The biggest fight we had has gone now for a little while. I will get a new congressional district, and then we will discuss that again ten years from now.

But that one should not be the one that ties your hands. That issue is handled on the House floor. There are other things you could do that would be very helpful, and I thank you for your testimony today.

Secretary EVANS. Thank you, Congressman.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Secretary, I have a few more, and I will try to go through them in the interest of the time.

NOAA RESPONSIVENESS

NOAA and I am learning this too. I was the chairman of the Transportation Appropriation Committee for six years, and the Republicans, rightly so, voted to rotate, term limit. And I think it is great and I was excited about the change.

But I am sort of learning too. But NOAA represents 63 percent of the Department's budget. The Coast Guard used to create attention. The Coast Guard came before my Committee with NOAA, so I do not know if I should begin to side with NOAA now, or what. And you have gotten a tremendous increase. The Staff tells me that they have had serious problems of getting information out of NOAA. I do not know this firsthand, although I believe the Staff. I think they are a good group of people.

And we had a great relationship with Secretary Slater; he was a Democrat, I was a Republican, but we had a good exchange and so we would just ask you to, when your new person at NOAA comes on, that there be an open willingness to share and give the Staff the necessary information, particularly since NOAA-and years ago, I was in the Nixon Administration, and there was a proposal to take NOAA out of Commerce and put it into the Department of Interior, and I think they were going to call it then the Department of Natural Resources.

And I knew that NOAA was big, but I did not know that they were 63 percent until this Committee became under one of my responsibilities. But we would really want to make sure that the information flow is timely and accurate, reliable and dependable, and that we make sure that that is a good relationship.

If we could make that case with the new persons coming on. Secretary EVANS. I will indeed, Mr. Chairman. I do not think there is anybody I know on my management team that is confused at all about my thoughts on that, my position on that. They know that one of my pet peeves is not getting back to people. I do not care what the answer is.

I would like for it to be something that you would like the answer to be, but the most important thing is being responsive, and we have talked about that on numerous occasions in the Department. I know we have had some problems in that area. I know in some of the areas we have corrected those problems, but we will continue to work on that.

There is not anything more important to me than us being responsive to you, and I mean responsive in a timely kind of way. And so, I am trying to get that message out loud and clear. And I will continue to work on that.

77-308 D-01--3

Mr. WOLF. When will the new person from NOAA be on? Secretary EVANS. Well, I would say realistically it is probably not before the summer recess. I am hopefully close to making that selection.

If I can make the selection by mid-May, then that would say to me, by mid-July, that hopefully that person is confirmed, may be on earlier, may be in place, but not confirmed yet.

CENSUS SUITLAND FACILITY

Mr. WOLF. As you work at Mr. Serrano's brother's office, I can sense this there is a window and a corner office too, if you would

like to have it-what floor?

He does not care.

If you could have heard him as we were walking over, he said— with a coke machine.

Can you say some things about the Suitland facility?

I serve on TPS and I have heard Mr. Hoyer talk about it over and over. The building's in, I mean it is in decay. It is just a disgrace.

I have never been in the building. I am going to go in, but I know it is in Mr. Hoyer's district and it came before TPO time after time, and OMB would say no, and say can you bring us up to date on where you are, the GSA is, and the OMB is?

Secretary EVANS. Right. It is a disgrace and it is in decay. And I have been there. I have seen it with my own eyes. I saw it the second day I was on the job. I went out to see the good people out there, and it is a great team of people with lots of great professionals.

And the conditions they are working in are just not the kind of conditions we would expect any government worker to be in.

But I know that it is high on GSA's list. I think it has been approved?

Is that right Bill? Or not quite? Not quite.

So not quite approved. I know it is high on the priority list, and we are looking for approval by what date? Do we have a date that we think they are going to say yes or no?

Do you want to come say something? Come on.

Mr. BARRON. We are very pleased that in this 2002 budget request, they are asking for redesign money. We were hoping frankly that that would be construction money.

And so we will be looking towards 2003 for that to appear. In the meanwhile, we are continuing to negotiate with GSA as to the type of improvement they are going to do for us. And perhaps I could come meet with your staff and brief you on that?

Mr. WOLF. Sure, be glad to. And we can meet with Mr. Istook, who is the Chairman of that Committee. I think the Census Building is probably in worse shape than any of the other ones that they are actually talking about.

Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Chairman, could I interrupt you for a second? Mr. WOLF. Sure, sure, absolutely.

Mr. SERRANO. There is a concern that we have, you know. We also were hoping that they would ask for construction money. So here if they ask in 2003, and we get into that argument, then by

the time they do get a new facility and move in, how would that impact conducting the next Census?

Secretary EVANS. Mr. Serrano, that indeed is the heart of the argument, and we would like them to pursue an option that would still be 2007 before we move in.

But under the options they are proposing, it would be 2009, 2010, and I keep telling folks that is probably beyond my life span at this stage, but clearly we need to do something, we cannot have people working in these conditions for another nine years. I mean, that is just abominable to contemplate.

So I would love to be able to come up and to talk with you about this, and see if we cannot move it forward a little more rapidly.

Mr. WOLF. I say this jokingly, and I want to make that clear, but Mr. Hoyer and I have always had a little creative tension, but we have some buildings out off of the Fairfax County Parkway, and we are only kidding, but we do not want to move people because they have their families. But everyone is trying to move somebody else, but there is space if you ever want to come to Fairfax County, is what I am trying to say.

Mr. Secretary

Mr. SERRANO. Got space in the Bronx. [Laughter.]

UNFILLED ITA TRADE POSITIONS

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Secretary, in your statement, you said that trade enforcement and compliance is your highest priority for the ITA. The Committee provided a number of new positions. Many were, the funding was to be, particularly with regard to China, the China vote and everything else.

