The Senate Rules and Administration Committee gave the Congressional Research Service (CRS) high marks during an oversight hearing Wednesday, March 20, for its ability to continue to deliver timely, high-quality, unbiased and nonpartisan information to members of Congress - even amid heavy workloads and decreasing budgets.
"I don't know of anything here in the Congress that contributes more to our daily work than CRS," said Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the committee, which met in Room 301 of the Russell Senate Office Building.
"In my 20 years in Congress I have come to rely on CRS for its high-quality, nonpartisan research and analysis," said Ranking Minority Member Wendell H. Ford (D-Ky.).
CRS Director Daniel P. Mulhollan testified before the panel along with two groups of CRS experts. They all answered questions from Sens. Warner and Ford during the two-hour hearing, which Sen. Warner called "part of Operation Daylight, to let everyone know how the Congress operates."
During the question-and-answer period, Sen. Warner asked Mr. Mulhollan, "Given your experience and our efforts . . . how do you main-tain your independence and nonpartisanship? . . . This is a very important issue, given the presidential campaign and congressional election this fall."
"It's our trademark and our reputation. . . . We have built it into our work. It's part of our profession - we have objectivity as a goal and as an organizational culture. . . . We have to ensure that all major viewpoints are considered. We do this through the expert staff we have at CRS. When we use information and analysis from outside sources, we have to scrutinize that analysis and assure its accuracy," Mr. Mulhollan said.
During his testimony, Mr. Mulhollan said, "As policymakers, members of Congress need to know and understand the supporting and counter-vailing choices that surround every legislative proposal that occupies them. Whether to engage in debate on the floor of the chamber, to participate in committee or subcommittee deliberations, or to respond at a town meeting with constituents, members must be conversant with all sides of an issue - both to allow them to make the best case for their position as well as to anticipate and respond effectively to counter-arguments.
"It is imperative that the Congress have ready access to analysis, research and information from a source that is reliably independent and objective, not only by tradition, but as a product of explicit direction in its statutory charter. CRS was created by you to provide that independent support and it is our vision that the Congress will turn to us first whenever it has such needs," Mr. Mulhollan said.
Mr. Mulhollan reviewed some of the domestic and foreign policy issues that CRS information specialists, economists, foreign and social policy experts, scientists, lawyers,
legislative procedure specialists and other policy analysts as well as librarians, bibliographers and others continue to provide information on, such as: welfare reform, telecommunications, education, the balanced budget constitutional amendment, the line- item veto, term limits, immigration and banking and securities laws.
"In matters of foreign policy we have assisted on Bosnia, the role and structure of NATO, the Israeli-Palestinian agreement, changes in Russia, aid to Africa and Mexico's financial crisis," Mr. Mulhollan said.
Mr. Mulhollan told the panel that CRS has reassigned staff, both organizationally and in subject areas, to manage losses resulting from attrition. CRS also has used information technology to improve its efficiency and effectiveness, he said, in the face of the budget constraints of recent years.
"We have made organizational changes to maximize the number of staff providing direct service to the Congress and we have also made use of contracts and volunteer services where appropriate," he said.
"These and other efforts have forestalled some reductions in service that might otherwise have been necessary. Nevertheless, in consultation with the Congress, we have made necessary decisions to curtail or reduce some services. And while we regret any such reductions, I believe that we have made sound choices under the prevailing circumstances - ones selected to minimize direct impact on our ability to provide broad support to Congress. However, if CRS is asked to become smaller still, we will face additional difficult choices, further affecting the level of our services," Mr. Mulhollan said.
Mr. Mulhollan said that in FY 1995, CRS sent 785,000 copies of CRS reports and other general distribution products to members of Congress and prepared more than 3,000 confidential memoranda. CRS han-dled 600,000 research responses and services to the Congress.
By way of comparison, in FY 1993, when CRS was beginning to collect statistical data on the volume of its product distribution, CRS sent out 502,000 reports and other general distribution products and prepared more than 2,000 confidential memoranda. The number of research responses and services to Congress in FY 1993 was about the same as FY 1995: a total of 616,000.
