[Senate Report 105-413]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
Calendar No. 719
105th Congress Report
SENATE
2d Session 105-413
_______________________________________________________________________
WENDELL H. FORD GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS REFORM ACT OF 1998
_______
October 16 (legislative day, October 2), 1998--Ordered to be printed
_______________________________________________________________________
Mr. Warner, from the Committee on Rules and Administration, submitted
the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 2288]
The Committee on Rules and Administration, to which was
referred a bill to provide for the reform and continuing
legislative oversight of the production, procurement,
dissemination, and permanent public access of the Government's
publications, and for other purposes, having considered the
same, reports favorably S. 2288 with an amendment in the nature
of a substitute, and recommends that the bill, the ``Wendell H.
Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998,'' do pass.
I. Purpose
The purposes of the ``Wendell H. Ford Government
Publications Reform Act of 1998'' (S. 2288) are to:
(1) reform the oversight and management of the
production, dissemination, and permanent public access
to Federal Government publications;
(2) guarantee permanent public access to publications
produced by or for the Federal Government, regardless
of their form or format;
(3) facilitate the efficient and economical
production, dissemination, and permanent public access
to Government publications; and,
(4) limit the Federal Government's internal printing
and publication production capacity and to promote the
procurement of printing and publication production from
competitively selected private sector commercial
sources to the maximum extent practicable consistent
with this Act.
II. Summary and Overview
BACKGROUND
Since the earliest days of the Federal government, most
aspects of government information policy and practice have been
established by Congress. Statutory provision was made in the
early years, for example, for the printing and distribution of
both laws and treaties, the preservation of state papers, and
the maintenance of official files in the new departments. Just
before the nation erupted in civil war, a permanent printing
organization--the Government Printing Office (GPO)--was
statutorily mandated to produce all public printing.
Statutory provisions governing public printing by the
federal government, including production, dissemination,
management, and oversight, are largely concentrated in the
opening chapters of Title 44 of the United States Code. GPO is
designated the principal agent for almost all federal
government printing. Oversight responsibility for the GPO
printing system is vested principally in the Joint Committee on
Printing (JCP), which also is authorized to exercise
discretionary remedial powers to improve public printing
operations and the distribution of government publications.
Much of the content of the public printing chapters of title 44
derives from the Printing Act of 1895, the first comprehensive
government printing law. This body of law has been amended and
modified by Congress from time to time to accommodate changing
technology and policy developments. During the past two
decades, however, monumental challenges have arisen which have
prompted a reconsideration of government printing policy and
practice and the provisions of title 44 prescribing them. Among
the challenges prompting this reconsideration are:
Identified weaknesses, and the consequent inability,
of the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP) to force
agencies to produce and disseminate their publications
through the Government Printing Office (GPO);
Open encouragement of the current Administration--
through strategic decisions and through the National
Performance Review (NPR)--for agencies to use other
printing and dissemination facilities;
Evolutions in technology; and,
GPO's slow response to technological change and
seeming unresponsiveness to agency needs, demands, and
expectations.
THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING
For over 150 years, oversight responsibility for the GPO
printing and dissemination system has been vested principally
in the JCP. Composed of the senior members of the House
Committee on House Oversight and the Senate Committee on Rules
and Administration, the JCP is empowered to ``use any measures
it considers necessary to remedy neglect, delay, duplication,
or waste in the public printing and binding and the
distribution of Government publications.'' Although it is not a
legislative committee, the JCP contributes to the management of
the GPO printing and dissemination system through various
administrative techniques, a major one being the promulgation
and administration of government printing and binding
regulations.
In 1983, the Supreme Court's decision in INS v. Chadha
found adoption of a simple resolution by one congressional
chamber to veto executive action or policy unconstitutional
because it was an exercise of legislative power which did not
follow the constitutional prescribed lawmaking process:
bicameral consideration and presentation of a bill or joint
resolution to the President for his signature or veto. The
legislative veto authority of Congress was invalidated, and
with its invalidation, the Department of Justice and the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) began to question the
longstanding assumption that Congress, through the JCP, had
plenary authority to control public printing throughout the
Federal government.
