Oversight of the Architect of the Capitol: Lessons, Projects, Challenges

Claire recess at any time. Also without objection the hearing record will remain open for five legislative days so members may submit any additional materials they wish to be included therein. Uh thank you ranking member Morelli, members of the committee, uh and our witness for participating in today's hearing. Mister Austin, welcome back to the uh committee on house administration. Under your two years of leadership we've seen a lot of positive changes on the capital campus uh both in management uh and to the infrastructure the architect architect of the capital has broad responsibilities as we all know, and deals with unique challenges every day. I'm eager to hear about your recommendations and how we can continue to improve the AOC's operations and learn lessons from the past. I'll start with the recently completed cannon building renewal project. Uh, while I know I speak for pretty much everybody on campus in saying we're pleased, uh, to see this project finally coming to a close, uh, there's definitely, I think, some tough lessons, uh, that we can also learn. uh from that long construction project. Uh as Congress debates future large scale projects like this, uh my primary goal is to insure that we're good stewards of taxpayer resources. Mister Austin, uh that's exactly why your perspective today I think is so critical. Uh look at the if we look at the first at the cannon renewal project, uh the total cost was nine hundred and seventy-one million dollars. Uh that's two hundred million uh increase from the original two thousand nine estimate. Uh and I think some of those lessons are critical as uh we turn to the potential renewal uh or rebuild of the Rayburn building. That renovation uh must prioritize financial discipline uh and completing the project on time on time under budget uh of course is the goal. The Rayburn building uh plays a significant role uh for this institution. It houses nearly two hundred member offices, committee hearing rooms, suites, skiffs, uh three levels of parking, uh and even a Capitol Police firing range. Unfortunately, despite never being a newer building, despite being a newer building, uh it's in far greater need of renovation uh than the Longworth building according to our experts. Cost estimates, including swing space construction, uh in some ways are mind boggling. Uh and as we develop plans for such a massive project, it's also essential that we minimize disruption to capital operations. That's why in twenty twenty four the AOC initiated a swing space study to address the question. Re- results of the study were presented to members in December of twenty twenty five. I've appreciated your fo your focus on this growing issue and the regular updates that you have provided this committee uh during that review process. I look forward to discussing that uh at this hearing with you today. We'll also discuss the ongoing work uh by the AOC to draft a new capital complex master plan or CCMP. Uh in theory this must be done every five years, but as we know, Uh it has been fifteen years uh since this has been completed and so uh I both appreciate uh and applaud your efforts to prioritize drafting this updated, uh this update and look forward to reviewing uh the published document. I'll also underscore the need for stakeholder engagement on this plan, especially given the efforts by the Trump administration to clean up and beautify the nation's capital for everyone to enjoy. Before I conclude, let me thank you, Mr. Austen, for your work uh and in particular your staff. some of whom are sitting behind you, but knowing that there are dozens more uh across this campus, hundreds more uh across this campus that work dutifully every day to keep the Capital Campus complex uh open, uh to the American people, to staff, to members, uh keeping in mind the importance of keeping everyone here safe uh as well. It's no easy task. And so we thank you, uh but in particular all the men and women working uh under your leadership at the architect of the capital's office. As we celebrate the nation's two hundred fifty two hundred and fiftieth birthday, I look forward to also discussing how we can work together to prepare Congress to serve the American people for the next two hundred and fifty years. I appreciate you being here, uh, Miss Rausten. I look forward to a, a robust discussion. With that, I will yield to, uh, my colleague, the Ranking Member, Mister Morelle, uh, for his opening statement.

Thank you, uh, Mr. Chairman. Thanks for calling this hearing. Thanks to my colleagues and certainly thanks to our awareness, the first architect of the capital in American history. chosen by the United States Congress, so we're uh delighted that you're here uh, Mister Austin. Um and thank you not only for being here today but all the work that you do uh, and your team does twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, literally three hundred and sixty-five days a year. You know, the architect of the Capitol employs, as I understand it, twenty-six hundred people roughly, so this is a huge operation. Maintenance crews, skilled tradespeople, uh tour guides, other professionals responsible for keeping the Capitol campuses, Eighteen million square feet, and they are amazing. Eighteen million square feet of facilities, five hundred and seventy acres of grounds operating safely and effectively. Um, like magi- many legislative branch agencies, the AOC is continually being asked to do more with less. And while the agency's dedicated workforce has made a Herculean effort to keep camp- the campus running, it has done so on a budget that has not kept pace with the work. The men and women of the architect of the capital make it possible for the rest of us to do our jobs and as the chair said for millions of Americans to come and um see their government working and to uh see these just amazing gorgeous buildings and they deserve uh you all deserve our support in the last year alone uh as i understand it the team responsible for the house office buildings addressed about five thousand hearing and cooling problems and as the son of a pipe fitter who did hvac That's a lot of problems to be uh dealing with in the course of a year. More than five hundred pipe leaks, nearly two hundred elevator failures, feels like the one in Cannon is one that's a perpetual elevator problem, but all while managing a backlog of dozens of unfunded repair projects. So I've often s- spoken about how we've weakened Congress's article one capacity by failing to adequately invest in this institution, the Congress. And there may be no better illustration of that and the failure what's happening with the Rayburn house office building. Even before the current architect's appointment, the agency had been sounding the alarm about Rayburn's deteriorating infrastructure. And I wanna thank the architect uh for the many briefings that he's provided to the members and the staff of this committee, the Appropriations Committee leadership, and other stakeholders. And as a member of the Appropriations Committee, I certainly appreciate that. The message has been consistent, unequivocal. Absent a comprehensive renovation, the Rayburn building faces what the architect, I believe, uh himself has described as a risk of catastrophic systems failure. That's not some distant hypothetical concern for decades from now, that's happening right now. Since two thousand twenty-three, Rayburn has experienced twenty-five major water leaks, resulting in millions of dollars in repair costs and the displacement of members and staff from their offices for months at a time. As I wrote in a recent letter to the speaker, every year we delay this project the cost only grows, and we all know that. The longer you put off those repairs that you need to do at your home, at your business, anywhere, the more expensive they get and the more profound those problems become. The concern over Rayburn is not limited to the OC. In twenty twenty, an independent panel concluded, Rayburn's critical systems were already at imminent failure risk. So unless Congress acts, we will continue pouring millions of taxpayer dollars into temporary fixes instead of addressing the underlying problem. And to that end, the first major step, in the renovation is the design and construction of swing space to accommodate displaced members committee and support offices as well as staff. After a comprehensive study the architect concluded the most cost effective solution would be to build a new house office building one I endorse and support, and one that could later serve as swing space for future Longworth renovation which is gonna have to follow uh Rayburn and ultimately become part of, the permanent part of the capital complex. So um And this is not uh as it relates to the authorizing committee, but more to the appropriations committee. I am uh frankly deeply disappointed to see the appropriations report a funding bill that fails to provide even a single dollar for swing space, designed despite the agency's request. Also fails to fund a new parking structure the AOC has identified as as a necessary enabling project for the renovation so while the legislative branch bill does provide limited funding for the design of the renovation of Rayburn that work as I understand it cannot meaningfully begin, until the agency has clarity on what the additional infrastructure that swing space uh will be and and how it will be made available so allowing the buildings we work in to deteriorate around us is a fitting illustration of the broader failure to strengthen and sustain article one that has come to define in my view this congress we owe it to the people who work in the building who visit these buildings the american people including your employees uh who keep them standing to plan and fund this work before a failure forces our hand and it will not be pretty as they say when that happens. We owe this to the American people, so we cannot effectively carry out the duties they elected us to perform in the buildings that are to quote the architect once again at risk of catastrophic systems failure so I look forward to the hearing thank you for indulging me, I um these are important issues I wanna thank you again for uh being here, for all your good work and Mister Chairman for holding this hearing and I uh look forward to the discussion I yield back.

