Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
Introduction. At the outset I would like to thank the Committee for this opportunity to update you on matters related to the Congressional Research Service. I also want to use this occasion to convey my thanks to the Committee for its support for CRS in the past. I look forward to a continued close working relationship with you throughout the 108th Congress and beyond.
I testify today at a time of unprecedented circumstances for the Congress, for our Nation, and for the world. The mission of CRS is to contribute to an informed national legislature - a mission of critical importance during a time of foreign turbulence and domestic uncertainties. Our country's past experience, from the Civil War to Vietnam, suggests that during wartime Congress faces enormous challenges in exercising its constitutional legislative and oversight responsibilities. During the Civil War the Congress created the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War to investigate military operations. Although subject to criticism for its procedures and operations, some scholars have credited the Committee with contributing significantly to the war effort. The experience of World War II, which saw the creation of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, the so-called "Truman Committee," to oversee an unprecedented growth in military spending, led to a determination by Congress that it required independent, objective analytical support in order to design legislative solutions to the problems facing the country and to effectively evaluate the proposals, policies, and operations put forward by the Executive Branch. As a result, the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 included the first statutory charter for CRS with a commitment that Congress would have access to research expertise at the same level of quality as that available to the President.
Similar developments occurred during the Vietnam War, when Congress was again forced to make critical decisions on issues affecting U.S. foreign policy, military capability, economic policy, and domestic stability. Congress again concluded that it needed additional support in order to evaluate the implications of competing legislative proposals and to monitor the myriad programs administered by the Executive Branch. As a result, the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 enhanced the missions and functions of the Legislative Branch by expanding the roles and mandates of the congressional support agencies, including CRS, leading to a rapid expansion of our staff and our research capabilities.
As I come before you today, the United States is engaged in a war on terrorism that is perhaps more complex and threatening than any we have faced before. Even though traditional conventional military action can be intense, as exemplified in Iraq and Afghanistan, the combination of the existence of world-wide terrorist networks and rogue states with lethal weaponry leaves us with the prospect of continuing risks and uncertainty, both at home and abroad - a war without boundaries, without an end in sight.
Mr. Chairman, we at CRS know that each day you and your colleagues address critical issues with vital consequences for all Americans. Homeland security involves difficult tradeoffs between the need for greater security on the one hand, and important economic, social, and constitutional considerations on the other. Similarly, budgetary realities may well require difficult choices among competing priorities, as new responsibilities for establishing stable and democratic regimes overseas are superimposed on multiple requirements for military preparedness, domestic and social programs, counter-terrorism and intelligence capabilities, and economic stimulus.
In all these areas CRS stands ready to support Congress with a wide array of expertise. Later in my testimony, I will elaborate on specific instances in which we are providing Members and committees with analytic and information support. At this point, I want to emphasize that in all cases you and your colleagues can continue to rely on CRS to advise and assist the Congress in the analysis, appraisal, and evaluation of legislative proposals, in assessing the advisability of enactment, estimating the probable consequences of such enactment, both intended and unintended, and examining alternative options.
The Mission of CRS. Mr. Chairman, our statutory charter makes it clear that our sole mission is to serve the Congress. We were established in order to provide you a reliable resource for confidential, non-partisan and objective research and analysis on all legislative issues. CRS provides this support at all stages of the legislative process - from the development of proposals, to the preparation and conduct of hearings, to mark-up and the writing of reports, to floor consideration, conference, and beyond implementation to oversight.
In order to be useful to you, the research and analysis that we provide must be authoritative, reliable and accurate as well as comprehensive. And just as important, that support must be provided in the form and substance that matches the legislative context within which the issue arises for you. The close working relationship of CRS analysts and information specialists with congressional staff makes that possible. As an extension of congressional staff, we understand the nature of the question and the form of response that will best meet your needs.
CRS has resident analysts in virtually all disciplines who are able to cover the wide range of issues before the Congress, including law, economics, foreign affairs and national defense, the physical and behavioral sciences, environmental science, public administration, and the social sciences. The work of these experts can be undertaken through original analysis, the synthesis of existing research, or through the application of original models, unique databases, or other analytical tools which support collaborative internal research efforts. The breadth and depth of resident expertise enables CRS staff to come together quickly to provide integrated, cross-cutting analysis on complex issues that span multiple legislative and program areas.
CRS brings a multi-disciplinary approach to bear through a variety of vehicles, including confidential memoranda for individual Members, committees, or staff; analytical reports available to all Members; in-person consultations and briefings by CRS experts; telephone consultations; and educational seminars and workshops. A staff of CRS information professionals also provides a wide range of specialized reference and information services.
