During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last month, Sen. MarkWayne Mullins (D-OK) questioned officials about budget requests,
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00:00Chairman. Thank you for your time.
00:04Sir, we'll stay with you. I just got a couple questions, if you don't mind.
00:11How many employees right now work for you? A little over 3,500.
00:173,500, and what do you feel like the need is? I think we need to be at least at 3,600,
00:243,700. You know, GAO used to be over 5,000 people. There was downsizing in the 1990s.
00:33We also didn't have the same technology we have today.
00:35Yeah, that's true, but the government was a lot smaller then, too, than it is now.
00:40And you have a request of how much increase? $122 million?
00:45That's correct.
00:45And what's your total budget?
00:46The total budget right now is $811 million, almost $812.
00:52So you're going to be approaching a billion dollars?
00:57That's correct.
00:58That's correct?
00:59Right.
00:59At the same time, we're trying to shrink the federal government, and we're trying to use efficiencies.
01:04I mean, one of the things we try to do is be more efficient.
01:08What type of technology are you using to try to offset this?
01:12And I use this from the, you know, let's just use real world, right?
01:15Right. Our payables receivables office doesn't have near as many people in it as it used to.
01:23Our payroll department doesn't have near as many people in it as it used to because of the new technology that's available to us.
01:31Right.
01:31And I would say most of the research and accounting offices around the country have shrunk considerably.
01:43So what type of technology have you changed to be able to absorb that, to be able to help your efficiencies?
01:49Because we're cutting all the cross to government.
01:52So it's hard for us to justify a $122 million increase, which is roughly 15% for J.O.
02:01Right.
02:02Well, I think the first justification from our request comes from the fact that we returned to the government $123 back for every dollar invested.
02:10So how many people in your office do you have that specifically, because I've heard you quote that now three times, work on that specific issue to tell us how much money you spend you return back to us?
02:23Well, we actually use estimates from CBO and the Congress.
02:27We use third-party estimates.
02:28But how many people do you have in your staff that's designated just to provide that number to us?
02:33Every team does it based upon their own audit work.
02:38It's not any central group that does it.
02:41They compile it.
02:42There's maybe one person there that compiles the numbers.
02:45It's part of a lot of other responsibilities.
02:49But it's everybody in GAO's job is to try to be more.
02:53I do hear what you're saying.
02:55The issue that we're having here is that we're not going to be able to increase it.
03:00And so we've got to get more efficient.
03:01And that goes for every agency.
03:05We've got to get more efficient.
03:06And we're asking the executive branch to be more efficient.
03:09The executive branch is becoming more efficient.
03:11We have to do the same.
03:12Yeah.
03:12One thing that this committee could do to help us in our efficiency is to have the agencies that we audit provide the information more quickly and reliably to us.
03:25And because we can then do work a lot faster if the agencies are cooperative.
03:32Sure.
03:33Mr. Albert, quickly, can you explain to us what you're doing to become more efficient with the taxpayer dollars as funding?
03:39Sure.
03:40So we're trying to automate processes where we can.
03:48Some of our requirements are that we support older processes.
03:54So for instance, as I was explaining to Senator Heinrich, if you write a bill on a legal pad, I have to be able to take that and turn that into good legislative text.
04:03That requires people to do it.
04:05We are getting more efficient when it comes to the actual printing.
04:14So for instance, we've changed from offset printing for our daily publications to digital inkjet printing, which means I have much smaller crews manning those printing presses.
04:25Now, you mentioned multiple times in your statement that you operate as a business.
04:29We do.
04:29And you have customers.
04:31We do.
04:31On those customers, are they competitive bids or are you going to assume the one and only supplier for the needs for printing?
04:38It depends.
04:39So for instance, the U.S. Passport, our single largest product, we have one customer.
04:45That's the Department of State.
04:47But I mean, you're not bidding against outside private groups to do this.
04:50We are not because the security requirements for that document are set.
04:54And I say that because you operate like a business, but yet you have an appropriation request plus an increase on it.
05:01What keeps you from just adjusting your prices to actually cover your costs?
05:04Because if you're operating as a business, then you should have the ability to adjust your costs to be able to make sure it's not costing the taxpayers any extra funding other than to the agency.
05:13The appropriations request covers three things.
05:18It covers Congress's own printing needs.
05:21Congress decided that it is easier to appropriate those dollars to us directly than to have us bill them per page.
05:29So that's $83 million of that request.
05:32Because I'm over time, I'll come back.
05:34I want to be respectful of my time, just like everybody else's.
05:37I'll turn the question over to Senator Murray.