Gentleman yields back, without objection all other members' opening statements will be made part of the hearing record.

Good morning, Chairman Selle, Ranking Member Morelle, and distinguished members of this committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you, representing the men and women of the architect of the capital. I appreciate the committee's continued support, and would like to offer my sincere thanks to the members of your staff Particularly, Elliott Smith, Matthew Schlesinger, Philip Pinniger, and Kwame Newton, whose engagement is critical to our mission's success. I look forward to sharing the hard work of the Architect of the Capitol in serving the needs of Congress, while preserving the historic buildings and grounds that inspire the thirty thousand daily occupants and over four million annual visitors to the Capitol campus. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the twenty-six hundred dedicated Architect of the Capitol employees for their unwavering commitment and professionalism to preserve and maintain over eighteen point five million square feet of facilities five hundred and seventy acres of grounds and thousands of works of art. I have been continually inspired by the dedication and expertise of our workforce. Since assuming the role of the thirteenth architect of the capital in June twenty twenty four, I have prioritized strengthening transparency, accountability, and communication across the agency and with our stakeholders. These principles are foundational to maintaining trust and ensuring disciplined stewardship of the resources entrusted to us. This year, the architect of the Capitol has prioritized addressing critical system needs, implementing increased security infrastructure across the Capitol campus, and completing the cannon renewal project. Cuz maintaining and modernizing the Capitol campus is a central part of our mission and our biggest challenge. This requires a proactive comprehensive approach to facilities management, addressing both routine and complex matters. With this committee's support, we have been able to initiate a number of modernization projects in the house office buildings. This year, we launched a pilot program for constant digital monitoring of our elevators, which would enable our mechanics to drastically reduce response times and elevator outages. We have also continued to upgrade elevator and escalator systems to ensure more reliable operations, reducing the burden on members, staff and visitors navigating the house office buildings. Along with the House Chief Administrative Officer, we continue the hearing room uh hearing room modernization program to restore critical infrastructure and improve technology, ensuring continuity in Congress's legislative duties and allowing your constituents to remotely access congressional proceedings. We have also initiated a number of new projects to improve our facilities. This month, we will break ground on a new external security screening facility for the south entrance of the Capitol building, which will improve security operations and reduce wait times for staff and visitors on official business. We also continue to execute a number of other security improvement projects across the Capitol campus, including end-of-life replacements for security infrastructure and renewal of US Capitol Police facilities necessary for the safety and security of members, staff and visitors. One of my top priorities, since assuming my role as the architect, has been to get a deep understanding of the condition of campus facilities and infrastructure and to share that understanding with Congress. To guide the agency's long-term strategic planning efforts, we are completing the Capital Campus Master Plan, which outlines infrastructure requirements and the agency's recommendations over the next few decades. The goal of this assessment is to assist Congress with long-term planning and budgetary decisions, to prioritize critical infrastructure improvements and maintain the beauty and functionality of the capital campus for generations to come. As the cannon renewal comes to a close, my top concern is now with the condition of the Rayburn House Office building. The condition of the Rayburn House Office building is at a critical juncture and time is of the essence. We are experiencing major challenges each day that impact our ability to keep this facility functional for the operation of Congress. I appreciate the discussions we've had with this committee over the past year and a half, highlighting the urgency of a full renovation of the building and the requirements for swing space. The AOC is committed to providing this committee and your colleagues with all the information necessary to make informed decisions about not only a Rayburn uh renovation, but all of our major projects. Chairman Stile, Ranking Member Morelli, and members of this committee, thank you again for your continued support and oversight.

