During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) spoke about the Capitol Police's plan to add 288 new officers.
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00:00The reception of the Librarian was formed by Thomas Jefferson in 1902.
00:04It was a lifetime appointment.
00:06It was a lifetime appointment until President Obama changed it in 2015
00:11and they made the Librarian where it was at the service and at the will of the President.
00:17There was no objection by this side at that time when that was taken care of,
00:21so it was well within the President's authority to be able to let go the Librarian.
00:25There is no separation of powers because that appointment for the Librarian
00:28has always been appointed by the President of the United States.
00:31So just for historical purposes, I didn't want to get into it,
00:34but it's been brought up twice.
00:36I think that's an important piece of information that's being left out here.
00:41Chief, you just said that your objection is to hire,
00:45part of your reason for asking for the increase is to hire 288 new officers.
00:50Is that correct?
00:51That's correct.
00:52Your recruiting classes are full month after month, is that correct?
00:56They are, yes.
00:57Okay, so you're not having a recruiting issue, right?
01:00We are not.
01:01And really, if you break down the 288, for 288 employees,
01:06you have 996 roughly overtime hours.
01:09It's actually over 996,000, actually,
01:12overtime hours that you paid out last year at a tune of 84 point,
01:16let's just round the number, 84.3 million dollars.
01:20Just quick math.
01:23If you did 288 employees, and you times it by 52, which they don't work 52 weeks a year,
01:29but just times it by 52, and you give them 50 hours a week, that just comes up to 748,000 hours right there.
01:35So, for not having a recruiting issue, then we have all your classes are full.
01:42We can get there underneath the current budget you have right now, put an additional 288 people on the force.
01:47They still are able to get overtime at a tune of 50 hours a week.
01:50That's including with the officers you have today.
01:52Because your officers you have today, if you take that and you divide it up,
01:55they average right at 50 hours a week, 40.8 hours is actually.
02:00And I know this is different from protective service guys that are doing protective versus the uniform.
02:05But my point is, if we look at restructuring it, rather than just asking for us to throw more money at it,
02:10it's saving the taxpayer dollars.
02:13But we can't do it because your recruiting classes are completely full.
02:17And we're only being able to go through the recruiting classes.
02:24Do you have two places that you put these things, that you put your recruits through, right?
02:30Fletzi and Georgia and then Shelton.
02:33But we're limited on numbers there.
02:35Have we looked at having an additional place?
02:37Because obviously, like I said, you're not having a recruiting number,
02:39you're recruiting an issue because your classes are full.
02:42So we can't ever get to the 288 if we're at maximum capacity right now.
02:46So what's our option?
02:49One of the findings in a recent training needs assessment that we completed is that the facilities are the choke point for us.
03:03Right.
03:04But I mean, we looked at getting a different facility, different place to send our recruits to.
03:08Yeah, well, we could look at that.
03:11I mean, Fletzi has just historically been the federal law enforcement training center is where we train all federal law enforcement officers.
03:19But if they're not able to meet the need, then the definition of insanity is doing the same thing, expecting different results.
03:25They're not able to meet the need, and they're not able to recruit fast enough.
03:29We have to change because instead you're paying out 996,000 hours of overtime, which is a tune of 84-plus million dollars,
03:38and you could easily get the other 288 officers in place with the budget you have right now by just cutting down people's overtime,
03:45which would also help their quality of life because they're going to be able to be home a little bit more,
03:50at the same time still get the overtime at 50 hours a week.
03:53And so there's math here that actually works.
03:57But we can't do it unless you're willing to change and look outside what we've always done.
04:02Well, the change that I'm dealing with is the growing caseload.
04:06I mean, this is not a static workload that doesn't change every year.
04:10It is increasing every year.
04:12The growing caseload, you'd need 280 additional officers, right?
04:16And we're trying to make up for deficits that continue, especially in the dignitary protection.
04:21But you can't get there. That's what I'm getting at.
04:23If your recruiting classes are 100% full, you'll never be able to get there unless we look at a different place
04:30to start putting these recruits through a different class.
04:33I understand what you're saying, but we are making progress in terms of getting ahead of attrition every year
04:39with the 288 people that we're putting through.
04:42By what numbers?
04:43Typically, our attrition numbers, and I can get them to you, are around usually 130, 140 people who leave.
04:54So that we're coming out, just estimating we're coming out at least 100 officers ahead each year.
05:02So at that rate, if you kept the current load and your current assessment, risk assessment stays,
05:11it'd still take you three years to get hired up?
05:13I estimate that by the end of FY27 we would be close.
05:18Well, you can't do it if your recruiting classes are full and your attrition rate's at 134
05:21and you're bringing in 220, I thought 220-some new recruits every year.
05:26You're less than 100 and you need 288.
05:29Just simple math there says it's going to take over three years.
05:31In fact, it's going to take three and a half years.
05:33Well, we are making progress every year in terms of getting closer to the staff.
05:39Why haven't we looked at getting a new place to send the recruits is what I'm getting at.
05:42Just because we go, this is what, it's like I'm going in circles here.
05:45I don't understand why we're not trying to find new places to put the recruits through so we can have a higher amount hired each year.
05:55If we need 288 today, then what are we going to need in three years from now?
06:00You're never going to get caught up with that.
06:02If there is some place that will give us the certificate that allows us to certify these police officers as federal law enforcement officers, another facility, I'm happy to look at it.
06:11I'm good with it too and I think we can help you find one.
06:14We just need to start looking.
06:16I yield.
06:17Mr. Chairman, I would be very happy to work with you and we just happen to have a federal law enforcement training center in Artesia, New Mexico.
06:27That we would love to make sure meets the requirements of the U.S. Capitol Police.
06:32Honestly, let's look at it.
06:34Absolutely.
06:35I mean, if we want to take a field hearing there, let's go.
06:37I'm not saying that adjust.
06:38They do great work.
06:39I know that there's…
06:40If we had one of an old…