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Question #26:

Is your organization annually or permanently
authorized? How many House and Senate
Committees oversee your organization?

OTA operates under a permanent authorization, although the agency does have authorizing committees that conduct oversight. In the Senate, the authorizing committee is the Rules Committee, and in the House, it is the Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Both of these committees have conducted oversight hearings on the agency in the past.

As a practical matter, of course, the chief oversight body for the agency is the bipartisan Technology Assessment Board (TAB). TAB has 12 members of Congress -- six Senators and six Representatives divided equally by party affiliation. A number of TAB members are full committee chairman or ranking minority members of Senate or House committees, including the Senate Rules Committee and House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Question 27: Would you describe in detail, and with appropriate appendix documents, procedures your organization uses to consider employee complaints about unfair employment practices? How many complaints have been filed over the past five years? What is the process through which these complaints are considered? What was the outcome of these cases?

OTA is, and always has been, committed to treating all employees (both supervisory and nonsupervisory) in a fair and equitable manner and ensuring that disputes relating to employment and performance are given prompt attention.

OTA has had a long standing, published, dispute resolution process for adjusting work-related problems. A description of this process is attached. Responsibilities of supervisors and employees--were clearly defined ranging from resolution by the immediate parties involved to mediation by the respective supervisory chain of command culminating, if necessary, in a direct appeal to the Director of OTA and finally the Office of Fair Employment Practices review--are clearly defined.

OTA's current procedures to consider employee complaints about unfair employment practices are identified in a set of policies published on August 19, 1992, concerning a formal grievance process, civil rights, and sexual harassment. Copies of these policies are attached.

In each of these policies, employees are strongly encouraged to communicate with one another to register dissatisfaction, complaints, and resolve disagreements. Depending on the circumstances, supervisors up to the Director of OTA may be the appropriate individuals to resolve disputes. The Personnel Director and his staff are expected to provide counseling to all parties involved and to arrange mediation services when warranted.

If a grievance involves a violation of an employee's civil rights or of a related statute, a decision by the Director of OTA may be appealed to a Hearing Board established through the Senate Office of Fair Employment Practices.

Over the past five years, OTA has had only one case of an employee alleging unfair employment practices. The individual raised the allegation after receiving an unsatisfactory performance rating. OTA placed the employee under another supervisor (acknowledged as one of OTA's superior supervisors) with a new set of defined tasks and an opportunity to

improve performance. After a year of observed performance inadequacies, OTA negotiated an agreement with the individual providing several months of pay allowing the employee to seek another job in return for a signed termination date.

CBO
TESTIMONY

Statement of

Robert D. Reischauer
Director
Congressional Budget Office

before the

Joint Committee on
the Organization of Congress
Congress of the United States

June 10, 1993

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE

SECOND AND D STREETS, S.W.

Chairmen Hamilton and Boren, Vice-Chairmen Domenici and Dreier, and Members of the Committee, I appreciate this opportunity to discuss the role and mission of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

CBO is the "junior member" of the group of four Legislative Branch support agencies, having started operations just 18 years ago after enactment of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act of 1974. CBO's establishment was part of a new process by which the Congress would consider the budget and reassert its role in the fiscal policy debate.

In its short history, CBO has made a substantial contribution to both the form and the substance of Congressional debates over economic and budget issues. From the length and depth of the recessions to the strength of the recoveries, from the cost of the Persian Gulf War to the cost of resolving the thrift crisis, CBO has provided the Congress with an expertise that allows it to evaluate critically the economic and budgetary assumptions of the Executive Branch and to improve fundamentally the way Congressional budgeting is done.

Now, as deficit reduction and the cost of health care reform take center stage in the debate of national priorities, CBO is in a unique position to provide the Congress with the information and analytic assistance it needs

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