With the Library already beset since 1992 by cuts in staff and services, Dr Billington this month asked Congress for a 7.9 percent budget increase in fiscal 1995 -- essentially enough to maintain existing services and finance new mandated pay raises and price increases. His prepared statement Feb. 2 to the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Vic Fazio (D.-Calif.), follows:
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
I appreciate the opportunity to appear here to discuss the Library of Congress budget request for fiscal year 1995.
I must report that the Library has reduced services as a result of two consecutive years of budget cuts --since fiscal 1992, the Library's budget has fallen $19 million below a level calculated using the Congressional Budget Office's baseline assumptions. The Library suffered a $2.6 million budget reduction in fiscal 1994 and even greater losses by the need to absorb most price level increases for fiscal 1993 and 1994; mandated but unfunded locality pay increases in fiscal 1994; and general salary reductions equivalent to 256 positions. Overall, the Library's funding for full-time equivalent (FTE) positions has been cut by 395 since fiscal 1992.
Since fiscal 1980, the Library's staff has decreased by 573 FTEs, or 12 percent, while the workload has increased steadily and substantially. Our collections have increased by a projected 19.8 million items, or 22 percent; responses to Congressional Research Service requests are up 76 percent; copyright claims registered are up 33 percent; blind and physically handicapped readership is up 27 percent, etc.
In short, the Library is now doing more with less; but, as the accompanying chart illustrates, the Library has had to reduce some services.
Faced with limited resources and the need to establish priorities for service delivery, the ninth Librarian of Congress, Archibald MacLeish, established priorities in his 1940 "Canons of Service." Public services were provided to the extent they could "be given without interference with services to the Congress and other agencies of the Federal Government."
Consistent with these historic priorities, our current downsizing has been most visible in the public service category: reducing reading room hours, public tours, exhibits and published items. Moreover, we have eliminated programs for indexing and selling translations of scientific and technical documents and foreign interlibrary loans, ended the distribution of nonautomated cataloging (MARC) cards, reduced our ability to provide timely research assistance to scholars and reduced the number of new braille and audio books and magazine titles made available to the blind and physically handicapped.
Reductions in direct congressional services are the last to be taken. Recent budget cuts mean that we are not able to respond as rapidly as we would like to the growing number of congressional information requests or to provide Congress with in-depth analyses on all public policy issues. We are concerned that losses of staff, who cannot be replaced, will lead to further gaps in our ability to handle individualized research and analysis requests.
For fiscal 1995, the Library is asking only for those additional funds needed to finance mandatory pay and price level increases and to prevent further reductions in services. The request totals $358 million, including authority to obligate $25.3 million in receipts, for a net of $332.7 million.
It represents a total budget increase of $26.1 million, or 7.9 percent, over fiscal 1994: the lowest percentage increase requested since I became Librarian of Congress in 1987.
By providing this minimal level of funding necessary to maintain existing services, the committee would permit the Library to ensure the continuation of critical services to Congress and the nation and to address fundamental changes now taking place in the information and copyright industries. As this committee well knows, under its charter and by tradition, the Library of Congress is unlike any other legislative entity. The Library has a dual role: first, service to Congress and, second, service to the nation, including assisting members in maintaining an informed electorate.
The Library's congressional services and its leadership as the nation's library will be jeopardized without this minimum increase.
At this time last year, I briefed the committee on the Library's seven-year strategic plan and stressed our intention to overcome the backlog of uncataloged materials, strengthen core services to Congress and the nation, improve collections security, test new preservation techniques, improve human resources and financial management, secure storage space off- Capitol Hill and prepare for the electronic dissemination of collections through new networks and joint ventures.
