonpartisan, timely and confidential research and analysis. And I will say we are really busy.
▶ 0:40:23So we I was just looking at this a couple of days ago and across the service what people are feeling is maybe an increase of about 30% or so of requests. That is not uncommon at the beginning of a new congress. We see that kind of uptick and what you see every year is CRS answering about 75,000 requests.
▶ 0:40:48So that is a workload that my 610 colleagues do proudly every day and it leads me to want to say thank you to this Ledge Branch subcommittee for the enduring support that we receive from you. Thank you. Well, if it makes you feel any better, I encourage my staff to look for existing reports before they send you a request for a new one. Um, but in your testimony, you talked about AI and how that's impacting what you do. And I know it's really easy right now for staffers to go to AI to try to find answers.
▶ 0:41:18How are you making sure the people on the hill who should be benefiting from your services know that that you're a more credible source than the internet? And I know a lot of the AI searches come back with CRS reports and I think that's great.
▶ 0:41:34It's a wonderful question and we're right now working on our strategic plan for the coming years and we're settling on a what we're calling a bold goal which is ensuring that Congress turns to CRS first and in many ways it's that competition from AI because you can just go to your phone and Google something but you don't know if that's authoritative you don't know if you can rely on that and so I think many staffers understand that and do come to us.
▶ 0:42:04But it's a challenge. So there's both a challenge of what are the sources we're competing with, but then also the challenge of how CRS is using AI in its own work because we want to make sure that everything we provide you is authoritative. So we can't necessarily rely on AI.
▶ 0:42:23And I just want to make a a push for the one programmatic increase we're asking you for, which is to help us with quantitative data analysis, which will help you in turn understand the policy impact of health care increases, of tax policy, and for that there's an AI component, but we need resources to be able to use those tools effectively. Thanks. Thank you. My time's expired, so I'm going to yield back. I appreciate it.
▶ 0:42:53I now recognize uh Mr. Hoyer for his five minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to follow up a little bit on the ranking members comments. Um I want to ask you to submit to this committee and to all the members any uh Mr. Austin any directions you have received with reference to honoring our police officers who protected the capital against a insurrectionist attack. Number one.
▶ 0:43:22Number two, I want to ask you uh where do you believe we are in terms of accomplishing two things? Number one, full accessibility to the capital and to our buildings and secondly full security uh requirements having been realized. Thank you for the question. So taking the first part the accessibility portions, we do work with the office of congressional accessibility services for some of the challenges.
▶ 0:43:49Obviously, the age of these buildings, they weren't designed back when we had the Americans with Disabilities Act. And so, a lot of our buildings are not fully compliant. As we do major renovations like we did with Canon, uh we go back and we fix those deficiencies, but it usually does take a major renovation in order to do that. We have, you know, put door openers on some of our historic doors to make sure those are accessible, but there is more work to be done in that realm.
▶ 0:44:14And as we go through these projects and we address things with the the master plan, we are looking to make sure that they become ADA compliant to the extent possible with historic buildings. Uh just the nature of these buildings will never get 100% of the way there, but we're going to do what we can to make sure they're accessible for members as well as the public. uh to speak to where we are with security.
▶ 0:44:32Uh I'd be happy to provide you with a a specific list with numbers, but in general terms to answer your question right now is that we did a uh a very extensive doors and windows project where we replaced all the exterior doors uh around the Capitol building uh with with exception of a couple that we're doing this summer uh with new doors that are hardened against intrusion as well as ballistic threats. Uh we also do the same with most of our windows, at least the ones that are accessible from the ground floors.
▶ 0:44:59Uh we are looking, we've also worked with Capitol Police and House Sergeant-at-Arms as well as Senate Sergeant-at-Arms with additional work as far as installing new conduit for cameras, installing new lighting, things of that nature. You asked me earlier, sir, about some of the interior doors to skip ahead to that question. Uh we have replaced the interior doors along the suites at least the ones make it secure for several of the leadership offices to include the speaker the minor majority and minority uh leaders as well.