In summary, as a shared pool of expertise working as trusted, extended staff of the Congress, CRS is uniquely positioned to meet congressional needs cost effectively and efficiently. With no public mission, CRS never speaks for the Congress, rather it speaks with the Congress, providing Members, committees and staff the analysis, research and information that they require to carry out their legislative, oversight, and representational responsibilities.
The Range and Depth of CRS Assistance. Over the last year and a half, Congress has faced major, unprecedented challenges to our national security at the same time that it has been called upon to address many other continuing and emerging problems carrying significant implications for our general well-being. In this relatively brief period of time, Congress has been required to advance its efforts at combating terrorism to a top and continuing priority; to institutionalize the country's focus on homeland security; and to shape foreign and defense policies to address extremely serious threats posed by rogue nations.
Throughout these especially difficult and demanding times, Congress has continually turned to the Congressional Research Service, often on a confidential basis, for timely, highly competent and objective assistance in meeting analytical and information needs across a wide range of policy areas. Most notably, Congress has received ongoing CRS support in responding to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, in enhancing security through governmental reorganization, and in addressing seats of international instability such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks. The day after the September 11 attacks, CRS provided Congress with immediate access to its experts and to products most relevant to terrorism through postings on the CRS web site. Among the areas of relevant, in-house expertise we identified for the Congress prior to the attack were terrorism policy, intelligence, law enforcement, emergency response preparedness, biological and chemical weaponry, border security, and war powers. One of the dozen CRS products highlighted for the Congress on September 12 was Terrorism, Middle Eastern Groups and State Sponsors, 2001, which had just been updated on September 10, the day before the attacks, and included a substantial section on Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden - well before either captured headlines and became familiar names.
Members and Committees of the Congress have received ongoing assistance from CRS, frequently through briefings and confidential memoranda, in assessing the nature and magnitude of unprecedented terrorist threats and attacks, in seeking out and evaluating options, and ultimately in enacting nearly fifty public laws which directly and significantly respond, at least in part, to the 9/11 acts of terrorism and the anthrax attacks which included the Congress as a direct target.
Examples of congressional use of CRS expertise in this setting abound. Congress consulted CRS experts on war powers in developing and considering the legislation authorizing a use-of- force response to acts of terrorism; on immigration policy in developing and considering legislation authorizing the issuance of visas to terrorism informants; on budget processes and on a large range of specific programs in developing and considering emergency supplemental appropriations as well as adapting annual appropriations to include an explicit focus on terrorism; on economic repercussions and recovery of financial markets; on transportation economics, tort liability and victim compensation in developing and considering legislation to provide assistance to airlines and to victims of the 9/11 acts of terrorism; on law enforcement, civil liberties, alien admissions to the United States and financial transactions regulations in developing and considering the USA Patriot Act, which enhances government powers in investigating and penalizing terrorism and supporting activities; on food safety, drinking water supply systems, disease control and disaster medical preparedness in developing and considering the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, passed in response to a variety of bio-terrorism concerns arising in part from the anthrax attacks which took place in the weeks following 9/11.
Homeland Security. Having closely supported earlier Senate initiatives and proposals for a department of homeland security, CRS was well positioned to assist when the President formally proposed the creation of such a department. CRS presented Congress with phone and email contact information for nearly 100 highly relevant CRS experts, posting this information on the CRS Web Site and mailing it to each Member of Congress. At the same time, CRS established a comprehensive research management structure to coordinate a large volume of intensive work related to the creation of this new department.
CRS experts working on homeland security are necessarily drawn from an extraordinary range of expertise. This is because of the large array of policy and administrative issues that confronted the Congress as it drafted and implemented a departmental blueprint for an exceptionally broad and novel mission to be carried out by unusually vast and varied resources. Thus, our attorneys have worked on collective bargaining, immigration and securing intelligence information. Our scientists have worked on interoperability of emergency communications, food safety, securing critical infrastructures, and protecting public health. CRS administrative experts have worked on federal personnel management flexibilities, administrative appointments and reporting and other departmental oversight requirements. CRS immigration experts have worked on border controls, options for issuing visas, and monitoring resident aliens. CRS transportation experts have worked on security, safety and economic viability. CRS emergency preparedness experts have worked on intergovernmental coordination, restructuring federal first-responder assistance, and assessing types and levels of risk. Multiple and simultaneous applications for each area of expertise in CRS have been the norm in meeting congressional analytical and information needs on homeland security.