I am pleased to report that, even with recent budget cuts, the Library has made major progress in the last year:
- exceeding by a good margin the Library's ambitious arrearage reduction goals
- with this committee's help, acquiring a secondary storage site
- helping orient 129 new members of the 103rd Congress, assisting the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress and maintaining critical support tasks on such issues as health care reform and trade policy
- improving collections security
- making the Library's huge data base available online free via the Internet
- improving financial and human resources management, including opening the Library's day care facility and creating new affirmative action opportunities and
- exhibiting spectacular Vatican Library treasures and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
What follows is an overview of the Library's major services -- a number of which may have to be cut back or cut out if the Library has to absorb once again mandatory pay and price level increases:
Overview of LC Services
The Library of Congress maintains a collection of about 104 million items -- many of them unique and irreplaceable -- in more than 450 languages. As the world's greatest repository of knowledge, the Library is able to support Congress's research needs. Congress has extended the use of its Library's resources to its constituents across the nation and to the world and has funded these services by four salaries and expenses (S&E) appropriations as follows:
Congressional Research Service (CRS S&E)
This appropriation funds the exclusive and impartial analytical research and information that we provide to the members and committees of Congress on public policy issues -- providing Congress with more than 600,000 products and research responses a year, including customized responses to 267,000 requests for research and information.
Copyright Office (CO S&E)
The Library administers the U.S. copyright law and actively promotes international protection for intellectual property created by U.S. citizens -- processing more than 620,000 claims for copyright registration and 400,000 requests for information annually.
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (Books for the Blind and Physically Handicapped S&E)
The Library manages a free national reading program for 750,000 blind and physically handicapped people -- circulating at no cost to users more than 21 million items a year (mainly audio books and magazines) through 147 regional and subregional libraries and two distribution centers.
Library of Congress (LC S&E)
This appropriation funds support activities for the three major services listed above while providing a wide range of national services including:
Cataloging
The Library provides bibliographic records and related products to libraries and bibliographic utilities in all 50 states and territories. The Library's cataloging services for the nation would cost America's libraries in excess of $336 million annually if they had to do the work themselves.
Research and Reference
The Library makes available to scholars and other researchers vast information resources, many of which are unique, covering almost all formats, subjects and languages -- annually serving over 700,000 readers (including the Law Library) and responding to nearly 1.4 million information requests from across the nation. Moreover, the Library provides online free access, via Internet, to its automated information files, which contain more than 35 million records, to congressional offices, federal agencies, libraries and the public. The Library also provides annually more than 36,000 free interlibrary loans to constituents in every state in the nation.
Law Library
The Library's Law Library supplies legal research in over 200 foreign jurisdictions to Congress, the judiciary and federal agencies and provides American and foreign law reference services to the public, serving 135,000 users annually.
Preservation
The Library manages a preservation program that includes treating more than 300,000 items a year, assuring that staff are trained and equipped to handle emergencies, conducting research on new preservation technologies (e.g., mass deacidification) and administering the National Film Preservation Board.
In addition, the Library of Congress:
- promotes reading and literacy through the 29 state affiliates of the Library's Center for the Book
- gives tens of thousands of surplus books and serials each year to needy libraries throughout the nation
- shares its unique collections through exhibitions, cable TV programs, conferences and symposia, poetry readings and electronic information dissemination
- manages the nation's leading collection of folk music and folklore and promotes the preservation of folk culture throughout the U.S. and coordinates and administers a cost- effective procurement program for nearly 1,300 other federal libraries.
The Digital Library
Dramatic changes in the telecommunications industry and the rapid increase in computer power have accelerated an electronic information revolution that is significantly changing the way libraries access, manage and deliver information. The Library of Congress must move into the digital age to meet its basic responsibilities to gather, organize, catalog, preserve and share its collections through the core services it provides to Congress and the nation.
The Library is already using a rapidly developing early version of the "information superhighway" both to receive and to provide information.
First, the Library's major services such as providing answers to Congressional inquiries, cataloging books and responding to difficult reference questions are benefiting from our staff's access to Internet -- a vast global network of many interconnected networks with more than 20 million users. For example, Library catalogers regularly search catalogs in other libraries via the Internet to locate usable cataloging records to edit and upgrade instead of starting work from scratch.
Second, we have made freely available to the public via Internet more than 35 million electronic records. Since April 1993, the public has had online access to the Library of Congress Information System (LOCIS), which includes cataloging information, copyright registrations and status of federal legislation.
The Library systems also makes freely available on the Internet documents and images from recent exhibits as well as basic information about the Library's services. In June 1993, the Library enhanced Internet access by implementing LC MARVEL (Machine-Assisted Realization of the Virtual Electronic Library) -- a user-friendly software tool that makes it easier to conduct Internet searches or perform commands. Opening access to the Library's rich resources at no cost to Internet users has been widely acclaimed by people all over the nation and indeed the world.