▶ 0:45:26Uh as far as the whips office uh we are scheduled to do those in April uh with one exception that's going to be done in August and for the majority uh we're working with the contractor to work on their schedule but we're looking to do that either at the end of the April uh recess or into uh the August one as well. Um Mr. Awson, we obviously have now had four years since the uh insurrectionist attack on the capital and on the Congress.
▶ 0:45:53Um how would you assess the percentage of projects that you and the or the previous uh architects have determined were necessary to make the capital secure? What percentage have we I would I have to get back with you as far as a specific percentage, but I would say the majority of those projects are complete.
▶ 0:46:19So I would say of the ones that were identified in the wake of uh the attack the the wake of January 6th, uh working off the honorary report and some of the recommendations they made as far as the physical infrastructure pieces, we are well advanced in that. I'd say the next biggest one that we are doing at least on the house side will be the house screening facility which is the going into the capital for for personnel screening coming to the capital building that will begin construction uh this year. Mr.
▶ 0:46:46Chairman, I would ask the architect to submit to the committee what has been done and what needs to be done. Thank you. Uh I want to ask uh Sen Dr. trade, excuse me. Um, who we're very proud of from Maryland because she ran the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore prior to her taking this position. Congratulations to you for what you have done in the past and what you're continuing to do.
▶ 0:47:17Uh, let me join the U ranking member. Uh I would like to personally know and have this committee notified whether there are any requests made from any source either from the executive department or the legislative department about curtailing the information that's available to Americans.
▶ 0:47:36We live in a democracy where we believe that people having knowledge the good and the bad uh the savory and the unsaavory is absolutely essential if our democracy is to operate correctly. But let me ask you both uh in that not in that context but let me ask you both a question.
▶ 0:47:56Uh you're frozen at fiscal year 24 uh if you do not receive the funds that are necessary or that you have asked for in February in February fiscal year 26 uh what would be the largest uh consequence Dr. trade for the library.
▶ 0:48:18Um an immediate uh reduction in our buying power uh for the materials that we need and because we would have to absorb the mandatory pay and the price level u adjustments and then we would definitely want to focus on preserving our staff with their experience. In fact, today is National Library Workers Day, part of National Library Week.
▶ 0:48:48And so, we would definitely look at those programmatic increases that would go unfunded, and that includes the modernization efforts that we've discussed, including CRS and the data analytics to serve Congress. The one thing that we could not afford to reduce would be our cyber security efforts. So we would try to do whatever we could to make sure that that would not be reduced.
▶ 0:49:15But staffing um all of the development and efforts that we've uh achieved in modernization would have to be reduced and sometimes uh in fact from the position of the architect capital from the FY24 budget request uh being frozen at the personnel levels that we are right now.
▶ 0:49:40We have enough vacancies that we're having trouble filling versus the ones we're trying to bring on that we've been able to make some adjustments and we appreciate the flexibility that the appropriations committee has given us in that realm. Where it comes to the biggest impacts, it would come with our deferred maintenance. FY24, we had about $200 million decrement to our budget request. And then in FY25 CR, there was an additional 12% that was added on top of that. So those projects because they're needed repairs at the capital don't go away. The capital campus don't go away. They get deferred to future years.
▶ 0:50:08And so that's one of the reasons our budget request is what it is in FY26 is because of those decrements we've taken in FY24 and then the the smaller reduction in FY25 and the CR. And so those projects build up. Now when you try to say what is the impact, it really kind of depends on what building and what facility we're talking about. But in general, Congressman, the more we defer our maintenance, the greater risk we're taking with our capital campus that we will have a system failure that could impact the functionality of the buildings and impact the ability of Congress to perform their mission.
▶ 0:50:37Thank you, Mr. Dunford. I'll have questions for you in the second round. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Now, I'd like to recognize uh Mr. Moore for his five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you all for being here today. Appreciate it.
▶ 0:50:54Um, so as we work to do a better job to support families across the country, I also believe that it's important this committee needs to do more to make the capital complex more friendly for expectant members and staff as well as for those with young kids. Speaker Johnson just announced his intention to find ways to allow new moms to have access to lactation rooms close to the House floor, which is an effort that I certainly fully support.
