Jean Yavis Jones is the President of the Congressional Research Employees Association, an Affiliate of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. Ms. Jones is a Specialist in Social Legislation and has been with CRS since 1971. She has been a member of CREA since its inception in 1975 and was formerly a Board of Governors member and Vice President and Chief Steward of the organization.

Accompanying Ms. Jones is Bonnie Mangan, the current CREA Vice President and Chief Steward.

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, on behalf of the bargaining unit members of the Congressional Research Employees Association (CREA), I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you today.

CREA was established in 1975 to represent the interests of the employees of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. We represent some 680 CRS employees approximately 70% of whom are CREA members. As you may know, if you have read CREAtivity, our employee newsletter, CREA recently affiliated with the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, (IFPTE).

CREA represents a wide range of highly dedicated employees of varying grade levels and positions. This includes the reference assistants and librarians who serve you in reference centers and reading rooms. It also includes the authors and production staff responsible for the many memos, policy papers, bill comparisons, bibliographies, and issue briefs that

you and your staff use daily. Our membership includes attorneys, scientists, foreign policy analysts, and numerous other subject specialty experts who are available to Congress on almost any conceivable subject. In sum, CREA represents those people who make it possible for CRS to serve you and your colleagues as well as it does. CREA and CRS management are in agreement on the need to provide the highest quality service to Congress.

CREA and CRS management are also in agreement on the CRS budget level requested for fiscal year 1988. CREA believes that in order to maintain high quality service to Congress at this requested budget level, it is essential to fully utilize the many talents and skills of our employees. If appropriated funds are allocated so that our employees' skills are fully utilized, this will serve both the interests of our members and

Congress.

My testimony focuses on three major areas of CREA concern

about budget allocations: staffing, career advancement, and micro-computers. Underlying each of these issues is CREA's strong belief in its employees and the need for CRS to recognize, encourage, and reward their performance.

Staffing

1. Temporary Appointments

Regarding the issue of positions allowed under this budget, CREA has a number of concerns. First, we feel strongly that as many as possible of these should be permanent rather than temporary or short-term. While we understand the short-term rationale for temporary or limited-term appointments, we are very concerned about the long-range implications of overusing these types of arrangements, not only for our employees, but also for cost-efficiency and quality. Temporary appointments can mean expensive and time-consuming job training and disruptions in service. When there are short-term projects or needs, the use of short-term employees may make some sense. However, when permanent or long-term needs are met through consistent use of temporaries, the result can be detrimental to our employees, the service, and to Congress.

Some of you may recall the problem last year when many of our inquiry recorder positions were left vacant. Inquiry recorders are those CRS

employees who receive your incoming requests, and are an essential and
ongoing part of our service. The vacancies were created because many
of these positions were temporary and could not be filled following
termination due to the budget freeze. I assure you that our members were
as appalled as you and your staff about taped telephone messages and busy
lines. Indeed, where management permitted it, and with the approval of
CREA, many legislative analysts and others volunteered to assist in the
inquiry recorder emergency. This is all very inspiring, but it is hardly
organizationally or fiscally efficient. This is but one illustration of

the problems and cost inefficiencies of having too may short-term
appointments in positions which require permanent staff. It is our
hope that the current administration will work toward reducing

CRS dependence on temporary and short-term appointments, although the budget does not appear to indicate it. We encourage the Committee to support our effort in this regard.

2. Consultants and Contracts

Relatedly, CREA is concerned about the use of outside consultants and contractors to the extent that this displaces work that could be better done by our own staff experts. The inappropriate use of outside consultants and contractors robs our employees of opportuntities to fully utilize their talents and advance their careers. It robs Congress of a continuity of service and personnel; it impedes long-range planning, and it is an unnecessary expenditure of funds that could better be used elsewhere. While CREA acknowledges the occasional need for the use of consultants

and contractors, we urge the Committee to support efforts to limit such

use to projects where CRS internal resources are clearly insufficient to meet

a short-term Congressional need.

Career Advancement

Another area of CREA concern about full utilization of our staff is

in the area of opportunities for career advancement. CRS has a vast pool of highly qualified employees who are stuck in dead-end positions. As in many places, there is a tendency for CRS to look outside rather than inside when filling high-grade positions. While CREA does not deny the importance of new blood in any organization, including our own, we are disturbed that more efforts are not made to promote from within. This makes sense, not only for morale reasons, which are an important ingredient in job performance, but also for fiscal reasons. The advancement of hard-working and dedicated employees for quality performance reduces the time and effort necessary to recruit and train those who are inexperienced about CRS and the Congress, and lessens the fiscal impact on the CRS budget. CREA strongly supports upward mobility for employees whose experience and performance warrant it.

Accordingly, we strongly urge continuation of the Cross-Over Program which appears to have lapsed, obstensibly due to budget constraints. In the past, this program has advanced exceptional non-professional employees to professional positions and assisted in their education and training. CREA also would like to see this program expanded so that similar opportunites are given to lower-graded professionals in dead-end positions. We urge the Committee to support this approach to career opportunities for all CRS employees. We also urge the Committee to encourage the creation of similar kinds of programs to specifically address the serious problems of racial imbalance in analyst and other high-grade positions in CRS.