The Committee's support of a Capitol Hill communications network has made it possible for the Library to share its Internet connection with the Congressional Budget Office, and we are continuing our discussions to share that same connection with the Office of Technology Assessment.
Internet resources comprise one piece of the Library's overall effort to use information technology to support our strategic goals. Throughout the Library, we are exploring ways to apply modern technology to improve productivity while enhancing services. For example, using the Library's network infrastructure and digital technology, fiscal 1994 plans include providing Congress with access to: (1) digitized information from the geography and map collections; (2) on a pilot basis, the full-text of selected CRS reports; (3) material in the Japan Documentation Center; and (4) a small business information data base being developed with private funds.
In fiscal 1995, we plan congressional access to the full text of recommended reading materials (i.e., bibliographic references contained in CRS issue briefs), digital versions of selected government documents that are of particular interest to Congress and country study handbooks created by the Library's Federal Research Division. The Library's proposed fiscal 1995 budget would permit prudent investments in automation to continue and would allow us to exploit further the potential of the Internet for serving Congress and the nation.
Another aspect of the Library's move into the Information Age involves digitizing key collections so that they can be made more broadly available. The budget proposal would provide $357,000 (reallocated American Memory funds) for a core staff of four persons to continue and focus our overall digital efforts. Encouraged by the committee, the Library is in the midst of forging private sector partnerships to disseminate the digitized collections developed during the American Memory pilot project. A small core staff is needed to oversee the establishment of these private sector partnerships and to help build an internal infrastructure to support the digitization of selected Library collections.
The Library must continue to move forward in establishing digital access to its collections or risk becoming irrelevant to the "knowledge navigators" -- librarians and educators across America -- of the information superhighway of tomorrow. While the basic funding for American Memory is being sought from private sources -- more than $1.5 million per year -- the management, planning and direction for the future digital library must be supported as a core Library of Congress service. We believe this to be a solid investment Congress can make in the future of its Library.
Arrearages and Collections Services
In March 1990, the Library made a commitment to Congress to reduce its backlog of unprocessed items by 30 percent, or 11.3 million items, by the end of 1993. I am pleased to report that, with the strong support of this committee and with hard work and innovation, the Library has surpassed this commitment by reducing unprocessed items by 34.4 percent, or 13.6 million items.
This is a major achievement that goes beyond just the numbers. Numerous innovations in cataloging and other processing operations have yielded substantial gains in both speed and productivity. Enhanced bibliographic workstations have increased copy cataloging and, as a result, cataloger productivity. The Cataloging Directorate, recently reorganized into "whole book" cataloging teams to improve timeliness, has outstripped its previous three-year average of 246,000 titles cataloged by 15,000 units. Arrearage reduction efforts have made available to researchers just in the past year unique materials such as unknown letters from Mark Twain, Civil War drawings by artists and journalists, Woodie Guthrie's notes about his songs and the Irving Berlin and Aaron Copland collections.
We are eager to pursue new and ambitious arrearage goals for 1994-2000.
Even though the number of staff devoted to this effort has declined, we can still achieve our original arrearage reduction goals if current staffing is maintained. This can be done by continuing to simplify procedures and increase our use of technology that will improve productivity and throughput.
We are requesting the shift of five positions ($235,000) now funded by the American Memory pilot program to Collections Services to continue the clearing of arrearages which people in that program have been doing so effectively with special collections. These staff members would help the Music, Prints and Photographs and Motion Picture/Broadcasting/Recorded Sound divisions in meeting their demanding arrearage reduction goals.
Collections Security and Constituent Services
We have taken a number of important steps in the past year to secure the Library's collections. Over 500,000 books have been protected with a target or trigger that sounds an alarm when the book passes through detection (KNOGO) gates installed at all Library exits. We have installed surveillance cameras in selected collection storage areas and by the end of this month will complete installation of electronic door locks for the Jefferson bookstacks.
Metal detectors were purchased for the entrances to all buildings and will be activated at the completion and reopening of the renovated Madison Building main entrance later this year. A computer-based integrated reader registration system has been designed that is compatible with the House Information System (HIS). The committee was instrumental in supporting this joint effort. Completion of the HIS procurement now allows the Library to use the same vendor and technology for our system.