Thank you very much, Mr. Austin. Uh, I'll begin with questions, uh, followed by a ranking member and we'll alternate sides. So I recognize myself for five minutes for the purpose of asking questions. Um, wanna dive in, uh, i as it relates to Rayburn and what's the driver of the cost. But before I get there, I wanna do a quick history of how did we get here. What is the the cause? Obviously, Rayburn is a significantly newer building than Longworth. Uh, but the maintenance costs are significantly high. Is this a design failure? Uh, when Rayburn was originally built? Was it mismanagement of the building? Did we fail to do preventative maintenance? Can you give us a really brief history lesson as to why is Rayburn failing?

Thank you, Chairman. Uh, so when we say it's one of the newer facilities, that's kind of a relative term when we're talking on campus. It is over sixty years old. And during those sixty years, unfortunately, there was not a lot of investment made in this facility. And so many of the components of these buildings are original. One of the easiest examples I can say is that the air handling units that provide fresh air and and circulate air to the building were designed for thirty years of operation and they're coming up on their sixty first birthday so we're well beyond the need for replacement of those particular components, but that's endemic throughout the building. Other some cost drivers that you spoke about are because when it was constructed in the early nineteen sixties uh it was kind of that sweet spot, we were using both asbestos and lead in our buildings and so those hazardous materials are embedded throughout the infrastructure in this building. The condition of the pipes, the condition of the wires, all of these things that are hidden behind the walls have deteriorated over the years without replacement. And now they're causing some of the issues that both you and the ranking member brought up in your statements that continual leaks in the issues that we have.

So then if I can, let's let's look forward, obviously large cost numbers uh in these buildings. What's the driver in this this significance of the cost that we're seeing? Obviously we're in a good way we're not gonna use lead and asbestos and other things in modern construction but what's what's the driver in the the large kinda eye-popping number uh to redo Rayburn.

Thank you, sir. Uh s so part of this is put in context. The Rayburn house office building is the largest office building on campus by by a large stretch it's over two point three million square feet of facilities all by itself so it is the largest building on campus just in terms of gross square feet, so it's the size issue is part of that uh but it also has what we s spoke about, you s said lead and asbestos, those all have to be remediated and removed and encapsulated depending on where we're talking about it. But some of the other cost drivers are just the operations of Congress, we we need to maintain at least some portion of the facility because of lack of swing space. So we need to be able to maintain security and environmental controls and all these things in the building while some of it's being renovated and some of it's being used by Congress for committee hearings and s and uh regular operations of Congress. And then we have just the challenges we have here on campus, security challenges, historic preservation challenges, all of these things uh and visitor access, these all add multiples to what would normally be considered your price per square foot but all these things uh add up to the cost of this uh project so Some of it is the scale, some of it's the historic preservation, security, member access, and just in order to keep this building operational while it's being renovated.

I I think the the operational piece while it's being renovated is something I wanna just probe on for a second. Uh the US capital complex, actually really unique amongst all democracies across the globe that were open and accessible to the American people. Um I think that's actually mind-blowing uh to foreign visitors that come here, that they can just walk in, sometimes it's surprising to to American citizens. uh but hopefully they're all aware that you can just come and visit. And we're doing both keeping people safe, not only the visitors but members and staff, uh but at the same time open and accessible. The Cannon pl complex was done in multiple phases, including four key phases, uh while the building was operational. As we look at the Rayburn project, is that a lesson learned for a cost savings to not do it in in that many steps?

It absolutely is. Uh one of the enduring lessons we learned from Cannon I call the big three lessons of Cannon, were that doing it in with essentially it was five phases, a zero, one through four, uh was inefficient, you know, all this cycle of mobilization, demobilization, having all this constructions in such close proximity to members, this was all inefficient and disruptive to Congress.

So that that requires f swing space according to your study. What's your number one recommendation on the swing space? From a go ahead.

So as we discussed, Chairman, it is to construct a separate facility for swing space. Given the unique needs of Congress and proximity to the Capitol building, that was the only viable one that or not the only one, but It was one of the the the best course of action that we could come up with.

And and your recommendation is to not look at to to re revitalize Madison and a and a Ma the Madison building i is a way for Congress, but to build new why?

Madison for for a variety of reasons. Number one, Madison was never built for high occupancy uh uh office space, so we would have to do all sorts of renovations and reconstruction inside of it. The ceilings are low, they have a lot of structural columns that are in the way, we'd have to do the HVAC, the plumbing, the all these upgrades, so it's essentially would be a reconstruction of a large portion of Madison.

Le- and let me, let me close with one question that, that I've, that I've heard. Your job is unique. You're a member of the Capitol Police Board, uh which is, you may, maybe isn't intuitive to everybody here on campus, but the infrastructure of the Capitol campus is so essential for the security of this campus. Uh, do you remain committed to working with the Unite- with the US House Sergeant at Arms, uh as you go about uh your work? to in conjunction with the security needs of campus.

Absolutely, Mister Chairman, the House Sergeant at Arms as well as House CAO and US Capitol Police are all key stakeholders in all the work we do, and I'm committed to engaging with them constantly as I do as a member of the Capitol Police Board as you pointed out but also in my role just as the architect. They are a key stakeholder.

Thank you very much. Uh, appreciate your testimony today. I yield back. I now recognize uh the ranking member, Mister Morelli, for purpose of asking questions.

Thank you uh, Mr. Chair. I um, first of all I appreciate the stress on the air handling systems. I think I was designed for about thirty years. I'm way past my useful time as well, so I know I know the pain and suffering of that. So um, I'm just curious sort of following up with the chair's question, but I wanna back up. In layperson's terms, when people use the phrase catastrophic system failure, I mean it sounds frightening. Um And it does suggest obviously a significant um risk, but what does that mean? What what would it look like if there was a catastrophic system failure that we're at risk of?