▶ 0:51:25Uh, Mr. Austin, can you tell me about the existing status of the lactation rooms on campus for expected mothers? How many do we have uh compared to how many the Senate has? What additional resources would your office need to expand access if there is a need for more spaces? Sir, thank you for the question. The overall status is we have 17 lactation suites across the campus entirely.
▶ 0:51:53Each one of those suites varies to have as low as one seat to as many as eight suites. So they vary about three to four per per suite would be the average associated with that. There is one suite in each one of the house office buildings as well as two inside the capitol. In the house office buildings, there's 27 seats total. And in the capital, there's a total of six seats in the capital building for lactation rooms. I would have to get back to you as far as how that compares to the senate. But uh again, there's uh there are ones across the campus.
▶ 0:52:20We are working with the office of the attending physician for what are the requirements for additional uh ones. There was a study that we've uh was funded in previous years that was executed in FY24 uh to look at the needs of lactation rooms across the campus uh as well as if there's any modifications to the existing lactation rooms that need to be made. We expect to get those results this year and we will look to work with your committee if we need additional funding to make any modifications or additions.
▶ 0:52:46And then specifically the ones that would be out off the house um is that in process currently? Well, there are two in the capitol building itself. Um, I would I can't speak to you right now exactly uh how close they are to the House floor itself, but pretty much anything within about a two-minute walk from the House floor to any spot inside the capital, at least the level we're talking about, which are the lower levels. Okay.
▶ 0:53:11And then how about uh reserved parking spots near entrances and elevators available for expectant mothers? Is that something y'all are working on as well? Unfortunately, I'd have to defer to the House Sergeant-at-Arms because they control parking on the house side of campus and the allocation of parking spots. And then, are there additional opportunities that this committee should consider uh funding to make the complex more familyfriendly for members or staffs or visitors that we're currently not contemplating?
▶ 0:53:38Uh we do work with the office of commercial accessibility services for some of the requests. Uh to the previous question, we are looking to make it more ADA as well as familyfriendly. Uh we have if you look in the capital visitor center all the family changing rooms uh the single stall restrooms and things of that nature that are available.
▶ 0:53:54Uh but unfortunately because the historic nature of the campus when they weren't quite as focused on those uh accessibility issues we do have some work to do and uh in the rest of campus and that's that always that balance between the historic nature of the buildings versus the modern requirements uh to facilitate access. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. Appreciate that. Now I recognize Mr. strong for his five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, ranking member.
▶ 0:54:18I want to begin by thanking each of the witnesses and their staff for being uh here, your hard dedication and work uh for the US House of Representatives. All of your efforts are uh critical to ensuring the smooth operation of our historic institutions and safeguarding America's Americans history uh for future generations. Mr.
▶ 0:54:38Austin, could you please provide us with a status update on the Canon House Office Building Renewal Project and its projected completion and are there penalties uh if not completed on time? Sir, thank you for the question. So, I know Canon has been a long road uh to get to where we are today. We spoke earlier about being a 10-year project. The good news on that is that all the hard hats and major construction will be off campus by the end of this uh calendar year.
▶ 0:55:03So, you've already seen some of that demobilization that's happening with the removal of some of the scaffolding in the courtyard of Canon as well as the retrograde of some of the equipment that's been stored there essentially since the beginning of this uh project. So, uh we will there will still be some punch list items, maybe some warranty items that might be happening at the end of this year. Uh but we believe that the project uh will be complete by the end of this calendar year. As far as your second point, as far as penalties, uh that is written into the contract.
▶ 0:55:33We have not had to exercise that uh to the state, but we are actively working with the contractor and are willing and ready to enforce uh liquidated damages if needed. Thank you. We have uh elevators and escalators that are frequently out of service. Um does this ser do we have a service contract or is this handled in house? How are elevators and escalators handled in our facilities? Okay, the answer to your question, sir, is it's both.
▶ 0:56:00We have a dedicated elevator and vertical conveyance team that works on escalators and elevators that work throughout on the House side and the capital as well as the Senate side. Uh for repairs that require more technical expertise and more equipment, we do have a service contract with several contractors. And we're working to expand that to have additional cleanse on the contract so it can be utilized by different uh jurisdictions. Overall uh as of today, I'm happy to say on the House side, 84 of the 85 elevators on the House side are fully operational.