Now, however, we are confronted with the requirement to finance locality pay, which reduces, among other things, the Library's ability to fund the positions necessary to operate both the entrance metal detector system and the reader registration system. In addition, we need to continue to tag books, a task largely accomplished thus far as a student summer work project. So, in a further adjustment of services to meet our priorities, we are reducing general reading room hours by ending four hours of Sunday reader service. By compressing existing staff schedules to six days, we will help realize our future collections security goals while maintaining the quality of research and reference services at other times.
At the same time, we will reopen the Manuscript Reading Room on Saturdays to accommodate scholars who need access to our unique Americana collections as well as books from the general collections that, for security purposes, are now served in the Rare Book reading room during the week.
Human Resources
During the past year, the Library moved forward with its plan to ensure a nondiscriminatory work environment for all its employees. A new merit selection process was put in place to ensure equity in all stages of the selection process, and a plan was developed to improve human resources and affirmative action programs. Major parts of the plan being implemented are: increasing diversity in our senior level management staff, creating an expanded affirmative action intern program and a program to develop minorities and others for leadership positions, adding necessary staff to the Office of Affirmative Action and Special Programs, and implementing a more effective performance appraisal system for supervisors and managers.
We will soon select 29 affirmative action interns now in technical and clerical positions and place them in professional trainee positions in various job series. Through training and experience, the trainees will move into jobs that lead to GS-11 or GS-12 positions. We will also be launching this year a pioneering Leadership Development Program supported by private funding (a special gift from the chairman of the Madison Council, John Kluge).
We will select 10 individuals recruited from within and outside the Library and provide them with practical experience, professional mentoring, management training and academic courses. To carry out this ambitious overall program effectively, the Affirmative Action and Special Programs Office is requesting one GS-13 Program Officer who will direct the leadership and professional development programs. We do not seek additional funding for this position but are requesting the transfer of funding for one vacant position from the American Folklife Center to Human Resources Services.
Financial and Facilities Management
The Library continues to move closer to its goal of a modern financial system that complies with federal accounting and internal control standards and that will ease the preparation of audited financial statements. On Nov. 30, 1993, the Library purchased the Federal Financial System (FFS), an off-the-shelf software package developed by American Management Systems, and is installing FFS with a planned implementation date of Oct. 1, 1994. FFS will correct problems identified by the GAO audit that I requested upon becoming Librarian and will improve accountability to Congress. The purchase of FFS has implications beyond the Library because we provide accounting and disbursing services for four other legislative branch agencies. We will be adopting the same basic system now used by GAO, taking another step toward the committee's goal of consolidating financial services within the legislative branch whenever practical.
Our experience with payroll and personnel services, currently done on a uniform basis for most legislative branch agencies by the National Finance Center in New Orleans, suggests that establishing a uniform standard for services is more cost effective than having each agency develop, operate and maintain its own system. We would be pleased to assist other legislative branch agencies in adopting a similar standard for financial management software.
Two major milestones were achieved in facilities management during 1993 -- obtaining a secondary storage site and opening the Little Scholars Child Development Center.
Thanks to this committee's help and support, the Military Construction Appropriations Act of 1994 (P.L. 103-110) approved the Library's use of up to 100 acres of land at Fort Meade, Md., for long-term storage needs. The Library owes a special debt of thanks to the chairman for his critical assistance in acquiring this land. Staff of the Library and the Architect of the Capitol have met with Department of Defense staff to prepare for a survey of the 100 acres and eventual transfer of the property. Survey costs and construction of the first collections compact storage facility will be funded by amounts provided in the fiscal 1993 legislative branch appropriations act.
On Sept. 20, 1993, years of hard work, cooperation and steadfast support from Congress culminated in the opening of the Little Scholars Child Development Center. The Center, which is operated by the Library of Congress Child Care Association, has a capacity for 100 infants and preschoolers and provides high- quality child care for employees of the Library and other legislative branch offices.
The Library is requesting that $388,432 be reallocated from other LC S&E accounts (primarily American Memory) to improve the fire protection system at its Landover storage center. The original fire system was not designed to protect the high rack storage and high-risk materials now in place.
Finally, the Library requests $2.3 million for the first of two installments necessary to complete the furnishings and equipment for the renovated Thomas Jefferson and John Adams buildings. The purchase of compatible furniture and equipment will bring the buildings into compliance with current life safety codes and refit them as efficient and ergonomically correct reader and staff spaces.