Sure. So the way we define catastrophic system failure um um cost morally is any failure of a one of the building's systems, specifically the mechanical, electrical, or plumbing systems that would cause part or all of the building to become unusable for the function it was intended, in this case the operations of Congress. I think probably the easiest way to describe a a a failure that happened just this past year, happened this past October, where one of those air handling units did indeed fail, it threw a bearing. And that caused the motor to run asynchronous, caused live vibrations. Credit to the house office building's team that they s caught it early before the air handler rattled itself to pieces or even caused a friction fire. But that failure of just that one component caused over twenty-two suites to be without conditioned air at that time. And because those air handling units are so old, that we don't have components made for them anymore, they had to be custom fabricated in order to repair it. Took about six weeks. But we got lucky. Number one, the mechanics saw it early, caught it early, less damage. Number two was it was a temperate time of the year, and in this particular case Congress was mostly out of session, so the impact to membership was slight.

Yeah.

Uh but it had that happen in June or July or say January when the conditions are more extreme, that was off so those those twenty-two suites and other associated spaces would have been unusable for that period of time. And we would have either had to mitigate it with expensive temporary uh fixes, or we'd have to relocate staff into ad-hoc facilities.

And and um and should that happen, assuming you have contingency plans where staff would go, but it's gotta be limited, right? I mean if you lost fifty suites, I mean obviously each additional office that is uh put out of the office just complicates this more, but do you have contingency plans and how many people could you relocate given your existing physical structures?

Well, this is something we certainly wanna work closely committee as well as house leadership as to what is in the realm of possible when we come to contingency currently there are only four swing space suites available for the normal operations things that happen like when we have these floods that we described earlier when we have to relocate members and staff uh to different facilities there's only four of those so we have had a system like or failure like we just talked about with twenty two we would have had to come up with on this I would say ad-hoc solutions uh utilizing committee spaces utilizing hearing room utilizing other common spaces so that members of Congress could continue to do their function. Uh, so but we look forward to continuing this conversation both with this committee, uh to di- identify additional spaces.

Yeah, do any of these pose uh I mean you you mentioned electrical you mentioned the possibility of fire. I mean those are health and safety risks to staff, members, visitors who are here, I mean is that right?

Well, I wou I would say that the facility I wanna insure fo- folk uh people who work in these buildings these facilities are safe to op- to to be in you know all the hazards we about were encapsulated so that's really only an issue when we try to do renovations or we have some kind of you know major leak or something like this uh however the

Yeah.

really the challenge is operations we we are at risk of having operations failures with these buildings less so safety failures.

Yeah. Um I I mentioned the number of HVAC related and pipe leaks is there, is that number gone up over time? Is that um can can you give me a sense of the the the the numbers and quantify the growing risk, growing problems?

Sure. Um, you're absolutely right. It has gone up over time. We're we're uh the as these facilities age, then we kinda reach this this tipping point where we start having increasing number of failures as all these systems age out and they start having a series of failures on top of each other. So that number has gone up over over the past year. Just over the past um over the just past twelve months, we've had sixteen major leaks. They impacted six member suites, four committee office spaces. five member storage areas and two hallways. Each one of those required millions of dollars remedia or not each one, but collectively they required millions of dollars remediation and repairs, and that just got us back to where we started with. So yes, they are increasing.

And so we should anticipate even greater numbers if we don't address this. Um, you had mentioned swing space, assume the goal is, and I think in our conversations we've all had this um discussion, that that would make those offices that you build in swing

Absolutely. Yes, that would be permanent space to be utilized at the direction of Congress. Uh certainly as swing space for future renovations as the Chairman pointed out for potentially the Longworth renovation that would happen uh subsequent to Rayburn.

Right.

But also we we rent on the uh we lease on the house side hundreds of thousands of square feet of other facilities that could be re-shored back onto the capital campus, but it would also be available for use by Congress, however they decide.

Gotcha. Thank you for your indulgence. I yield back.

The gentleman yields back. The gentleman uh from Georgia, Mister Lautermelch, is recognized for purpose of asking questions.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, thank you for being here. Um, and uh, for the work that you're doing. I know it's a daunting task. especially when you're dealing with aging technology, aging buildings. Um one thing a and I know there's some of this you may not be able to talk about in this setting, but um can ca you give us kind of an um a brief rundown on where we are with security upgrades uh I know that there were several that were underway prior to the incidents of January sixth, twenty twenty one uh can you give us an idea of where we are? Hold on.

Thank you for the question. And you you're correct, there are certain things I I can't discuss in open forum, but would happy to meet with you afterwards if you'd like to speak in more detail. I can say for for certain some things we put on the record thus far, is all the exterior doors to the Capitol building have been replaced with high security doors. We've also replaced all the w outside facing windows of the Capitol building. We're doing that in a round robin fashion to the House and Senate office buildings, so that's happening right now. We've made some uh we're in design phase, getting ready to implement some changes on the west front of the Capitol to extend our security

Okay. Um being our semi-coincident in the old year,

Mm.

we expect

I have, both from a security perspective as you just mentioned as well as just welcoming all these visitors to the Capital Visitor Center so definitely looking forward to all the activities associated with two fiftyth and looking forward to welcome the American people to the beautiful Capital Campus.

Well, I appreciate that. Um, and there's a lot of discussion uh b uh regarding future uh refurbishments. And from what I understand, Rayburn would be the next priority. Um, and uh the the s Just make sure that that I understand we're talking potentially building an uh a facility as temporary space, is that right?

Correct. That's one of the recommendations we've made uh to Congress, and we're still awaiting Congress' Congress' decision and and f and consensus guidance on that. But that is one of the recommendation is to build what would be a permanent facility, but the temporary use of that would be for swing space for those renovations, Rayburn along with specifically.