To manage a large volume of urgent research assignments often requiring new combinations of CRS experts, we established a comprehensive research management structure that was tailored to the specific task before the Congress. CRS designated senior researchers to coordinate work across all divisions in eight major areas: the five principal aspects of the proposed and subsequently adopted departmental mission as well as administrative issues, funding, and congressional oversight. Such research management steps allowed us to meet unusually large congressional demands on our expertise throughout a fast-paced legislative process and to support continuing congressional needs in the implementation and oversight phases for the new department.
As work on the legislation progressed, Congress received timely, expert assistance which continues in the implementation and oversight phases for the Department. We have kept our experts apprised of all major developments with online services and, working directly with committees of jurisdiction, we have expedited delivery to all our homeland security experts of print copies of bills and draft bills. Such steps, along with facilitated access to resources CRS developed in work on previous large-scale reorganizations (for example, legislation establishing the departments of Education and of Energy) have positioned our experts to meet ongoing congressional needs, often on-the-spot in telephone or in-person consultations. These steps also have ensured timely updates for dozens of CRS research products assembled for ready online access on the CRS Web Site.
Iraq War. As the confrontation between the United States and Iraq escalated, CRS provided information to facilitate contact with its experts through the CRS Web Site and direct mailings to all Members. At critical junctures CRS experts presented seminars for Members and staff with simultaneous web-casting of these events through the Capitol Hill Network.
We also established research coordination mechanisms tailored to the special circumstances presented by the unfolding international tensions. We assigned experts across a number of disciplines and subject areas to work individually and jointly to address issues related to the conflict. Relevant CRS expertise extends across defense (U.S. and Iraqi capabilities, weapons of mass destruction, intelligence, tactics), international organizations (most notably UN security and humanitarian relief functions), regions and countries (EU, Gulf States, Middle East, Iraq, Turkey), economics (implications of budget impacts, volatile energy prices, trade impediments), energy (pricing, production, reserves), and law (war powers, preemption/prevention justifications for war, war crimes) and a number of other areas. Congress makes heavy use of these experts, using contact information or already established working relationships for ongoing consultations, including work on extended research efforts. Congress also frequently consults the dozens of research products that we maintain across all major areas of congressional needs. Congress has around-the-clock access to these products and other supporting services through a specially assembled grouping available on the CRS Web Site.
We have developed additional services to meet extensive congressional needs for basic information to monitor international and domestic decision making, events and disclosures relating to Iraq and its environs, public and official reactions at home and abroad, as well as legislative options and actions. CRS information research specialists maintain an online account of daily developments across principal areas of interest to the Congress. The staff of our Bill Digest Office maintain a comprehensive online service, updated daily, covering all bills and resolutions in the 108th Congress relating to Iraq, with annotations, current status and direct links to bill language. Our information research specialists maintain an online annotated listing of domestic and international official sources with links to underlying documents. These special efforts place extremely heavy demands on CRS staff, but they directly support significant ongoing congressional needs as well as information needs of our own analysts, allowing them to focus more exclusively and effectively on meeting congressional needs requiring their specialized expertise.
Other significant issues. At the same time Congress has faced extraordinary and continuing threats to the security of the Nation, it has also addressed many other significant policy problems and oversight challenges. Across all these other areas, Congress has turned to CRS repeatedly for expert assistance which has been delivered in briefings, confidential memoranda, testimony, research reports, and information services. Some of the more extensive areas of CRS service to the Congress over the recent past include work on elementary and secondary education reforms, corporate financial integrity, election reforms, campaign finance reform, economic growth and tax relief legislation, the 2002 farm bill, trade promotion authority, an extended FY2003 appropriations cycles, welfare reauthorization, medicare structural reform, prescription drugs, global health assistance, and safety provisions in space programs.
Serving Congress Online. Complementing direct congressional interactions with CRS, is around-the-clock, online congressional access to analytical and information products prepared by our experts. We recognize the importance of this service by providing it directly and prominently on our Web site and by maintaining two well-developed online systems for locating relevant products.
Occupying the center of the CRS Web Site is a menu of 26 broad policy areas which serves as the gateway to nearly 700 actively maintained CRS products supporting congressional needs across 150 current legislative issues. The CRS "current legislative issues system" conveys efficient and effective research support that is directly aligned to the ongoing work of the Congress. For example, we have successfully met a number of wide-spread and pressing congressional requirements by providing immediate access to collections of timely CRS research products and other services relating to such significant and, at times, rapidly evolving policy areas as Iraq, terrorism, homeland security, space programs, and corporate financial integrity.