Other LC S&E Transfers and Reimbursable Authority
The Library is recommending the transfer of $50,000 from the Cultural Affairs publishing budget to the Law Library for improving access to legal data bases to answer congressional requests. Using such data bases to improve staff productivity has already helped CRS maintain services as staff resources declined. The Library is also requesting the shift of one funded American Memory position to the American Folklife Center (AFC) to assist primarily with arrearage reduction efforts. This transfer brings the AFC up to its authorized ceiling of $1,120,000.
In accordance with Section 206 of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act of 1994, P.L. 103-69, the Library is requesting obligational authority of $68,236,000 for reimbursable programs, $8,706,000 for revolving fund programs and $6,150,000 for parliamentary development programs funded by nonexpenditure transfer.
Copyright Office
The Library worked extensively with Congress during 1993 to accommodate legitimate concerns for fair treatment for American authors while at the same time assuring that Library acquisitions through copyright registration and mandatory deposit are maintained at least at their present level. The Library established an Advisory Committee on Copyright Registration and Deposit (ACCORD) to assist with recommendations for alternative inducements to registration and improved registration and mandatory deposit systems and to review the effect of legislative changes on the collections of the Library and the registration system. Recommendations developed with the assistance of ACCORD were incorporated into the proposed legislation.
For the Copyright Office, exclusive of the Licensing Division, the Library is requesting an increase of $1,118,000 over fiscal 1994 funding to cover mandatory pay and price level increases. This minimum level of funding is required to plan for the implementation of the Copyright Reform Act, which passed the House in November 1993, to maintain currency in processing copyright claims and to explore new ways of increasing productivity through technology. As the reform act moves through the legislative process, we will need to come back to the committee with further requests for funding or reprogramming.
In its present form, the reform act would eliminate a key incentive for depositing materials with the Library, but would substitute a strengthened system of mandatory deposits of published materials, other incentives for copyright deposits and monitoring to determine the impact on the Library's collections. As I stated in Senate testimony, I cannot support enactment of the Reform Act unless the alternative inducements to Library registration and deposit are included and Congress has a clear understanding that additional funding may be required.
For the Copyright Licensing Division, we are requesting an increase of $594,000 to fund the new responsibilities set forth in the Copyright Royalty Tribunal Reform Act of 1993 (PL 103-198) and to sustain its existing services. The act, effective Jan. 1, 1994, abolished the Copyright Royalty Tribunal (CRT), transferring its functions to ad hoc arbitration panels under the direction of the Librarian of Congress. The costs of the panels are to be borne by the participants in the proceedings, not by the taxpayer. The Library's additional costs in administering these new responsibilities are to be funded completely by receipts. The Library is implementing this law, which includes issuing regulations and closing down the CRT.
Congressional Research Service
An increase of $3,693,000 requested for the Congressional Research Service (CRS) is composed of $3.3 million for mandatory pay increases and $350,813 for price level changes. Funding of the mandatories for CRS is essential: More than 89 percent of its budget consists of salaries and compensation. CRS is Congress's most efficient tool for analyzing legislative issues and responding to hundreds of thousands of information requests. It constitutes a shared staff of experts, available to all members and all committees. As office staff and other resources available to members shrink to meet budget targets, CRS becomes even more important as a means to ensure that members have adequate information and analysis to deal with the important issues of the day. CRS is the only legislative support agency that is available to help with the growing volume of representational work as well as legislative concerns. Therefore, it is essential that the information- gathering and analyzing capacity of CRS be maintained by funding the mandatory pay and price level costs.
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
With the exception of mandatory pay items, the largest requested increase in the Library's budget is for the Books for the Blind and Physically Handicapped program. We are asking for an increase of $7,442,000 -- 17.4 percent -- to continue this unique national endeavor at the current level. This is a 62-year-old cooperative effort with state and local agencies and the U.S. Postal Service.
