AUTOMATED LEGISLATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS (HARVEY)

A number of valuable reference and research files may be directly accessed using display and printer terminals in Senators, committees, and other Senate offices. Among these files are Legis, a file on the Senate computer which permits tracking of all measures in Congress, and several files at the Library of Congress commonly known as the Scorpio files.

Legis

The Senate's Legislative Information System (Legis) became fully operational during the first session of the 95th Congress. Official Senate information concerning the sponsorship, co-sponsorship, official titles, statements of purpose, and comprehensive floor, committee, subcommittee and conference status, scheduling and reporting data were entered and verified by staff of the Secretary of the Senate. With the completion of the Senate computer programming for bills, resolutions, amendments and their respective legislative status, together with the installation in the Senate Computer Center (Office of the Sergeant at Arms of the Senate) of the Library of Congress' Scorpio and Libra Software, several important goals of the Rules and Administration Committee were realized. These include:

(1) committee scheduling; committee meetings, hearings, and conferences available via terminals in every Senator's office; (2) a nightly updated Legis/Scorpio data base for all Senate users using the same retrieval language as on-line data bases at the Library of Congress; 90 Senators and 12 Committees became fully trained Legis users during the 95th Congress;

(3) on-line files of unprinted amendments pending on the Senate floor; the Assistant Majority Leader's Whip Notice; and News about Legis for all Senate users;

(4) on-line or overnight data exchange with the Library of Congress and House Information Systems and the incorporation of Library and House data into the Senate Legis data base. Concurrent with the achievement of these goals, a number of Legis printed reports authorized by the Rules Committee were programmed by staff of the Senate Computer Center. The most important of these were official reports for the Secretary of the Senate, Senate Committees, and each individual Senator. These reports contain comprehensive information of all Senate measures, Senate actions on House measures, and all final actions on measures which cleared both Houses. Important examples of these reports include:

official ledgers provided to the Senate Bill Clerk for bills, resolutions, printed amendments, unprinted amendments, and all Congressional status actions for these legislative measures; these reports replace the manual ledgers in the Secretary's Office;

the Index and History of bills and resolutions for the Senate

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Journal Clerk, which will appear in the Senate Journal for 1978; printed reports of bills, resolutions, and amendments for each Senate committee calendar clerk; these reports contain all official information for measures acted upon by each respective committee;

Legislative Activity Reports for each Senator. These reports are in six parts, organized by measures sponsored, measures cosponsored, committee of referral for measures sponsored, committee of referral for measures co-sponsored, with a subject index to each of these legislative items at the back of the report; on-line and batch reports providing current information on actions which have occurred in the Senate for the same day, and meetings, hearings, and conferences scheduled that same day;

auto-tracking reporting capability for Senators and Committees; this Legis Service will be announced to the Senate in January 1979.

Enhancements to Legis

During the second session of the 95th Congress, more abstract and status information on bill, resolutions, and amendments were added to all Legis files. This includes amendment statements of purpose, additional detailed status information for floor, committee, subcommittee, and conference actions, and cross reference information supplied by the Senate Daily Digest Office and the Bill Digest Section in the Congressional Research Service. This data is in addition to the digest, abstract, subject indexing and House of Representatives information already supplied to previous Bill Status and Bill Digest systems. A number of additional Legis capabilities and related services were completed during 1978. Significant among these are:

Presidential Messages, Executive Communications, and Petitions and Memorials. Data will be supplied to the Legis System by the Executive and Legislative Journal Clerks beginning in January 1979.

Installation of new Scorpio retrieval system features, including full text search capability in the Senate Legis file and the Libra software for generating batch reports from Scorpio files. These features are planned for availability to all Senate users beginning in January 1979.

Completion of an on-line task which provides the capability for designated Senate staff to add Senate subject terms to legislative and other items in the Legis system.

Completion by the Senate User Support Group of user documentation for Legis, the on-line Legis Reports, other on-line and batch Legis capabilities, and data entry documentation for the Secretary of the Senate.

The Senate Computer Center also programmed reports for purposes of auditing official data bases and for editing and verification capabilities to Committee Clerks, the Bill Clerk, the Daily Digest Clerk, and staff in the Senate Library.

Additional Legis and Scorpio display formats were provided for all Senate Legis users; these include forward and reverse chronology for all status actions; the sorting of status by subcommittees within the same committee; all and summary options for information concerning a respective measure or amendment; and free text information regarding committee memberships, changes in committee sizes, temporary

committees and committee memberships, and relevant legislative and party caucus information regarding committees and committee memberships.

Additional for 1979

During the first session of the 96th Congress, additional information and capabilities will be added to Legis. These include:

Additional cross reference information for Senate measures; committee staff will explore the inclusion of "provisions tracking" in Legis.