At the heart of the controversy has been JCP's historic
prerogative, virtually unchallenged until Chadha, to control
all aspects of public printing through its statutory authority
to ``use any measures it considers necessary to remedy neglect,
delay, duplication, or waste in the public printing and binding
and the distribution of Government publications.'' 1
Thus, while the Public Printer was appointed by the President,
for all practical purposes he was beholden to and controlled by
the Congress through the JCP.
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\1\ 44 U.S.C. 103 (1994).
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Through a series of challenges and interpretations since
the Supreme Court's decision, the Senate Committee on Rules and
Administration now recognizes that the role of Congress,
through the JCP, in the control and management of government
printing and publications dissemination is a serious impediment
to the cooperative development between the Executive, Judicial
and Legislative Branches of effective, efficient and
appropriate public printing policies for the 21st century.
ADMINISTRATION ENCOURAGEMENT
While previous Administrations may have been reticent about
complying with title 44, United States Code, the Clinton
Administration has been notably aggressive in its efforts to
change government printing and dissemination practices. Through
Justice Department opinions (discussed above) and subsequent
guidance provided agencies by the Office of Management and
Budget, and through the National Performance Review (NPR),
efforts were made to do through administrative fiat what could
not be done by law.
The NPR made three specific recommendations, and at least a
half dozen related recommendations, which, while government-
wide in their application, were particularly relevant to GPO
and how it did business.
The three specific recommendations were:
Sup01: Authorize the Executive Branch to establish a
printing policy that will eliminate the current
printing monopoly;
Sup02: Ensure public access to Federal information;
and,
It03: Develop integrated electronic access to
government information and services.
Sup01
The first recommendation was predicated in part on a 1990
General Accounting Office (GAO) report which characterized
GPO's centralized function as a monopoly.
Despite the fact that GPO serves as a facility through
which 80 percent of the printing and publication services it
provides are procured through a highly competitive process from
private-sector contractors, the NPR declared:
The GPO is the mandatory source for obtaining
congressional and executive branch printing . . . GPO
charges overhead of 6 to 9 percent for each print order
it forwards to private sector printers. Agencies
complain that printing done in-house by GPO costs 50
percent more than printing done in the commercial
sector . . . Congress should take the necessary steps
to clearly give the executive branch the authority to
make its own printing policy.
The recommendation called for a policy to be developed by
the General Services Administration (GSA) with the cooperation
of the Interagency Council on Printing and Publication Services
which:
Was to take full advantage of the rapid changes in
printing technology;
Was to exclude desk top publishing and xerographic
processes from the definition of printing;
Was to emphasize out-sourcing traditional printing;
Was to give agencies authority to choose both their
procurement agent and the type of equipment they may
wish to use for their own in-plant production;
Was to minimize reporting requirements; and,
Was to ensure continued dissemination of printed
information to the Depository Library Program.
Because of the nature of the definition and the emphasis on
a particular type of technology--this recommendation would have
greatly reduced the amount of information agencies would be
required to make permanently accessible to the public through
the Federal Depository Library Program.
Sup02
The second major recommendation of the NPR proposed:
That each agency in the executive branch be given the
responsibility for distributing their own printed
federal information to the depository libraries;
That the GSA develop a plan to ensure that
distribution occurs;
That a locator system for public access be developed;
and,
That one-stop shopping facilities be established for
the sale of Federal documents.
Under this scenario, the Superintendent of Documents would
no longer be responsible for either assuring dissemination to
the Federal Depository Libraries, nor would Superintendent
Documents be the principal publications seller for the Federal
Government. Ostensibly, what few remaining ``printed''
materials executive agencies would produce would be offered
through a GSA sponsored facility.