Without putting you on the spot, we have been told that none of these positions have been filled. We also were told, rather than me asking you a trick question, how many have been filled, the answer is none.

Secretary EVANS. Right.

Mr. WOLF. None have been filled, and we are a little bit concerned that there is a hiring freeze, and so I think it is important to fill them and not have a hiring freeze. Because those of us who are really tormented on this issue, being a free trader, but my faith on the persecution, it just clashes like this. And those of us who struggle on this issue really need to know that these people are on board, and I think many members voted because they thought some things were being done.

So if you have any indication of how many you can fill or can you get rid of the hiring freeze so we can put these people

Secretary EVANS. Well, it is not a hiring freeze. All these people are exempt from the hiring freeze because these are funds that have already been appropriated. It is in the 2001 budget and so we are hiring them as fast as we can. I think we have hired 16, they tell me, out of 60 some odd

Mr. WOLF. They are actually on? Sixteen are on?

Secretary EVANS. They are on or coming on within

Mr. WOLF. But how many are actually on today that if I went down to their office and opened the door, they would be there? Secretary EVANS. We will get back to you.

[The following was subsequently provided:]

TRADE COMPLIANCE INITIATIVE

The Trade Compliance Initiative is operating in two of the International Trade Administration's units, Market Access and Compliance and Import Administration. The International Trade Administration has been vigorously working to fill the 62 positions dedicated to this important initiative.

Market Access and Compliance, with 35 of the total positions, has nine new people on board, and ten additional people who have been selected but are either undergoing security review or are scheduled to report on an agreed upon reporting date.

Import Administration's headquarters operation, with 20 of the positions, has five people on board, three people are undergoing security review and are awaiting a reporting date, and one additional person will report July 02, 2001.

Import Administration's hiring of seven overseas positions is about to begin. The certificate of highly qualified candidates was delivered to Import Administration by the Office of Foreign Service Personnel on May 17. The decision process to fill six of the seven positions is underway. One additional overseas position (Geneva) is still being developed, but should be recruited soon.

Mr. WOLF. It is really not your fault because you are coming in new, but I think it is important to get these people on.

Secretary EVANS. Sure. I could not agree with you more.

US EMBASSIES ROLE WITH AMERICAN BUSINESS

Mr. WOLF. And one other issue too that was talking about the embassies. I think it is important for our people in the embassies, your people, our people, to really be advocates for American Business abroad.

Some of our businesses are at a disincentive because the corruption levels in some of these countries is very, very high, so I think we need, our businessmen and women need an extra push.

I think the more aggressive our foreign-service people are, your people are, in promoting American businessmen and women, small business particularly because they do not have the Washington office and the Moscow office and the London office.

Sometimes at embassies you just do not get the feeling that business is really a priority. Obviously the number one role of the embassy is diplomatic and negotiations with the State Department, but your people play a very, very important role.

So I think the more aggressive they are in a fair, ethical, moral, decent way-I am not suggesting in a way that some other countries do but to be advocates for American businessmen and businesswoman, I think, would be very helpful.

I do not know how the morale is of your people abroad, but I think it is important that they know how important that role is and that they should be advocates for the United States business. Secretary EVANS. I agree totally with you, Chairman. I think that is just part of the job description.

My sense so far, in my travels to the West Coast to see the Foreign Commercial Service Officers that are spread throughout the Pacific and Asian region, is that the morale is good.

They are upbeat, and they are optimistic, and they are advocates, and they are excited about what they are doing.

That is also my sense after having spent a few days in South America, but have I been around the world? No, I have not.

But, you are exactly right. I mean, that is a very important responsibility. They all should feel and be proud of that responsibility. I think we do have a lot to sell around the world.

So, it is something I think your point is well made. I will make sure that, when I talk to them, I express your thoughts, your concerns, because they are mine as well.

CREATING JOBS IN PRISONS

Mr. WOLF. Earlier, you were talking about industry and balance of payments, and different things like that.

I put a Bill in the other day which we think the Administration is going to support, and it would be helpful to have you weigh in. It does the following.

You really cannot put a man or woman in jail for 15 to 20 years and give them no work. There are some segments of American industry that are concerned with the competition coming from the federal prison industries.

I do not know if you have been in any prisons, but in our federal prisons we attempt to have the men work.

If you put a guy behind bars 15 years and all he does is push a broom, when he gets out he is going to come and commit the same type of crime, maybe even worse.

The Bill does, the following. While it phases out the mandatory sourcing for purchasing of goods from Federal Prison Industries, it also says that we will create in federal prisons the following program:

We will find industries that are no longer in the United States, goods that are no longer made.

Ten years ago, we tried to do this with a television manufacturer that was in St. Louis. They were willing to come into Lorton Reformatory and make televisions, because there are no televisionsat that time they were the only one.

Some men came about. There was opposition, so they went away. They are now in Mexico. We want to bring in prison industries, companies. There is a major company that I know, Rubbermaid, who is interested in coming into the federal prisons.

What we would do is we would only bring products in that are no longer made in the U.S., so we are not in competition with any American company that is manufacturing here.

We are not in competition with any labor union or anybody else; in fact, that we actually create jobs, because the truck who has to drop the supplies by-the wiring and whatever-is a truck driver who is an American who is working.

We believe we can create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. With the wage that we pay the men, one-third will go for restitution. In Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, it talks about restitution. If I commit a crime against you, to give you something back.

Another third will go to pay for the upkeep, which will help us deficit-wise but otherwise, too.

The last portion of it will go whereby they can save this money and have it, whether it be for their families or gate money as they are released.

We are really going to make a big push on this. I think the President has done more to help.

This ties into another thing. We are going to try to in the bill point out some out faith-based prisons. If you want to change a man, you change his heart.