Management Challenges and Looking Ahead
AOC faces unique challenges in meeting its mission to serve Congress and the Supreme Court, preserve America’s Capitol and inspire memorable visitor experiences. By identifying and defining the most difficult challenges facing the agency, AOC’s management is able to mitigate barriers to operational success. This section outlines AOC’s most significant challenges, as determined by management, and the initiatives AOC has developed to address them. The challenges include:
• Stress on Budgetary Resources
• Deferred Maintenance and Capital Renewal Backlog
• Energy Stewardship and Sustainability
• Physical Security of Facilities
• Workplace Safety and Health
• Management of Concurrent Projects
One notable change from last year involves renaming the “Sequestration Management” challenge to “Stress on Budgetary Resources”—a change conveying that budget- ary pressures are more extensive than just the mandatory sequestration cuts. Another notable change is the addition of “Management of Concurrent Projects” to the challenges list—a change reflecting that AOC is facing the prospect of completing several multi-year, large construction projects at the same time. In addition to these challenges identified by management, AOC’s Inspector General submitted a separate list of management opportunities and performance challenges—included in Section IV: Other Information.
Stress on Budgetary Resources
Key Challenge: In past years, AOC met the challenge of an increasingly constrained budget environment, including the October 2013 lapse in appropriations, by focusing on its core mission to preserve and maintain the historic assets in its care. While AOC strives to continuously become more efficient, the cost of complying with regulatory requirements related to energy, safety and security, coupled with the growing cost of day-to-day operations, puts increased pressure on budgetary resources. Even more concerning is the damage that is occurring to the crucial building infrastructures, such as the deterioration in the USBG Conservatory and underground garages. These factors are compounded by the growing backlog of deferred maintenance and future capital renewal needs. This already strained environment is amplified by the fact that the cost of maintaining historic structures is higher than the cost of maintaining non-historic office buildings and related structures. These circumstances present AOC with a significant dilemma on how to address these growing needs across Capitol Hill and ensure the historic fabric of its buildings is preserved before the damage becomes too great.
While AOC continues to take tremendous cost avoidance measures in order to work smarter and leaner, the agency must also be prepared to rise to potential work-load challenges as a result of external events such as the November 2014 elections and the 114th congressional transition. These transitions are heavily labor-intensive and can involve hundreds of post-election office moves and thousands of work orders.
AOC Initiatives: To address long-term budget constraints, AOC is focused on finding innovative ways to work leaner to reduce operational costs and redirect those resources to other priority needs. Despite increasing workloads, AOC continues to focus on managing its overtime costs through improvements to project planning and restructuring work shifts. Innovative implementation efforts have helped to improve worker efficiency.
Since sequestration requires AOC to limit spending in 2016, it is important to focus on preserving the structures in place before building new. Accordingly, as part of its Congressional Budget Justification, AOC judiciously set up a Project Prioritization Process that will continue into FY 2015 and beyond. It ranks every necessary project using two primary drivers: the condition of the facilities and the urgency in which the deficiencies need to be addressed. This process identifies projects that will require major investments in preservation and restoration and ensure that only the most pressing needs are met. Without the long-term funds to fully address all maintenance requirements, AOC is concentrating in the short-term on the most pressing repairs to ensure that facilities remain operational. However, the agency understands that, in doing so, repairs are being delayed that will eventually become necessary to address. The longer these projects are delayed, the conditions of these facilities will continue to deteriorate, deficiencies will grow more serious and, ultimately, more costly to repair. Additional consequences of not addressing looming deferred maintenance and capital renewal projects are the continued crumbling of facilities’ infrastructures; a loss of historic artwork and architectural features; continued system and building failures; and security threats. AOC’s investments in these projects will help to preserve national treasures for future generations and are designed to allow Congress to realize efficiencies and savings, as well.
AOC also continues efforts to find needed funds within AOC’s existing budget through operational efficiencies and contract re-negotiations. In FY 2015, AOC will continue to identify opportunities to move work in-house, consider the further implementation of shared services and address mandated
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