As to the locator system, no clear responsibility for its
development was spelled out. It was to be everyone's and no
one's.
It03:
To develop integrated electronic access to government
information and services, the NPR directed that:
A Government Information Working Group should charter
an interagency team to coordinate, recommend, and
implement information technology initiatives to improve
customer service;
An integrated, government-wide national, one-stop
800-number calling service be implemented;
A program of an integrated one-stop government
service kiosks be implemented;
An integrated, government-wide one-stop electronic
bulletin board system be implemented; and,
Work be undertaken with private industry to advance
the implementation of technologies that provide citizen
access to government information and services.
Because of Congressional leadership in this area, GPO
ACCESS, the Federal government's main on-line source of access
to hundreds of Federal government agency web sites, as well as
the documents of the past several Congresses, the Federal
Register, the Commerce and Business Daily, and other recent,
key Federal government electronic and digital publications,
exists today. The Government Information Locator System (GILS)
is also operational. However, it is not--to date--as
comprehensive, or user friendly as it was originally
envisioned.
TECHNOLOGY
Information technology is revolutionizing the way people
everywhere do virtually everything. Nowhere, however, has the
impact of information technology been seen and felt more
dramatically than in the printing and dissemination of
government information. Today, the government publications
which used to take months to write, edit, layout, and print
require only a fraction of the time and energy to create. Once
created, these publications are almost instantly available to
their intended publics via the Internet, or through high speed,
high volume, print-on-demand systems.
This technology is relatively easy to use. The quality and
variety of material it can produce, and the speed and cost at
which it can be produced compared to traditional processes make
it a ready choice. Additionally, the arcane definitions of
printing in title 44, United States Code, invites agencies to
use the new technology whenever possible.
The down-side for those who advocate permanent public
access, however, is that, as quickly as much of this
information is produced, it is destroyed. Web pages go up and
come down daily. Publications produced and disseminated
electronically are easily and readily changed, and sometimes
discarded without any provision made for either public access
or archiving.
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
Giving credibility to the Administration's campaign to free
itself from the requirements of title 44, United States Code,
is the widely held perception that GPO is not responsive to the
needs, desires, and expectations of its customers, and that it
is slow to adopt new technology. Numerous GAO reports on both
the regulatory environment and the management of GPO over the
decade before the NPR lent further credence to these
perceptions.
In May 1998, the GAO issued a voluminous management audit
of the Government Printing Office which addressed six specific
areas:
Superintendent of Documents Sales Program--
Appropriateness and adequacy of policies and procedures
involving publication inventory management;
Printing Procurement Program--Adequacy and
effectiveness of organization, operation, staffing,
marketing, financing, procedures for contracting
printing services from private vendors, and the process
for determining charges for printing and other services
provided to Congress and executive branch agencies;
In-plant production--Ways to improve efficiency and
cost effectiveness, praticularly organization, product
mix, management, staffing, processes for determining
charges for printing and other services provided to
Congress and the executive branch agencies;
Personnel--Adequacy and appropriateness of personel
matters, including training, deployment, and
supervisory structure;
Budgeting, accounting, and financial reporting
systems--Adequacy and completeness of methodology,
presentation, clarity, reliability, and ease of
interpretation; and,
Financial and other management-related observations
and recommendations identified during the audit of
GPO's consolidated financial statement for the year
ending September 30, 1995--Status of GPO's actions
regarding the observations and recommendations.
In sum, the auditors, Booz-Allen & Hamilton observed:
In the course of our analysis, overarching issues
arose that, by their nature, affect the organization as
a whole. These issues deal with the future and overall
organization of GPO and the lack of strategic planning
with GPO.
Although, from the customer perspective, there is
little support for eliminating GPO, there is strong
desire on the part of customers to improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. The
congressional focus group agreed unanimously that the
Congress needs a printing capability over which they
have control. Similarly, when we met with
representatives from the executive branch agencies, we
found universal support for GPO's printing procurement
services. Finally, disseminating government information
to the public is an inherent government responsibility,
and we found no evidence that people believe otherwise.