J just from logistics and security, would would that be something co-located here with underground access to other buildings? Okay.

Cur yeah, yes, Congressman. I I mean to nod to say yes, but yes, that that would be correct. We uh want to follow the committee's guidance, which was very helpful when they said that for the members, uh specifically the staff, we wanna have a no more than a ten minute walk between the offices and the chambers to facilitate votes and then underground access for security and all weather access.

Okay. Um w- do we have any time frame? I know you're probably waiting on Congress, which means it may happen in the next millennia, maybe the next two hundred and fifty years before we get to it, but um i- if everything lays out properly uh or or the way it should, what when when would you expect that we would see the refurbishing of Rayburn to begin?

Uh you're absolutely correct, Congressman. That is dependent on a lot of decisions that we're still pending uh to do so. So we know there's enabling work that needs to be done regardless of this scenario that we we we pick uh but it the based on the this the one that we've received guidance here from this committee we're looking probably about five years into the future w um I I I'm well I'm sure I'm phrasing this correctly. If we went with a separate building option, it's probably close to about eight years before we could actually start the Rayburn renovation itself.

Okay.

And then we're gonna and it get all the design and enabling work complete beforehand.

In that eight years, is there anything we can do to make the Rayburn escalators all work at the same time?

So I will say that the perceptions everything, but we do have twenty seven of twenty eight escalators are currently functional. One of those is in the Longworth, uh that's correct, that is currently not functional. Uh it's part of the challenge with all of this part of the campus. Those in a lot of cases are still original components to some of these buildings. We have received funding uh in the past for a vertical transportation system, which includes both elevators and escalators. And we're starting to replace major components in a round robin fashion, but we're looking as that is a programmatic requirement going into the future, to spend money on those upgrades of components, not full replacement, but components to make them more reliable.

Well I appreciate that, because quite often I can either go up or I can go down, but I can't do both in Rayburn. So or I can go from one floor to the next.

The gentleman yields back. The gentleman from Virginia, Mister Griffith, is recognized for five minutes.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, I appreciate it, so I'm gonna switch gears for a minute and then I'll switch back over to Rayburn. Everybody's interested in what's going on at Rayburn. But uh uh ranking member Morelli and I have this little bill in and we thought, I thought originally it was gonna be our jurisdiction, turns out it's TNI and it's to create an adult changing station in uh the Library of Congress and in the Visitor Center because I had constituents who came to me and they brought their severely handicapped child up here who needs to be changed but she's an adult and there was no facilities when they were visiting the Capitol where they could find adequate space to change their daughter and so I was just wondering I mean we got the bill, it's always nice to get a bill passed, but do we need a bill passed? Can you take care of that?

So, thank you for the question. This is something that we've been addressing. Uh, we have uh identified two locations inside the CBC, one on the Senate side of the CBC, one on the House. We have program money in this year's bill and we're awaiting permit or authorization from both the House and Senate because in the CBC it's joint space, in order to proceed with the design of it. Those upgrades, it's as you know, Congressman, those are are are more significant than just say a baby changing station.

That's correct.

It's it requires electrical, it applies plumbing. There's some structural concerns.

Well well w right for I mean for the viewers back home,

It doesn't work this time.

uh when you're talking about an adult child, you can't just put 'em on one of the changing stations that uh that you find in your basic uh highway rest area. You've gotta have a whole room and it's gotta be dedicated and you've got lots of different types of disabilities you have to take into account. So I'm not I'm not thinking it would be something easy, but uh but you're right, it takes a lot, but you think we can get it done.

I think we can get it done. Uh again we're we're w we have the money program to in order to do the design this year, uh just weighing on approval, but I I don't expect that to be an issue.

Alright, let's let's talk about Rayburn for a minute and I and I appreciate it's gonna take some time to plan so you can't just rush in there and do things. But it's been very frustrating for about the last year as a member of Energy and Commerce 'cause one of our rooms is being renovated, and the amount of time it's taken to renovate the the hearing room uh just seems to be inordinately long. And I'm hopeful that we can figure out ways to do that faster, 'cause I I've seen houses built, particularly when you know you're coming in, I've seen houses built uh faster than renovating our committee hearing room. I know we got electrical issues and and because it's energy and commerce and we're supposed to be the technology committee, it would be nice to have, you know, microphones that actually work and so forth, and I get that. Uh, but can you explain why it's taking so long?

Sure, I I understand. And this the hearing room renovation program is something we're working closely with the house CAO in order to accomplish. And it's a as you pointed out, Congressman, this is more than just, you know, a quick refurbishment of a few things. We we have to pull up the floors because all the electrical s uh infrastructure runs under the floors. In many cases we're extending the dice uh depending on the needs of the committee, if the committee membership has expanded. We have the uh audio-visual and the hookups and everything else to modernize and standardize that package. Of course working with uh House CAO uh in the House Arjan arms for security and uh upgrades the building itself, and of course the historical preservation. That and also uh as you pointed out in your earlier question, we're also making these chambers uh and uh hearing rooms ADA accessible. And that well often that requires structural improvements to the facility itself. And I believe that's part of the all those challenges were associated with entering commerce section.

So switching quickly to to Rayburn, here's here's what I would say, 'cause that's a Rayburn uh committee hearing room. is when you're doing your planning, see if, I mean, but particularly because members are gonna be relocated and all of that, uh figure out how you can do as much modular stuff as you can do so you i i w we get kicked out and you're pulling stuff out and putting stuff back in fairly quickly. And since you've got some time to plan, I would hope that you all would work on that. Let me give you two other quick things before I run out of time. One uh uh uh it was probably before your time, but there's a little company in my district called Crenshaw Lighting that a lot of the lighting for the capital when there's a problem, because they can uh reproduce or replicate uh some of that historic lighting, and we appreciate that business, 'cause every job in my district's very important. I have uh uh we're four O nine on uh on uh household income out of the four hundred and thirty-five so every job is important we appreciate that and then you mentioned having to get uh or or reconstruct uh replacement parts for certain things, uh because they're out of date. If you have the specs, there's a little company in my district that can do any metal and do three D printing. And they might not save you any money, but they'll save you a lot of time because instead of getting at the back of the line for custom made uh foundry work or or metal work they they do all metals including titanium and they can uh replicate whatever part you need. They're doing it now for DOD. They've done parts on naval ships. They can do parts for the capital. And uh now that I've touted my district and gotten a few things off my chest, I will yield back, Mister Chairman.