Experiments with the entry of committee and subcommittee status and scheduling information by several standing committees (relieving the Senate Daily Digest staff of this task).

Nominations received by the Senate and all confirmation

actions.

Simplified techniques for using the Senate Committee Scheduling System for all Senate users.

House floor amendments added to the Senate Legis data base. Committee Meeting Schedules

The Senate Committee Scheduling System, mandated for development by the Rules Committee in S. Res. 4, 95th Congress, has been implemented as part of Legis. Information about all Senate committee, subcommittee, and conference meetings, hearings, and mark-ups is presently being entered by the Secretary of the Senate as soon as this information is known. Once entered, daily schedules for all such activities can be viewed on computer terminals located throughout the Senate. In addition, an individual Senator's schedule can be retrieved, as well as those for specific committees and subcommittees. Staff directors can also view all meetings and hearings scheduled for the members of their committees.

Data Bases at the Library of Congress and the Congressional Research Service

New Scorpio features, including the capability for retrieving documents and abstracts by free text words, were applied to several data bases. One of these, the Capitol Information Services' abstract file for the 94th and 95th Congress daily issue of the Congressional Record was found to be much more effective as a research and reference file with the addition of a text retrieval capability.

Data files for three General Accounting Office directories of abstract and index records were received by the Library's Information Systems Office. Two of these, GAO's directory of information sources and systems and its directory of recurring reports required of Federal agencies were brought up as Scropio data bases for use by all Congressional offices. A third, the GAO directory of Federal program evaluations is planned for availability during the first session of the 96th Congress.

A survey is being conducted of automated information systems at the Library of Congress, including those of the Congressional Research Service, and an inventory of all authorized users of these systems and services is being prepared by staff of the Committee on Rules and Administration, the Committee on House Administration, CRS, and LOC. This material will be used by the Chairman and Members of the Rules Committee in establishing Congressional policy for public access to computer files at LOC and CRS.

SENATE COMPUTER CENTER (SARMAN)

The Senate Computer Center (SCC) is organized as a department within the Office of the Sergeant at Arms. The mission of the SCC is to provide computer services as authorized by the Rules Committee. These services assist Senators in their legislative duties and support Senators' offices in responding to the needs, concerns, and questions of constituents, and assist committees and Officers of the Senate in areas of administration.

The facilities in the SCC consist of two IBM 370/158 computers and associated devices. Online processing support to Senate offices is provided through a network of private cable, dial-up and leased carrier facilities connected to COMTEN 3670 Communications Processors located at the SCC. Leased communication lines provide connection. for 3270 type terminals while 300 Baud and 1200 Baud dial-up service is provided over telephone lines. The COMTEN units also provide data communications to the Library of Congress and other outside. computer services.

Planning Task Forces

The Chairman of the Rules Committee and the Sergeant at Arms established several task forces composed of Rules Committee and SCC personnel to study equipment and other facility needs of the Computer Center. Some of these were formed in response to unique situations and some are ongoing projects.

A Requirements Task Force studied the current usage and future requirement for processing capacity and concluded that with the addition of Attached Processors, the present complement of two IBM 370/158-3 systems would be capable of meeting Senate needs for at least 30 months. The task force also recommended purchase of the installed central processing units; this was authorized by the committee effective August 1, 1978.

The Requirements Task Force recommended the purchase of some of the installed disk storage equipment but because the purchase credits were not available on the intended purchase date, the decision was made not to purchase but to re-examine the situation in fiscal year 1979. The task force on Computer Output Microfilm (COM) recommended that this type of equipment be procured. This was approved and an RFP is being prepared and will be issued in early 1979. (See COM section.)

Data Communications System

We have now completed year 3 of a 5-year contract with Comten, Inc. to provide equipment and software to perform data transmission and switching among computers installed in the Senate, Library of Congress, House of Representatives, Government Printing Office, and other outside computer services.

Since the program began the scope of activities has increased considerably. To accommodate this increased traffic and to reduce trans

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mission costs, all Senate terminals will be connected to a switching device which will direct traffic to either the CMS system or the Senate network. An RFP will be issued for the switching equipment early in 1979.

The Architect of the Capitol is now installing underground conduits to connect all Senate buildings on Capitol Hill with the Computer Center. This will be completed in early spring and cable will be laid in the conduit to connect terminals to the switching equipment. Office Terminals

During 1978, the Senate exercised its option and purchased Hazeltine 2000 and TCI 277 terminals which had been installed under lease. A Request for Proposal to supply equipment to replace the ASCII CRT and teleprinter terminals and to provide additional terminals to meet the needs for the next several years is expected to be released.