FY 1996 EIA Project Eliminations Project Description Analysis and Forecasting (continued): Technical assistant guide for Greenhouse Gas program All work on the Motor Vehicle Data System (alternative fuels) following in-house analysis of already-completed studies Contract support on commercial end-use estimates and peer review of Residential Transportation Energy Consumption System study of automotive fuel efficiency Contract support for data development and analysis support for industry-wide data, complementary to Financial Reporting System data, used in Performance Profiles and data in Foreign Direct Investment report; technical data support for one-time analysis agenda publications Savings (thou $) $250 $133 $50 $70 Contract support to planned fuel inventory models and natural gas supply and fuel substitution model and error analysis of short-term energy model $75 Annual Energy Outlook Supplement (assumptions and regional results will be provided on Internet) $20 Foreign Direct Investment report (content will be moved to FRS Performance $5 Planned enhancements to automated systems linkage for FRS EIA Electronic $28 Annual Supplement to Short-Term Energy Outlook; public information on STEO model performance $43 State Energy Price and Expenditure Report, "Additional Measures" chapter $10 FY 1996 EIA Project Eliminations Project Description Support for External Organizations: Contract support for Stanford Energy Modeling Forum Savings (thou $) $50 Contract support for Interior Department to compile information on coal mine methane emissions held by mining companies and Mining Safety and Health Administration $100 Contract support for OECD to fund development of international emissions estimation methods Survey Efficiencies Question: How much money will you save from the increased use of computer-assisted interviewing in fiscal years 1996 and 1997? Answer: One of the computer-assisted data collection techniques utilized by EIA is computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI). Using CAPI does not necessarily save money, but the final data will be of higher quality and more timely. EIA did not need to spend money for methodological and developmental work on CAPI, because we took advantage of work already done in this area by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Agricultural Statistics Service, and the Bureau of the Census. EIA will also save some money by programming the CAPI questionnaires for the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) in-house, instead of using contractors to do this work. A substantial, but essentially unmeasurable, savings will be in the quality of the RECS data collected using CAPI. The interviewer is more likely to ask the correct questions in the right order; respondent burden and fatigue is lessened because the questions can be tailored to specific respondents (for example, single family and apartment dwellers will be asked questions pertinent to their particular housing unit); some basic data edits can be performed and reconciled, if necessary, during the interviewing (this saves having to callback the respondent); data are already keyed and ready to be placed into the database (saving possible keying errors and time delays). The CAPI will next be used to collect data for the 1997 Residential Energy Consumption Survey. Another means of automated data collection is expected to result in cost savings; though the amount cannot be estimated yet, as this program is in the very early stages. A number of EIA survey forms are submitted currently by mail or fax. An alternative method to fax requires the survey respondent to submit the form to a fax board in a designated computer with optical character reader (OCR) technology. Forms received by mail would be scanned into the fax board of the personal computer with a high-end scanner. The OCR highlights entries on the form which do not meet preset recognition levels and displays the relevant character or characters to an operator for final resolution. The data then would be uploaded to a designated relational database. Another method of computer assistance is used within the oil and gas program, where computer-assisted telephone interviewing techniques are used to survey weekly retail gasoline and diesel prices. Question: What surveys will involve the increased use of sampling and what specific changes will be made to each of those surveys? Answer: EIA is increasing the use of sampling technique and reducing the use of census technique in data survey work in order to cut costs; this approach involves surveying a smaller segment of a population. The Form EIA-23, "Annual Survey of Domestic Oil and Gas Reserves," will be reduced sharply every other year beginning in 1997. In 1996, about 3,800 companies from a frame of 23,000 companies were surveyed. In 1997, only the largest 150 companies instead of 3,800 companies will be surveyed, followed by a full survey in 1998. As of the January 1996 reporting period, the Form EIA-759, "Monthly Power Plant Report," is collected monthly from a cutoff model sample of plants with a generating capacity of 25 24-697 96-26 megawatts or more (approximately 360 utilities). Prior to January 1996, the Form EIA-759 data were based on a census (700 utilities) of operators of electric utility generating plants. The Form EIA-900, "Monthly Nonutility Sales for Resale Report," was instituted in January 1996. These data are also based on a cutoff model sampling approach consisting of about 380 companies that have facilities with a capacity of 50 megawatts or more. Both the Form EIA-759 and Form EIA-900 use the same multiple regression model for estimation. Personnel Question: Your budget assumes a reduction in force in fiscal year 1997. What programs and positions will be eliminated and what level of staffing is associated with each of those programs in fiscal years 1996 and 1997? Answer: Based on our current projections, we plan to achieve our staffing target in FY 1997 through a combination of attrition, buyouts, and reductions-in-force. We are hopeful that our target will be achieved without resorting to a reduction-in-force, but we will not know that until after March 1997 when the buyout authority expires. We would do a reduction-in-force position analysis at that time should it prove necessary. In the meantime, retraining, reassignments, and restructuring based on reengineering are the tools we are using to assure that staffing needs are met. The following table shows the staffing levels by program for FY 1995 through FY 1997: Question: What sources of funds will be used to pay the costs associated with a RIF? Answer: The costs for a reduction in force (RIF) in 1997 are budgeted within our program direction activity. The end-of-year target of 427 FTEs in FY 1996 is expected to be achieved through attrition and buyouts; buyout costs are estimated at $875,000. The end-ofyear target of 381 for FY 1997 is expected to be met through attrition, buyouts, and a reduction-in-force; costs for buyouts and reduction-in-force are assumed to be $1,125,000. The end-of-year target for FY 1997 is not expected to be met until near the end of the fiscal year to allow the maximum time for normal attrition to occur before activating costly reduction-in-force actions. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1996. NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS WITNESS JANE ALEXANDER, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS Mr. REGULA [presiding]. We'll start the committee hearing. Each of you can take five minutes the first time around and then we can have unlimited time. We're very pleased to welcome the Chairman and look forward to hearing your testimony. You can give the whole thing or summarize as you choose. Ms. ALEXANDER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the Interior Subcommittee. I do appreciate the opportunity to testify today about the importance of this agency, the National Endowment for the Arts. FUNDING CUT FY 1996 Last year this committee set in motion the deepest budget cut in the history of the National Endowment for the Arts. Our funding level of $99.5 million in Fiscal Year 1996 represents a 39 percent reduction and puts the agency's purchasing power in real dollars back to where the agency was in 1972, a quarter of a century ago. Mr. YATES. I wish the agency were where it was in 1972 instead of facing its death. Mr. REGULA. Thirty seconds. [Laughter.] MS. ALEXANDER. This cut necessitated a 46 percent reduction in the Endowment's grant-making budget. Entire categories of assistance had to be eliminated and arts organizations lost far more than dollars. They lost the prestige of recognition and the fundraising potential that comes with it. And we were forced to reduce grants to State arts agencies by 30 percent. The average basic State grant dropped-the average-by $130,000, hitting the smallest States the hardest. EFFECT OF FUNDING REDUCTION ON AGENCY And, finally, the committee's cut translated into a 34 percent reduction in our administrative budget forcing my agency to lay off 89 employees in an agency-wide reduction in force. This reduction would have been deeper had we not moved $2.5 million from the program budget to cover the cost of our downsizing and we are grateful for that. The work burden on the remaining staff has been really overwhelming. In January, we completed the most comprehensive reorganization in this agency's 30-year history. We folded 17 distinct programs into four divisions. And we have created a new leader |