The ch- the gentleman yields back. Uh, n- the chair now recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina, Doctor Murphy.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and thank you uh for coming for the committee today. Uh, I've got a a bunch of questions. I wanna go back on the cannon issue. So how much was that over budget?

Uh, so the original midpoint of the budget estimate uh was about seven hundred and fifty million dollars we're coming in at nine seventy-one overall.

Okay. So almost quarter million do quarter million dollars over. What how about timing? How how far ov how long overrun was it?

Uh I The short answer to the question was not, um because the s the committee spaces were ti or the the s office spaces were tied to the congressional move cycle. In all four phases we were able to turn over every uh suite on time so it could be a part of the move cycle. We did, to your point though, we did move some of the ancillary features and portions of the to the tail-end of the program overall, so that we could make those accelerated uh turnover of with the suites. So there are certain things that w went to the end of the project,

S

but the the primary features of the project were turned over on time.

So what was the, if you had to pick out one thing or top two things, the primary cost overruns, what was the issue?

I I would say there's several things. Uh I'd say it's part of the enduring uh lessons we learned from the project. I would say one of the things uh was the change management issues when we first start the project. Uh we allowed kind of a low threshold for changes, and we got a lot of changes that came in from Congress, some of the changes that came just because part of the design. And so we wanna have a higher bar for future projects with change management, and it's a higher threshold to make those changes consistent.

Who makes your contracts?

Uh we do, we we do the contracts with the uh contractors.

Alright, so I'm assuming that there are pullbacks if if the c if there are cost overruns or if there's something that there is some risk, that the contractors would accept.

But

Just trying to again we'd do If we're gonna talk about this with redoing Rayburn, we have to use every little bit of experience from Canon to make sure that the same,

Sure.

I don't wanna say disaster, the same, you know, cost overruns don't occur with Rayburn. So

I would I'd uh say that this has come up before and I just wanna um brief. When it came to Canon, as the chairman pointed out earlier, the original cost estimate was done in two thousand nine for the seven hundred and fifty million dollars. But because it was given put forward so early in the project, our estimators gave a plus or minus forty percent, which is large when it comes to construction projects.

Good lord.

Uh and so during the time through all the projects the the timeline came through it, including early the twenty twenties, when we had the COVID shutdowns and the pandemic and the price escalations and the uh

Sure.

material disruptions and we had an enforced shutdown of the project in early twenty, twenty one, all those create significant headwinds. But even after all of that, coming at nine seventy one, although it is high in that estimate, it's still within the original estimate.

Yeah. Well, I I would just uh I would just say, you know, the the the outside world loves a government contract. And I hope there are people within your department or whatever that are questioning every nickel and dime, as it would out in the private world, because this is taxpayer money, it's not, you know, just gonna come out of air. And to have real due diligence on these things I think is critically important. Let me let me move on a little bit um for the capital complex master plan. Where are you guys with that?

So it's a multi-phase project. We are in the last phase of that uh with our designers. Uh we're finishing that up this fall. We have certain aspects of it, like the Rayburn like some things were in the Senate that are complete now, uh but as far as the the whole comprehensive plan, that will be complete this fall and we look forward to future briefings both this committee and others.

Do you ever get any type of outside consultants to look at this, or is this all done this master plan done within the government itself?

It's it's both, we do have outside consultants that we're working with for the master plan, we have a large a architecture and engineering firm that we're working with that's helping us with the master plan and we do bring in

Okay. I mean I just I I I don't think we outl use um outside sources enough from the government we tend to turn in and I think sadly enough that creates more bureaucracy and actually ends up ends up more cost um going back to our favorite topic of the of the committee hearing Rayburn um if we're gonna put another building to replace it where where is that are you at liberty to say where that would be where have I heard that before?

Well we'll put it where Congress tells us to put it Congressman so uh we have some

Um

We we have suggestions as far as different locations. Um s we have the the preferred location, the one that we briefed out, is over the West Ho West House Underground Garage, but that is still very much up for uh d discussion. But we are conscious of the guidance this committee has given us, that we any place we select has to be within a ten minute walk of the chamber and has to have tunnel access. And that narrows our choices down significantly.

Okay. If you're doing that, if you don't mind, put an underground baseball complex for so us that we for get up or stupid enough to get up at the early part of dawn,

Doctor Murphy yields back. The gentleman from Ohio, Mister Kerry, is recognized for five minutes.

Thank thank you. I wanna thank the chairman as w- uh and the vice chair or the uh uh ranking members. Well um you mentioned early on, and you were about to expand upon it, and I think you got interrupted. You said there were three main lessons from the Cannon building that we could look at to maybe as we as we look at Rayburn. What were those three?