The analytical and information content of the system maintains relevance for the Congress not only through the focus on current issues but also through dynamic features that foster timeliness. Every workday dozens of products in the system are updated. Throughout the year issue areas and supporting CRS products are also added and dropped in concert with the evolving congressional agenda. In a full year, three to four hundred new products, prepared in the context of ongoing congressional needs, are added to the system, joining a similar number of continuing products that are maintained through updates and revisions. Products superseded by actions of the Congress or other events are dropped.
We also maintain a well-developed, recently upgraded search system that provides an alternative means for locating CRS products. The searchable database of CRS products covers a comprehensive array of congressional interests, including not only all products in the current legislative issues system, but also products relating to important issue areas, whether current or historical, that may not be on the immediate congressional agenda. The database also covers a number of information products serving a variety of procedural needs and assisting with constituent interests. The system provides direct access to products identified through automated relevance ranking.
The importance of online congressional access to CRS products and services is demonstrated by extremely heavy usage, extending to evenings and weekends, and occurring at a rate that currently exceeds a half million "hits" per year and is continually increasing. Our research management practices focus special attention on maintaining and enhancing online congressional access in an effort to exploit the considerable advantages of such access to the extent practicable. Significant gains extend beyond immediate access to timely, relevant, accurate and objective analyses and information across the full array of policy issues before the Congress. For example, as congressional staff become more familiar with existing CRS products, their requests for research are more likely to build upon rather than duplicate existing research. CRS research staff also rely more often on online congressional access to augment consultations and other interactions with the Congress.
Although CRS has already made significant progress in providing online congressional access to CRS products and services, this remains an area with considerable potential for additional gains in CRS service to the Congress. Our systems and practices are still evolving. CRS researchers and managers are still learning and refining relevant practices and procedures. CRS is still developing and testing ways to integrate interactive, confidential assistance with services designed to provide broader congressional access. These are, of course, exciting and welcomed challenges for us.
In FY2002, an increasing percentage of our assistance to the Congress was accounted for by electronic services. Our CRS Web Site is accessed at every hour of the day, every day of the week providing round-the-clock support. In 2002, approximately a fifth of the hits on the CRS site occurred after 5 p.m. and before 8:00 a.m. In FY2002, over three quarters of CRS products were distributed to congressional clients via the Web.
This past year we began to employ email as a means of transmission of CRS services to the Congress once we had taken steps, working with the House and Senate, to put in place a secure encrypted method of communication. In another developing area, congressional staff have been increasingly placing requests for analysis via the Web. Since this option was first made available in January 2001, over 30,000 requests have been received electronically in this manner. Work is nearing completion on implementation of an updated Place Request system that will operate more quickly and reduce errors.
CRS has made special efforts to develop techniques whereby the site can be updated as needed outside of the regular business day. For example, on the day after the Columbia tragedy, a Sunday, we modified our web site to highlight products related to the Space Program. In 2002, technical enhancements were implemented to allow global updating of multiple web pages throughout the site within minutes. This allows us to highlight or add new products of topical interest very quickly.
As mentioned, last year we offered live webcasts of selected CRS programs and online access to recordings of seminars held throughout the year. Cognizant that congressional staff time is limited, CRS online multimedia products provide edited recordings of previously held seminars with annotations allowing staff to directly access the portion of the programs that cover the topics in which they have interest, without having to view a program in its entirety. In order to collect congressional feedback on our electronic efforts we created a Congressional Web Advisory Group to consult with us on the introduction of new features, to participate in usability and technical tests, and to provide feedback on CRS web pages via email and in-person interviews.
One of the important tasks that you have assigned to us is the retrieval component of your legislative information system. The LIS provides you with accurate, timely, and complete status and text of all bills introduced and acted upon by Congress, along with the text of all committee reports and the Congressional Record. The LIS links legislation to the relevant reports from CRS, as well as to CBO cost estimates and summaries of committee markups licensed from private companies.
The LIS is a true Congress-wide system. The Library provides the technical support for the system, and CRS coordinates the overall effort under the direction of your Committee along with the Committee on House Administration. The LIS receives texts of documents and other legislative information from the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of Senate directly or through the GPO. Committees provide status information and links to committee documents. CRS provides summaries of bills as well as analyses of legislative policy issues. The LIS is now able to provide links to an expanded number of CRS products. Every CRS product will have an online summary, allowing the LIS to link to all products that mention a given bill in their summaries.