In response to these findings, we recommend that GPO
focus its energy on creating a future-oriented
organizational structure and on developing and adopting
new plans and business processes that focus more on
where GPO and its customers want it to be and less on
where it has been.
THE LEGISLATIVE RESPONSE--Title 44 Reform
In light of these conditions, and the concerns expressed to
the Congress by a wide range of interests, the Senate Committee
on Rules and Administration and the House Committee on House
Oversight began a concerted effort in 1995 to identify a
workable reform. In the Summer of 1995, the House Committee on
House Oversight held hearings on GPO operations and the problem
of ``fugitive documents''. These hearings were followed in 1996
by a series of hearings by the Senate Committee on Rules and
Administration. At the end of the 104th Congress, the chairman
of the Joint Committee on Printing, Congressman Bill Thomas,
introduced H.R. 4280, a broad proposal to reform title 44,
United States Code.
At the start of the 105th Congress, the Senate Committee on
Rules and Administration, responding to the testimony received
in 1996, and with a concurrent consensus of the membership of
the Joint Committee on Printing, undertook an initiative to
solve four key issues related to title 44, United States Code.
These issues were:
1. Resolve the conflict between the branches of the
Federal Government which hampers efficient production
and thwarts permanent access to the Federal
Government's publications;
2. Facilitate production and public access to
Government publications by the establishment of
mechanisms that assure the efficient and economical
production of publications and an effective and
equitable system of dissemination;
3. Guarantee the right of the public to access
publications produced by the Federal Government; and,
4. Promote public availability of Government
information in the electronic age through a Federal
publications access program that provides no-fee
availability, regardless of format.
The chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and
Administration authorized that a working group comprised of
Republicans and Democrats, representatives of House and Senate
members, representatives of the Administration, and
representatives of virtually every organization or body which
might have an interest in this issue be established.
Subsequently, the Committee held three more hearings during
the spring of 1997, and on July 10, 1998, Senators Warner and
Ford introduced S. 2288, the Wendell H. Ford Government
Publications Reform Act of 1998. As introduced, the measure
reflected the input of the library community on behalf of the
Federal Depository Library Program, the union leadership and
management of the Government Printing Office, the private
sector information industry, the private sector printing
industry, printing officers in the House of Representatives and
the Senate, and several Executive branch agencies.
Separation of powers
Title I of S. 2288 decisively and completely removes the
constitutional obstacle that has been the source of the
interbranch stalemate. The measure conforms the printing
establishment to the constitutional principles of separation of
powers. This is accomplished by abolishing the Joint Committee
on Printing and eliminating all direct congressional controls
over Executive and Judicial Branch printing.2
Hereafter, Congress will exercise only traditional oversight
over public printing through its authorizing and appropriating
committees of jurisdiction.3
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\2\ Section 101, 102, 105, and 506 (9), (10).
\3\ Section 103(a), 105, 506 (1)-(8).
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Second, the new Administrator of the GPO, and his two chief
assistants, the Superintendent of Government Publications
Production and Procurement Services and the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs, are all appointed by
the President with the advice and consent of the
Senate.4 The three officials serve at the pleasure
of the President.5 The Administrator is vested with
the authority to ``use any measures [he] considers necessary to
carry out the duties and powers of the office and to remedy
neglect, delay, duplication, or waste in the production,
procurement, and dissemination of the Federal Government's
publications, and to enhance and expand the dissemination of,
and maintenance of permanent public access to, the Federal
Government's publications, and to issue all regulations
necessary to implement the purposes of legislation.''
6 Both Superintendents are subject to the direction
of the Administrator in the performance of their
duties.7 Thus, the President has plenary control of
those officials who will administer the new GPO.
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\4\ New Sections 301(a), 502(a), and 1903(a) of title 44.
