So it would translate into longer timelines to respond to requests for CBO scoring, studies, and so forth?

I'm just looking for any recommendations you have that might enable you to do your job more cost and time effectively.

there are two kinds of schools of thought. One school of thought is everybody should take a proportional reduction.

How about the Union Square property? That's about $7.3 million. Is that something you have to do, or is there something else you can do that will work for some period of time?

the point that Senator Hoeven made about the importance of setting priorities, of deciding what really has to happen

If you were given a hold-even budget, how would you go about meeting that? What changes would you make?

I appreciate very much the work that you do and recognize the challenges that go with it.

Is there something the Congress could do that you think would be beneficial in terms of assisting you in what you do?

I think we should take a look because it might be something that would be worthwhile and something we should pursue.

It stands to reason that the legislative branch may receive further budget reductions from those that were enacted in fiscal year 2012.

Talk about your sense of how dire it is that we get some of these projects done.

You're doing the $20 million renovation right now, correct?

Of the total outlay from TARP, how much of that has been returned?

Your budget increase is 2.8 percent. We may not be able to increase your budget by 2.8 percent.

If you think about it, the work that you've been doing with Russia and the other countries of the former USSR, it makes sense for you to look at some of the Middle East countries because you have a similar situation going on.

We appreciate tremendously what you and your staff do. It is a world-renowned institution and the quality of your work is absolutely incredible.

So, that kind of depreciation doesn't cover everything.

We don't budget some type of a sinking fund or depreciation fund for these big projects?