CRS and the Library work closely with the House and Senate to improve the LIS on a continuous basis. At the request of users we recently added enhancements to displays and links to commercial data that staff find helpful. We completed work this past year on an alert service that notifies users by email when bills of interest to them have been introduced or updated. We have also embarked on a major project to develop a system that will capture and store the video broadcasts of committee hearings. We are also working very closely with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House on their implementation of XML as the data standard for congressional documents, beginning with the text of proposed legislation.
The LIS has been an efficient and cost saving initiative for Congress, and, judging by the continued growth every year in use statistics, projected to be approximately 20 percent this year, a popular and effective one as well.
Budget Request. Mr. Chairman, the CRS budget request for fiscal year 2004 reflects an increase of 11% over fiscal year 2003. The increase has two components, one to meet all statutory pay obligations and for inflationary adjustments to equipment, supplies, and materials, and one for the expansion of programs that develop and implement innovative business processes and practices that will position CRS with the resources needed to support the Congress with high quality research and analysis at any location, at any time, and in any state of emergency.
In the Continuing Appropriations Act for 2003, the Congress included language directing CRS and the Library to take steps to ensure that the Service's materials are available wherever and whenever they may be required by the Congress. To meet this directive, CRS staff need to be as mobile as Congress and to be able to perform their work from any location, which could be at a site removed from their own office. CRS is also requesting funding to build a technical infrastructure affording staff secure access to the full range of their resources - databases, reports, memoranda, research materials, telephones, requests, etc.- in order to work from remote locations. With this level of secure access, staff can undertake analysis, create content, and deliver it to the Congress via the Web or email.
CRS is also seeking funding to enhance one key aspect of our research and analytical capacity. Specifically, CRS continues to develop unique and often sole source databases and analytic micro-simulation models to assist the Congress in assessing the implications of proposed policies on programs in such areas as education, welfare, medicare, medicaid, health insurance, and social security. Over the last decade, congressional demand for CRS to identify, verify, and maintain these databases - traditionally collected by Executive Branch agencies and state and local governments - has increased. Because of the growing size and complexity of the data sets, CRS must seek new capacity to design a formal structure to procure, maintain, and offer these data sets in order to avoid requiring senior analysts to spend increasing amounts of time in data management activities at the expense of their analytic work.
Mr. Chairman, I am extremely thankful to this Committee and to the Congress as a whole for its support in recent years for our succession initiative. As you know, CRS came to the Congress seeking resources to assist us in dealing with the prospect of losing over half of our senior analytical staff over the next few years. All of our hiring since that time has been specifically designed to target those subject areas of expertise most at risk due to key staff departures. We recruited over 50 new staff to CRS as a result of the funding provided. Due to the implementation of a new hiring system adopted by the Library of Congress during fiscal years 2001 and 2002, however, our hiring efforts suffered a temporary set-back. We are now back on track and making excellent progress. For example, so far this fiscal year we have made 36 selections for analyst positions under the new hiring system, compared to 3 during all of fiscal year 2002. By the end of this fiscal year, we plan to select over 80 new analytic staff, (67 projected through the new hiring system and 16 through special programs like the Law Recruit and Presidential Management Intern Program), including 11 positions that will enable us to build our capacity in the areas of combating terrorism, homeland security, and the aging of the population.
Our budget request this year also includes funding to build a staff retention program that will constitute the next phase of our succession planning strategy. The funding will provide CRS with flexible retention incentive tools that will help us to retain the Service's new generation of staff, accelerate their professional growth and development, enable them to provide Congress with authoritative analysis, and prepare them to assume senior positions and leadership roles in the future. The largest aspect of the program allows CRS to initiate a pilot program that provides for the repayment of student loans. We also propose to increase by ten percent the base allocation for training, travel, and incentive awards. CRS currently receives approximately half the training funds per employee as compared to Executive Branch agencies. An attendant benefit of this modest investment is to provide new staff with continuing training experiences that foster their ability to assume quickly the responsibilities of the veteran staff they are replacing.