▶ 0:56:29There's one down in the Ford right now and I know every escalator and elevator when it goes out is an impact to the staff and and it's very visible. Uh but we are working with the support of Congress to get proactive with our maintenance on the these elevators. We're looking for a 20-year roundroin project uh to replace every elevator over the next 20 years. We have new ones obviously with Canon that came with a different mechanical system that will be as part of that, but those are the new ones.
▶ 0:56:53Uh, but we do are also uh are funded for a system that will provide real-time monitoring of those elevators so that we don't have to wait for the phone call when one of those goes out. Yeah. Well, I can tell you the escalators don't work like they ought to work in here and I think that we need to put a special focus on it. Coming to this committee meeting, I took about 27 steps up an escalator that hadn't worked for a while and it needs to be addressed. I'm not sure who's over escalators and elevators.
▶ 0:57:18Uh but in my two years in Congress, I will tell you we need to we need to put a better focus on it. Mr. Austin, security is clearly a priority uh in your fiscal year 2026 request. Can you provide more details on how the requested funds will support the United States Capital Police and the House Senate Sergeant-at-Arms particularly in terms of infrastructure and upgrades on system replacements? So, this is probably a longer qu uh longer response I could give you in this forum, sir.
▶ 0:57:48And I'd be happy to work with your staff and provide uh specifics to it, especially ones that probably aren't best discussed in an open forum. We are continuing the door replacement program, as I alluded to earlier. Uh there's additional conduit being put in for more security cameras, and we're looking for opportunities for additional lighting on the Capitol campus, especially on the south side of campus for some of those uh spaces uh require more active monitoring.
▶ 0:58:10And the biggest one of course is going to be the house screening facility which will be going on on the south side of the capitol building and we'll be doing pedestrian screening and that project will begin it uh later this year and will be complete before uh FY29. When construction is completed in uh Canon, do you anticipate any other doors being opened for ingress and egress for staff outside of the ones that have been closed for construction? Not at this time, but I can take that question to US Capital Police and see if they have any requests to open those.
▶ 0:58:39There's certainly capability to do so, but some of that goes towards the avail a availability of officers to man those screening checkpoints and the magnetometers and things of that nature. The doors closest to public transportation are obviously the ones that are utilized the most and um especially when it was 8°. I do know that that right there was the situation that we saw and hope that that will be uh corrected whenever um you know the construction completed. Switching to you Dr.
▶ 0:59:06Uh Hayden, your fiscal year 2026 budget lists three new requests alongside the uh resubmission of three fiscal years 2025 request. How does the library plan to balance funding and resources for these requests to make sure both uh sets uh are successfully The as I mentioned earlier with the
▶ 0:59:36three new requests, they in fact do not require FTEES and so we will be able to use contractual services that are needed to fulfill uh what we are trying to accomplish and with the re request we reduce the number of staff that would be required and we looked at those re requests um very carefully to make sure that we
▶ 1:00:07adjusted for the current conditions. The library uh staffing levels have remained largely unchanged since fiscal year 2015. Yet the scope of programs and services has grown significantly. Dr.
▶ 1:00:22Hayden, how do you ensure the this expansion does not overextend staff or compromise the library's core mission, particularly its service to Congress and the American as you um just heard, and we're very pleased to have the new director of CRS here uh because that is our our primary mission.
▶ 1:00:44And so the focus has been on making sure that as that level has been reduced since the uh 1990s which was the library's highest level of staffing that we carefully looked at workflows. Uh we looked at how we could make sure that there's talent that's coming in but also retaining a very high level of staff expertise and experience.
▶ 1:01:13So, we have to balance those two. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. Thank you. I'd like to thank Dr. Hayden, Mr. Austin, uh Miss Donfried, Miss Pearl, Mother Mutter, uh all for being here today. Members may may submit any additional questions for the record, and this committee now stands adjourned. I'm so glad that you were able to to show up.