Sure. Thank you, Congressman. So, yeah, the big three, we we discussed some in detail, is that number by doing Cannon in so many small phases, that was inefficient because of the mobilization and demobilization of the contractor, and also being tied to artificial constraints. The second one, which is sort of tied to the first, is we wanna separate our construction from the operations of Congress as much as possible. So the more we can have our c our construction be on one side of our building and Congress operating on the other and not have to intermix this much uh because disrupting operations of Congress is certainly something we always want to avoid, but the the inverse is true too, when we have operations of Congress that have to uh interrupt the options of of the construction, that means we do a lot of construction at night, we do a lot of construction in the weekend, we pay a premium for that, that's inefficient, and we don't get as much produ productivity out of our contractors because of that, so The second lesson is separating construction from Congress as much as possible is desirable. And then the last one was I spoke about just a moment ago, was about change management. Uh we wanna make sure that we nail the design up front, that we get our program of requirements identified, that it's been vetted, and then any subsequent changes, unless they involve design oversights, differing site conditions, or life health safety, really have a high bar for implementation. So we don't have kind of that good idea fairy hitness way away from the la project that's adding cost and time to the project.

Um, and as somebody that's been involved with historic preservation most of my life it's a passion of mine. Um, do you see the changes? I mean, Cannon was built in, if if I'm correct, nineteen O eight. And then you had Rayburn in the nineteen sixties. Obviously the the material that was used in the construction of Cannon quite a bit different than what it was done in the nineteen sixties. So as you're looking at that expense and, you know, and and the delta between what what

That that is correct.

Mm.

They they integrated asbestos specifically more into the Rayburn building than they did into Cannon. It's it's literally embedded into almost all the fibers, especially the structural components in in Rayburn.

the reason we're having issues with the mechanicals, because in many ways you can't, I'm doing this more anecdotally, but you you the reason that you can't access a lot of these areas of the Rayburn is because of the threat of exposing with asbestos uh or and or lead paint exposure, yeah.

It is absolutely a complicating factor in all the work we do in Rayburn, yes.

Um one other thing you you you mentioned um how you had to fabricate some of the the inner workings within the air duct. uh system at at the Rayburn building. And and you're finding that, I mean, in in your role, uh you find that all over the capital. Correct? I mean just like our subways, for example.

Correct, more so in some places than other, but yes, when we're working with historic components, as you point out, most of that is custom worked in order to do that. When it comes to the mechanical components, because some of ours are so old, a lot of that has to be custom fabricated. You know, I can point to many examples if you like.

Oh and and you know to the end of you know talking again anecdotally about you know having escalators that work and all of those things, I mean it it the the the great concept, but I mean w we still are a functioning office facility, while in a sense we have to be mindful of preserving the past. And so how um and I only have a minute and let you expand and we'll we'll follow up, but how while you are going through the process of making it a a building, uh a a living building, um but in the same in sense having to deal with the historical significance of what you can and cannot change. It'd be much more efficient to c replace the the subway under the system right now than it would be to refabricate all these things how how do you have to what do you have to what are the pro what's the process you have to go through in order to do something like that?

So you're absolutely right, it's a complicated process, it's it's balancing a lot of factors between form and functionality, historic preservation, the desires of Congress, the ADA, there's a lot of factors that play into it. We have an what's called an architectural review board that we work internally with our stakeholders to make sure that the all the voices are being heard and then we make these decisions in the best interest of the future functionality of the space as well as in light of historic preservation. Cuz we want our future visitors to have that same wow experience when they come to our campus that we get when we see it today.

And I and I would agree with the the ranking member in terms of a new structure and uh would be happy to uh work with you on on how we would begin the process of design. I'm I'm assuming that the environmental scan has already been done, you've already done the soil samples and all those things. All right. With that, uh, Mr. Chairman, thank you and I yield back.

Can you hear me now? Okay. We now jo- recognize the general woman from Illinois, Miss Miller, for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman, for hosting this hearing, and thank you, Mister Austin, for being here. The architect of the Capitol is an important job here in Washington, D. C., especially ahead of our nation's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. Mister Austin, you oversee many employees preserve and maintain the capital grounds and the safety of members, staff and visitors. This committee appreciates the steps that you have taken to bring stability and organization to the agency. Not only is the capital building historic, but it's also an important symbol of democracy all over the world. Managing the upkeep of this building and its grounds is essential to making sure our government is able to function efficiently. As a result of the work of the AOC and its employees, the Capitol continues to provide an enduring and inspiring home for American democracy. Your job is not easy, and we do certainly appreciate all that you've accomplished in the short time you've been in the role. And so, my question is, could you please explain what deferred maintenance is and how it's different from your maintenance backlog and how you plan to address both?

Sure, that's that's a that's a long conversation uh, Congressman, and I'm happy to have a more in-depth discussion with you, but the short version of that is our maintenance backlog, uh identified projects, or deferred maintenances, projects that we've identified, we've scoped, sometimes and in some cases designed, and have not yet been funded or have been pushed into future years because of operational or or budgetary needs. Uh, our maintenance backlog or deferred maintenances is can be it it's everything from uh the sampling of our mechanical systems to sampling of our plumbing systems, all work to design and we we look at that as in terms of an overall value to the building. But I hesitate to give numbers associated with these because I think it undersells the amount of work that would be required to do so. We've had discussions in the past where numbers have been thrown out that would not be sufficient in order to take care of all of these uh missions. And just this budget year alone we have over six hundred million dollars of identified projects uh that we're looking to do. And this exists in a time continuum, so if we don't do those in the f present year or current years, they get pushed into future years because none of that work really goes away. It just gets added to future ma uh maintenance issues.

Mm-hmm. So what's your um most complicated issue, your biggest challenge, and how can we help you?

So I I would say the facilities a condition in general, your the committee has been very helpful as we've been designing the Rayburn project. I'd say my Rayburn program overall, how we go about it, uh the the means, the methods, the swing space, the phasing and all that is something that uh that's been my biggest challenge is to get a firm course of action so that we can start moving forward on that project as I spoke about earlier time is of the essence when it comes to that and it's because as these system failures keep increasing in frequency and severity that's gonna start impacting members of congress more and more and I am keen to avoid that and I'm keen to get to get ahead of it as much as possible.