More than 750,000 residents of the United States, covering every congressional district, use this coordinated service provided by the Library. Last year each individual user received an average of 29 braille and/or audio books and magazines. This far exceeds the average reading level of the sighted public. Without this program, those unable to read regular print would find it difficult, if not impossible, to satisfy their reading needs. Because more than 80 percent of this program's budget is for the purchase of patron machines and reading materials, any budget reduction translates into either a cut in the number of new titles available for use or an added risk that the pipeline for patron machines will dry up. The Library requests this large increase to ensure that neither of these possibilities happens.
Superintendent of Documents
On Nov. 22, 1993, the House passed H.R. 3400 as amended. The bill addresses a number of the administration's National Performance Review recommendations. Title XIV of the bill transfers the functions of the Superintendent of Documents (SUDOCS) from the Government Printing Office (GPO) to the Library. While the Congressional Budget Office has not commented directly on the cost of transferring SUDOCS, the Library, at the request of Congress, has completed an analysis of this transfer and identified a number of major implementation issues.
The Library provides several services which have some parallel to those programs operated by SUDOCS. But because the Library's programs differ in scope and mission, the transfer of SUDOCS to the Library could change the Library's programmatic responsibilities and could stress our administrative systems at a time of budget constraint unless Congress provides adequate funding for this activity.
Conclusion.
Thanks to the foresight and continued support of Congress for nearly two centuries, the Library of Congress is one of the nation's most important resources for the emerging new Age of Information. America will advance and prosper in the 21st century only if, among other things, it makes maximum use of information and knowledge. The Library's ability to acquire, organize, preserve and make increasingly accessible its unparalleled resources is of critical importance to Congress in performing its legislative duties and to the nation in supporting our knowledge-based democracy.
But the Library of Congress is at a genuine crossroads in its long history. We must address changes brought on by the information revolution and copyright reform as well as grapple with severe budgetary constraints. Congress must decide whether it wants its Library to sustain its services to the nation or significantly diminish them by further budget cuts. If the Library is targeted either by direct cuts or by across-the-board cuts aimed at the entire legislative branch, the Library will continue to slip backward.
The Library's priorities for its LC S&E budget, which funds the infrastructure supporting all activities including congressional services and funds national services, are broadly stated as follows:
- acquiring, securing and preserving a universal collection for Congress and the American people
- cataloging and making accessible the bibliographic records and contents of the collections electronically
- providing on-site reference services in reading rooms
- making available for national use the Library's collections through exhibits, lectures, publishing and similar means.
We are keeping to these priorities. The Library's decision to close on Sundays, for example, is driven by the need to fund the higher priority of collections security as well as to maintain the quality of reference and support services during other hours.
I do not claim that the Library cannot be more efficient in using and delivering services. Quite the contrary. The Library has undertaken a multiyear effort to review its major business processes in order to work smarter and to do even more with less. We believe that our business process improvement (BPI) efforts are the right way to downsize, but they take time and resources to carry out, and they typically require negotiations with the Library's three unions and, in some cases, changes in regulations or legal authority. Our initial BPI findings are promising, but our extensive reviews of the Library's budget base during the past two years reveal no easy targets.
We are also analyzing levels of supervision and hope to reduce significantly the ratio of supervisors to staff during the next two years. As the accompanying chart indicates, we are already doing more with less.
We hope to continue working with the committee to avoid both declines in service and the demoralizing effects of staff furloughs or a reduction-in-force. We appreciate the committee's support of the retirement incentive authority that made it possible for the Library to meet its mandated FTE ceiling in an orderly fashion. A total of 245 people voluntarily used this program, which will help fund the significant unfunded locality pay costs.
The Library has reached a point, however, where further budget cuts or decreases in purchasing power would translate immediately into radical reductions in services.
I must emphasize that the Library needs a year of budget stability to ensure that critical services are continued as we gain in efficiency and prepare for further major changes. Future generations will not forgive us if we permit the great repository built up over the past 193 years to diminish slowly, slice by slice, until even our ability to support Congress would be significantly reduced and our service to the nation would become marginal. Both members of Congress and librarians tell us that the Library's services to Congress and the nation are more important now than ever because of funding cutbacks elsewhere.
The Library of Congress is a great national asset, an expression of the best in America. It is a prime example of direct congressional service to all Americans and not just another burden on the legislative branch cost sheet. I strongly request that the Library's austere budget request be approved. As Congress addresses problems of accumulated deficits and diminished resources, the Library's services to Congress and the nation must not become an early casualty.