As part of its effort at securing critical information infrastructure CRS is seeking funding to plan, design, and implement an "Alternative Computing Facility" or "Disaster Recovery Site." This site will be a shared facility with the Library, designed to provide the technical infrastructure needed to continue operations if the information technology assets on Capitol Hill are temporarily or permanently unavailable. CRS is also requesting funding to reprogram our Inquiry Status and Information System (ISIS) - a mission-critical application that we use to receive requests from Congress, assign work to CRS analysts and track the status through completion, and provide research managers with key performance statistics and indicators. The effort is designed to offer system portability in order to make it possible to move ISIS rapidly to other information technology locations, if necessary; and to provide secure remote access to the system via the Web.
Business Continuity. At this point Mr. Chairman, I would like to briefly describe some of the other things we have been doing to ensure our availability to the Senate, and indeed, the entire Congress, in the event of an emergency that renders our building uninhabitable. At the invitation of the Senate, CRS last year developed and submitted a Continuity of Operations Plan setting out procedures for the resumption of our work as quickly as possible following an emergency that affects CRS offices in the Madison Building of the Library of Congress. Our goal, even in the unlikely event of complete destruction or abandonment of the Madison Building, is to provide some level of support to the Congress the next day and to resume full support to the Congress within three weeks. To that end, we have two alternative small facilities which we can use immediately, and have worked with the Congressional Budget Office to develop a mutually beneficial plan for making emergency space available should just one of our two agencies be out of commission. We will expect our staff to work from their homes or other sites while we seek alternative quarters of sufficient size to gather the entire staff together again.
Staff will report their status to us as soon as they reach a safe destination following an evacuation. They will check daily to see whether and to where they are being recalled. Either on their own initiative or upon our request, using the technological and information resources available to them, they will contact clients to offer services and respond to requests. In the meantime, CRS will be making arrangements for furnished and equipped alternate work facilities for all of our staff.
While continuity of the LIS and CRS Web Site is expected through the Legislative Branch Alternative Computing Facility, this and other resources for a full recovery of operations are not as yet in place. We have requested funds in the FY03 Supplemental to allow us to replicate our file servers at the Facility as well. Among other vital functions, these servers support our email system, storage and retrieval of confidential memoranda, and our systems for quantitative analysis. This facility will back up our technical infrastructure and allow continued access to data and files needed to resume operations, and will also permit the LIS and the CRS Web page to remain available without interruption. We will continue to work with this Committee, the Secretary of the Senate, and the Office of the Sergeant at Arms to coordinate and further refine our emergency planning. We were pleased to be asked to participate in planning for the mock Senate session to test convening the body in the Hart Building. We drafted a script for the session and provided individuals to play the role of the Presiding Officer and Senators.
Conclusion. Mr. Chairman, in my testimony today I have emphasized the range of services that CRS provides, the broad array of issues that we cover, and the professional expertise and dedication of our staff. I would be remiss, however, if I did not take a moment to underscore other characteristics of CRS that are equally important. What most distinguishes CRS from other research organizations is a series of policies, some of them originating in guidelines issued by this Committee, that govern the content of our products as well as our relationships with the Members and staff of Congress.
First and foremost, all of our communications with congressional clients, both written and verbal, are confidential. We do not release any product prepared specifically for a congressional client without that client's consent. Moreover, a resolution adopted by the Senate provides that our communications with the Members and staff of the Congress are under the custody and control of Congress, and are protected from disclosure under the Speech or Debate Clause of the Constitution. This confidential relationship ensures that an informed deliberative process can be undertaken by Members without concern over premature compromise, misinterpretation, or inappropriate further dissemination of proprietary information.
Second, all CRS work must be objective and nonpartisan. The fact that we prepare our work solely in the congressional environment and only for Congress also facilitates the provision of unbiased, non-partisan and objective written analysis without the influence of lobbyists or other input from the public or organized groups with their own views to advance. At a time when academic institutions, consulting firms, foundations, and lobbying groups are continuously producing studies on current legislative issues, it is important for Congress to have a reliable source of balanced presentations covering the pros and cons of proposals, as well as alternative approaches for resolving complex public policy questions. CRS has no partisan axe to grind, and puts no policy "spin" on its reports; a rigorous review policy, at both the division and Director's Office levels, reinforces this fundamental principle.
Finally, embedded in the culture of CRS is the belief that our work, in addition to being accurate and authoritative, must be timely. Our staff recognize that no matter how comprehensive and analytically sound their writings may be, a successful response must reach the requesting Member at the moment in the legislative process when it is needed. In CRS, we take deadlines very seriously, because we know the speed with which legislative developments occur and the pressures under which you and your staff must operate.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, our policies and procedures are designed to make us as useful to you as possible, and to ensure that we can play a meaningful role in helping you face the critical challenges before the Congress.