And how do you facilitate proactive maintenance in order to prevent reactive maintenance on the Capitol grounds.

So I will say a a sh shout out to my staff is they do a great job um keeping abreast of facility issues as much as they possibly can some things that are hidden behind our walls like our HVAC issues or plumbing electrical some of those things don't show up until they show up and we have an issue. But some things we talk about preventative maintenance with our HVAC systems ma uh preventative maintenance when it comes to our some of our plumbing components they do a great job of doing that we do over half a million work orders a year throughout the Capitol campus. Uh the the ranking members spoke about just the the plumbing and some of the the hydronic issues we have inside campus. Uh it's a constant challenge, we do a great job of tracking it, our our on-time work order is over ninety five percent these days, and uh we wanna make sure that we're staying abreast of those and doing great data tracking great uh predictive maintenance, uh by utilizing uh the um by utilizing the the feedback systems we have with our maintenance systems.

I think you've been doing a good job and we're happy to support you.

Thank you, Congresswoman. And I yield back.

Uh, gentlelady yields now recognize the gentleman from Virginia.

I could steal

Some of her time.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm gonna steal a couple of a a minute of your time. I went through all that stuff about that great Southwest Virginia business that uh does the uh m metal uh three D printing and they do big stuff too, and didn't tell you the name, and it's uh Meld and Meld Printworks, and it truly is, Mr. Chairman, a a Southwest Virginia success story. The lady by the name of Nancy Hardwick uh fought for twenty years to get the technology developed, and uh it's it's a woman-owned entrepreneur and a real success story. So I just if you got some part that you can't find and it's gonna cost you a bunch of money and take six months they can get it done quicker. I yield back.

Gentleman yields uh now recognized, a gentlelady from Oklahoma, mis-bys for five minutes.

Thank you uh, Mister Chairman, and first let me say Mister Austin, thank you for being here and on behalf of Oklahoma's congressional delegation, I wanna thank you and your team for working with my office to plant a sapling of the Oklahoma City National Memorial sapling tree on the Capitol grounds last April to honor those that were lost in the Alphapimera federal building bombing on April nineteenth, nineteen ninety five. We um are excited to direct our constituents to uh the Capitol grounds to see the sapling. And I was there uh a month ago with Senator Lankford and it has grown tremendously um since it was planted last April. So huge appreciation from our delegation in your assistance in getting that done. Uh I also wanna thank you and your team for the um ADA pickup and drop-off outside of the Capitol. You know, when I became the uh Modernization and Innovation Subcommittee Chairwoman, I was shocked to learn that there was not a permanent ADA access point for individuals coming to this uh the people's house and so you were in I think instrumental in your team in figuring out how to make that happen quickly, keeping in mind security aspects that are important um on this campus, but also recognizing that many people who visit the building that have physical disabilities were having a hard time and uh we got to celebrate that important um uh ADA pick-up drop-off uh launch last year and I'm very thankful for that. Your office and the challenges that you face are unique, and I hope that with continued transparency with the architect of the capital in conjunction with house administration that we can help address the looming challenges that make the capital complex more sustainable for future generations. You have been a great partner um and I hope that we can continue to build off of the successes

Uh, as far as institu- well, first off, let me preamble the the survivor tree is definitely a survivor tree, because it has thrived since it's been on campus, and so that's a huge success story as as we've discussed. But thank you for that shout out, and I'll make sure to pass it on to my Capital Grounds and Arboretum team. They're very proud of those trees. The as far as institutional growth, Congresswoman, um I would say when we're talk we've had some discussions about the scale of the Rayburn renovation and it certainly will be the largest renovation program this agency's ever taken on and I'd probably posit to say inside the federal government writ large it's one of the largest uh renovation programs. And so as we're trying to tackle that challenge, what do I have to look at in my staff in order to make sure I can support such a program of that size? And as that the the parameters of that program get fleshed out I look for opportunities to have a about what that program team will look like and grow them into that. Some other areas that we're trying to be more responsive to the needs, we've had a lot of discussion today about elevators and escalators. So I wanna be more responsive to that. We're looking at technology issues in that, we're also looking at human capital that way as well. Uh and that we can respond more quickly and at all hours to it. So right now on the weekends for instance we will have someone to respond because we have people all those to respond to elevator outages. But we wanna make sure there's an elevator mechanic that can respond at all hours in case something like

When you m um mentioned the Rayburn renovation, um can you t maybe talk a little bit uh briefly about the difference with renovating a building like Rayburn versus what we've been working on with the Cannon building.

True. So the most obvious way is its size. Uh, is Rayburn's significantly larger, almost three times the size of of of Cannon, not quite, but almost three times the size of Cannon. Uh, it's also has a lot more challenges associated with just the way it was constructed. We've talked a lot bit about asbestos and lead and and some of the challenges are much more prevalent in that building than they were in Cannon. There's a lot of materials issues and things of that nature as well, but I'd say the the biggest differences between those two are going to be um when it comes just the way we maintain member access, the points in and out of the building, and also this facility, O'Kannon has some, but this facility, Rayburn has more and more hearing rooms and committee spaces and other specialty facilities like a firing range for the Capitol Police and other things that were not uh challenges inside Cannon and certainly will be a part of this program.

Thank you. Appreciate um all you've done for this institution and certainly for the campus and um collaboration and working together on making sure that we're doing what we can to improve the people's health. So thank you and your team uh for your hard work. And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield.

General Lady Yields, I'd like to thank our witness for appearing before us today. Members of the committee may have some additional questions for you, and we ask that you please respond to those questions in writing. Without objection, each member will have five legislative days to insert additional or to revise and extend their remarks. If there's no further business, I thank the members for their participation. Without objection, the committee stands adjourned.