\5\ It is well settled that, in the face of statutory silence, the
power of removal is presumptively incident to the power of appointment
and that a statutory term of office (the Superintendents each serve
five year terms) merely sets the outer limits of the tenure of an
incumbent. Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52, 161 (1926); Shurtleff
v. United States, 189 U.S. 311, 318 (1903); Reagan v. United States,
182 U.S. 419, 426-27 (1902); In re Hennen, 38 U.S. (13 Pet.) 230, 259
(1839).
\6\ New Section 301(b) of title 44.
\7\ New Section 310(a)
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Finally, the proposed legislation reestablishes the
Government Printing Office as the ``Government Publications
Office, an independent entity in the Federal Government,
independent of executive agencies.'' 8 The intention
here is to continue in the new GPO the historical recognition
of its necessary independence from the executive agencies that
it will regulate and the fact that it will service the printing
and procurement requirements of agencies in all three branches.
The reaffirmation of GPO's unique mission will, therefore,
require continued funding under the annual Legislative Branch
appropriations measure, placing GPO's annual budget under the
requirements of 31 U.S.C. 9104. The maintenance of these
historical vestiges of independence, in view of the overall
structural nature of the new GPO, raises no substantial
separation of powers concerns under current Supreme Court
separation jurisprudence.
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\8\ Section 201(b)(2).
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Only where the object of the exercise of legislative power
is clearly seen in the particular situation as an attempt at
aggrandizement or encroachment have the courts felt constrained
to intervene. See, e.g., Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976)
(Congress may not appoint executive officials performing
substantial functions under the law); Bowsher v. Synar, 478
U.S. 714, 732 (1986)(Congress may not retain removal power over
an officer performing executive functions); INS v. Chadha, 462
U.S. 919 (1983) (Congress may not exercise legislative power
without conforming to the constitutionally prescribed lawmaking
power); Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority v. CAAN, 501
U.S. 252 (1991) (Board of Review composed of Members of
Congress could not exercise veto power over operational
decisions of Airports Authority); Hechinger v. Metropolitan
Washington Airports Authority Board of Review, 36 F. 3d 97
(D.C. Cir. 1994), cert. denied, 115 S. Ct. 934 (1995) (Board of
Review which could only recommend and delay, but not veto, the
operational decisions of the Airports Authority held to be an
unconstitutional direct exercise of congressional influence);
Federal Election Commissioner v. NRA Political Victory Fund, 6
F. 3d 821 (D.C.Cir. 1993), cert denied for want of
jurisdiction, 115 S. Ct. 537 (1994) (congressional appointment
of two of its agents as non-voting members of the Commission
who could attend all business meetings of the agency held
unconstitutional).
Beyond such direct congressional intrusions on agency
decision making, however, the Supreme Court has been generous
in broadly defining the legislative authority to structure the
administrative bureaucracy. It has upheld congressional actions
lengthening and shortening terms of office and abolishing
offices altogether, Crenshaw, v. United States, 134 U.S. 99,
105-6 (1890); Lewis v. United States, 244 U.S. 1345 (1917);
limiting the removal power of the President, Morrison v. Olson,
487 U.S. 654 (1988); locating an independent agency performing
executive functions in the judicial branch, Mistretta v. United
States, 488 U.S. 361 (1989); allowing an agency to assume
jurisdiction over state-law counterclaims, Commodity Futures
Trading Commission v. Schor, 473 U.S. 833 (1986); empowering
the Attorney General to determine what substances would be
criminal and to prosecute violations, Touby v. United States,
500 U.S. 160 (1991); and establishing the qualifications for
holding office, Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52, 128, 129
(1926).
