We are very proud of this tradition and believe it is an integral part of the Institution's success. We are pleased to report that construction of the Museum Support Center is approximately 70 percent complete.
PROPRIETARY ALARM SYSTEM
Chairman, for salaries and expenses, which may be an appropriate starting point, we request a total of $144.1 million, an increase of $11 million over the 1982 base. An additional amount of this increase of $1.1 million is to support the 69 positions approved by Congress after they were eliminated in the 1981 budget amendment.
MUSEUM SUPPORT CENTER CONSTRUCTION SCHEDULE
MUSEUM SUPPORT CENTER STAFFING NEEDS
We do not consider either of these to be redundant, but in the circumstances we feel it is appropriate to reschedule rather than attempt to outsource Support Center operations. If it is determined that these amounts cannot be saved, we will seek other sources of funds to ensure timely utilization of the Support Center and.
RESTORATION AND RENOVATION OF BUILDINGS REQUEST
He renounced it when I called him out on it, but you use the same tone when you use the word. Last year we were very grateful for the detailed investigation your committee carried out into the maintenance of the buildings.
QUADRANGLE PROJECT
CURTAILMENT OF SUMMER EVENING HOURS
DAYTIME VISITOR ATTENDANCE
But one of the reasons why they don't open the museums in the evening during the summer hours is to save these places and put them up for maintenance. As a continuation of the master plan development at Rock Creek Park, we are requesting $350,000 for the planning and preliminary design of the Olmsted Walk Exhibits project.
QUADRANGLE FUND RAISING
We have contributions from other governments, foreign and domestic corporations and individuals, to date representing approximately three-quarters of them. I am happy to report that on May 13, the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation enthusiastically recommended authorization of the proposed amount for construction and reported it to the floor, and equally favorable action followed.
SPECIAL FOREIGN CURRENCY PROGRAM REQUEST
REVISED REQUEST TO OMB
For example, we will have a whole cabinet full of squirrels from a certain part of the world. Instead of isolating them drawer by drawer, we'll just say that this drawer has x number of squirrels in it.
HISTORY AND ART REDUCTION
And we'll have to inventory it that way rather than tear it down as we eventually will have to do. It was a kind of cumulative problem: the 4 percent cut in this year's budget and then the problem that I don't think has been solved yet of the salary supplement for this year.
PUBLIC SERVICE REDUCTION
The central library of the Institution serves the branch libraries located in all our museums as well as in various research departments. In fact, the water was not from a roof leak per se, but a cross connection between the sanitary sewer and the storm sewer. Due to the shortage we had to close galleries on a selective basis and in fact we.
At this time we plan to bring in additional security personnel in addition to a follow-up security equipment.
SPECIAL FOREIGN CURRENCY PROGRAM REDUCTION
So, together with the 1982 appropriations, we had an immediate availability of about $12 million. We are well on our way to obligating these funds, but we will likely end up with a transfer of approximately $2 million at the end of the fiscal year. Why don't you put a note in the report about what needs to be done next and what you think you can move forward.
The following table details by category the Institution's original fiscal year 1983 repair and renovation request to 0MB and the fiscal year 1983 request to Congress.
ZOO CONSTRUCTION REDUCTION
This was for a veterinary hospital, quarantine facility and primate facility in Front Royal, Virginia. These are all the markings, signs, instructions throughout the zoo, which was in the program in stages. Animals that would be used in this facility will not be present — we would not acquire animals if we do not have a home for them.
One measure of this program's success can be seen in the fact that the number of significant claims has decreased over the past year.
RADIO GEOASTRONOMY PROGRAM
The justification on page A-5 indicates that the workers' compensation bill payable by the Smithsonian to the Department of Labor is $568,000. It radioed how fast it was ticking and we compared that speed to the ticking of the two clocks on Earth. Is this the same technology used by the jet propulsion laboratory on the Saturn fly-by mission?
The Saturn fly-by software was written specifically to reconstruct the optical information recorded by the Voyager spacecraft.
PAUL GARBER FACILITY
What is the status of fundraising for the joint acquisition of the portraits of George and Martha Washington. This increase will be used as part of a total increase of $152,000 for silver nitrate film preservation. One of the museum's greatest resources is an extraordinary archive of illustrations, decorative arts and.
In other words, they become hot enough, generated by the degradation of the nitrate, to cause a fire.
MUSEUM OF AFRICAN ART VISITATION
So this is a danger, a danger is the possibility of disintegration or even explosion. It's not just that you lose them, which you do, but that they are a danger to those around them. And now it turns out that it was of course harmful in the long run.
