Lisa Murkowski

I think that we could have avoided some of these budget increases had we not been dealing with healthcare reform.

I commend you for the work that you and all your staff have done.

The Federal Government must do the same, he said, and he announced a 3-year freeze on nonsecurity discretionary Government spending.

Well, if you could get that information and kind of lay that out, that would be helpful.

It seems like a lot of funding--a lot of new projects to be taking on at a time when we are looking to really rein in the budget here.

So when do you make that decision as to whether or not you are at that attrition level that you had anticipated?

Back when we had the fiscal year 2010 legislative branch conference report, we included some language in that that encouraged the Open World Leadership Center to expand its effort to raise private funding in order to reduce requirements…

We are looking for ways to demonstrate leadership by ensuring that our own budgets are tightened and trying to reduce those costs.

I am disappointed that this subcommittee has once again been presented with a fairly large budget increase request in fiscal year 2011.

These are existing people that you are just changing their ability to accrue annual leave, carryover, and bonuses.

But you do anticipate--I am assuming you have done some kind of a cost analysis...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I look forward to working with the Architect of the Capitol, the Office of Compliance, and others as we kind of slog through how we prioritize the needs again for those who are working and visiting our capital.

I will follow on here as it relates to the projects because I think it is such an important part of what we are dealing with here in terms of priorities and how we allocate the dollars that are available.

You want to make sure that these not necessarily one-time, but short-term dollars that you had received through ARRA are not going to be a permanent part of your base funding.

I appreciate your statement and your commitment to really work to provide a flat budget under these very difficult times.

I think this is a very important part of the conversation, and we would like to be working very closely with you on that.

It is your intention, though, to get a vendor who will accept that Verizon plan.

Even if you were not doing the multiyear funding, your numbers still do not add up.

Will you take those assessments and analyses into account before you negotiate with----

To what extent are these services actually utilized? Who uses them? Are all of the services necessary?

But even if we were to just look at this as a 1-year instead of a multiyear request, as you have, the request from the Secretary's office is still an increase.

Then let me ask about the Center's plans for expanding the exchange program into other countries.

So we have got the technologies now, but the technologies tomorrow may be changing is what you are saying.

Are there any new projects that are on this list? And I really appreciate what you have just run down there because you were really able to give some definition there.