"Over the last four years, CRS funding levels have resulted in a cut of 84 full-time equivalent positions - a loss of one out of every 10 of our staff. In the first two months of this year alone, we have lost analysts in foreign policy and international security, corporate finance and securities, defense policy, oil and gas resources and environmental policy. None of them will be replaced if we receive level funding for fiscal year 1997.
"Many of our losses truly threaten our ability to maintain coverage in subject areas of recurring congressional interest. And as we come down in overall staff levels, I must tell you that our ability to maintain the valued services which have characterized our assistance in the past, is seriously threatened.
"If we are to provide the continuity that the Congress expects, we must constantly bring on new staff as veteran experts retire. The significance of these losses is magnified if our resident experts depart without the opportunity to pass on acquired knowledge and institutional memory directly to replacements. If we are to successfully perform our mission, we must literally teach the ways of the legislature to our staff in order to ensure that our contributions best inform the legislative process," Mr. Mulhollan said.
Two panels of CRS experts spoke after Mr. Mulhollan testified. Both panels, Mr. Mulhollan said, are models of the levels of expertise throughout CRS.
The first panel, on Medicare and Medicaid, was led by Specialist in Social Legislation Richard Price. Members of the panel were: Melvina Ford, specialist in social legislation; Jennifer O'Sullivan, specialist in social legislation; Kathleen Swendiman, legislative attorney; and Heidi Yacker, information specialist.
Mr. Price said the Medicare/Medicaid team responded to more than 7,500 requests in calendar year 1995 and prepared more than 50 different CRS products. The team sent out 5,300 copies of three "core" issue briefs (two on Medicare and one on Medicaid) and sent out 4,500 customized information packs as well. When Medicaid became an active issue in 1993, the CRS research team prepared a 1,127-page Medicaid Source Book: Background Data and Analysis.
CRS attorney Kathleen Swendiman said when Congress began holding hearings on health care fraud and abuse, she assisted congressional committee members and staffers from the beginning of the legislative process all the way through the conference committee and final passage. "After passage of the House and Senate Medicare bills, we were asked to prepare a side-by-side comparison of the more than 60 fraud and abuse provisions from both houses, along with a legal analysis of the provisions so that the differences could be resolved in conference. We met the quick turn-around deadline of 24 hours with a 40-page side-by-side comparson of the bills' provisions, a legal memorandum and copies of computer disks, so that staff could turn our materials into working papers for the conferees," Ms. Swendiman said.
Sen. Warner asked if the CRS team had noticed dramatic changes in the type or number of requests on Medicare and Medicaid.
"Over the past several years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of requests,"
Mr. Price said. "The requests have become more complex as Congress thinks about changing details and technical components of the plans."
A second panel of CRS experts, led by Charles Hanrahan, senior specialist in agriculture policy, and Jean Jones, food and nutrition specialist and head of the Food and Agriculture Section of the Environment and Natural Resources Division, described CRS assistance during congressional deliberations on the 1996 farm bill. The panel also included: Ralph Chite, specialist in agriculture policy; Diane Duffy, legislative attorney; and Sandra Osbourn, specialist in American government.
Mr. Hanrahan said their challenge is to perform analytical work, explain the effects of proposals and keep track of all sides of the debate on the many complex, controversial and wide-ranging agricultural issues that are included in each farm bill - everything, he said, from food stamps and farm credit programs to food safety, cigarette taxes and the trade impact of NAFTA and GATT.
During debate on this session's farm bill, Ms. Jones said food and agriculture section analysts held more than 60 personal briefings with members of Congress, ran scores of briefings for congressional staffers, conducted 14 seminars on agricultural issues and held individual briefings for many state delegations. As all CRS staff do, they also answered requests over the phone, in writing and in person, offering confidential assessments of proposals.
During passage of the 1996 farm bill, Ms. Jones said, CRS finished analyses of the respective House and Senate versions within 24 hours of their passage.
At the end of the hearing, Sen. Warner said, "Over 60 percent of your [CRS] materials are delivered within 24 hours. If only the Congress worked with so much dispatch. . . . I commend all of you."