ANACOSTIA NEIGHBORHOOD MUSEUM VISITATION
STATUS OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE SERVICE
They've explored a variety of alternatives, none of which have been fully worked out yet, but we're pretty confident that an eventual. As for us at the Smithsonian, I have written to the public printer and the librarian that we do not intend to request funds for this program for the 1984 fiscal year. We asked in 1983 and we will, of course, make available any funds that Congress provides, but we do not intend to ask for it in 1984.
STATUS OF LEGISLATION
SILVER NITRATE FILM CONVERSION
Mr President, the legislation has been submitted by the Board of Regents to both the House and the Senate. The bill has been reported by the Senate committee and we expect action in the House of Representatives in the coming weeks.
FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL
Some decisions have been made as to which items will be processed in groups, but by June 1983 we will have individually inventoried all items of significant scientific value and will have group or batch inventories of all other items in our collection, which will total 70 or 80 million objects. The next step will essentially be a reconciliation of this base inventory with the entry and exit registers for the institution built up over the years. We've had to draw some arbitrary lines around the inventory to get it done.
As part of the ongoing effort, we want to increase the amount of detail in the computer files so that we can extract the things from our collection that are valuable for scientific research.
MAJOR EXHIBITION PROGRAM REQUEST
It would have been impossible within the bottom of one or both units together, consisting of objects throughout the Smithsonian, to handle it.
MUSEUM SUPPORT CENTER REQUEST
Collections Storage Equipment
Bid invitations for wet storage were issued on May 5, 1982, and the request for bids for the modular storage system is expected to be issued in July 1982. If funds must be reprogrammed to meet operational needs, the plan will have to be extended beyond the year 1989 and total expenditure will increase. higher unit costs for smaller buyers.
Laboratory Equipment and Furnishings
SUPPORT CENTER STAFFING
ADMINISTRATION REQUEST
THE DANGER OF NITRATE FILM
We felt it was increasingly expensive, beyond what we considered reasonable, and did not meet the high security needs of the Smithsonian. Because this is a lengthy and expensive program, the institution rationalized that part of the system should be. That is, preparing the control room and the computer itself was quite a task for the R&R.
We can also provide examples of unreasonable costs that we have been charged for individual work orders.
OFFICE OF PLANT SERVICES REQUEST
2. Contractor's February 2, 1982 proposal to extend an existing alarm system for two additional panes of glass at the National Museum of American Art/National Portrait GalleryBuilding Smithsonian employees performed the job in-house for. Contractor's February 2, 1982 proposal to provide a new intrusion detection zone on a single door at the National Museum ofAmerican Art/National Portrait Gallery Building. This price includes $1,620.00 for labor. The Smithsonian estimates the labor cost for this job at $200.00. Contractor's February 2, 1982 proposal to extend an existing alert zone to include two doors at the NationalMuseum ofAmerican Art/National PortraitGallery: $739.00.
5. Contractor's proposal dated March 29, 1982 to install coneofintrusion detection in the National Museum of American Art/National Portrait Gallery building:.
SPECIAL FOREIGN CURRENCY PROGRAM
OLMSTED WALK EXHIBITS
RENOVATION AT FRONT ROYAL
RESTORATION AND RENOVATION OF BUILDINGS
We think the Smithsonian facilities are in pretty good shape right now, Mr. Chairman, but I think every person who has a responsibility to maintain real property, whether a homeowner, a businessman or a government.
QUADRANGLE CONSTRUCTION COSTS
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE
I understand that in the recent testimony of representatives of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before your subcommittee, a statement was made that because peregrine falcon recovery programs involving the release of captive-bred falcons have been shown to be effective, there is no need for more federal funding to demonstrate the feasibility of this process—and further—that there is ample private funding available to continue the programs. Those plans have been approved by the respective restoration teams and have received approval from the Fish and Wildlife Service. However, we are asking that the Fish and Wildlife Service fulfill its commitment, as set forth in the officially approved recovery plans, to fund the operation of the captive breeding facilities at Cornell and Fort Collins at the rate of $300,000 per year.
If sufficient federal funds continue to be available through the Fish and Wildlife Service's budget to support the breeding of falcons in captivity, we are confident that other federal agencies, states, foundations, corporations and private individuals will be encouraged to provide the additional funds necessary for the release and open bird settlement.
EASTERN
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE
MEMORANDUM
Historically, peregrines only rarely nested in the intertidal region of the Atlantic coast, but it is not correct to say - as some have - that these coastal habitats lie completely outside the natural breeding range of the species. In fact, numbers of migrating peregrines are still frequent in the tidal waters in every month of the year except June, July and August. As breeding pairs take over release sites in the Chesapeake Bay-Atlantic Coast region and we can scale back the number of pups released there, we can increase the number of sites and the number of pups released in the mountains.
For 19 81 we propose to invest about 70 percent of the juveniles available for release in the southern region and the other 30 percent on natural islands in the northeast.