This case law has established that it is the nature of the
appointment of the officer performing the executive functions
and who has the power to remove that officer, rather than the
location of the entity, that is critical to determining the
constitutionality of a particular legislative scheme. The
Committee's proposal, which vests the appointment and removal
of the Administrator and the two Superintendents exclusively in
the President, and which eliminates all direct congressional
intrusions on GPO's decision making processes (other than
normal congressional oversight and the passage of legislation),
is well within the permissible limits of the separation
doctrine. The Court's decision in Mistretta v. United States,
supra, holding that the placement of an agency with executive
powers and functions outside the Executive Branch did not raise
significant constitutional questions, is perhaps most apposite
to the legislation under consideration.
In Mistretta, the Court rejected a separation of powers
challenge to the United States Sentencing Commission.
Petitioners argued that the Commission, an independent agency
in the Judicial Branch vested with power to promulgate binding
sentencing guidelines, violated the separation doctrine by its
placement in the Judicial Branch, by requiring federal judges
to serve on the Commission and to share their authority with
nonjudges, by empowering the President to appoint Commission
members, but limiting his power to remove them only for cause,
and by vesting the Commission with binding rulemaking
authority.
At the outset of its opinion, the Court reiterated its
understanding of Congress's broad authority to create and to
fashion the responsibilities and functions of agencies.
Brushing aside an argument that Congress could not locate an
agency with no judicial powers in the Judicial Branch, the
majority held:
Our constitutional principles of separated powers are
not violated, however, by mere anomaly or innovation .
. . Congress' decision to create an independent
rulemaking body to promulgate sentencing guidelines and
to locate that body within the Judicial Branch is not
unconstitutional unless Congress has vested in the
Commission powers that are more appropriately performed
by the other Branches or that undermine the integrity
of the Judiciary. (488 U.S. at 385)
The Court found none. Rulemaking, it held, is not a
uniquely executive function.
None of our cases indicate that rulemaking per se is
a function that may not be performed by an entity
within the Judicial Branch, either because rulemaking
is inherently nonjudicial or because it is a function
exclusively committed to the Executive Branch. (Id. at
386)
Nor was the ``significantly political nature of the
Commission's work,'' i.e., that the promulgation of the
sentencing guidelines involves making policy judgments and
choices, a significant infirmity.
Our separation-of-powers analysis does not turn on the
labeling of an activity as ``substantive'' as opposed to
``procedural,'' or ``political'' as opposed to ``judicial . .
.'' Rather our inquiry is focused on the ``unique aspects of
the congressional plan at issue and its practical consequences
in light of the larger concerns that underlie Article III.''
Using this pragmatic approach, the Court noted that, although
the Commission is located in the Judicial Branch, its
rulemaking powers are separate from those of the judiciary. The
Commission is not a court and is not controlled by or
accountable to, members of the judiciary. Moreover, the
Commission is an independent agency accountable to Congress,
which can revoke any or all of the guidelines at any time; its
members are subject to the President's limited removal powers;
and its rules are subject to the notice and comment
requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act. Thus, the
Court concluded, ``because Congress vested the power to
promulgate sentencing guidelines in an independent agency, not
a court, there can be no serious argument that Congress
combined legislative and judicial power within the Judicial
Branch.'' (Id. at 354)
The Court summarized its holdings as follows:
We conclude that in creating the Sentencing
Commission--an unusual hybrid in structure and
authority--Congress neither delegated excessive
legislative power nor upset the constitutionally
mandated balance of powers among the coordinate
Branches. The Constitution's structural protections do
not prohibit Congress from delegating to an expert body
located within the Judicial Branch the intricate task
of formulating sentencing guidelines consistent with
such significant statutory direction as it presents
here. Nor does our system of checked and balanced
authority prohibit Congress from calling upon the
accumulated wisdom and experience of the Judicial
Branch in creating policy on a matter uniquely within
the ken of judges. Accordingly, we hold that the Act is
not unconstitutional. (Id. at 412)
Mistretta also lends substantial support to the 1978 Fourth
Circuit decision in Eltra Corporation v. Ringer, 579 F.2d 294
(4th Cir. 1978), which upheld the performance of executive
functions by the Copyright Office, a component part of the
Library of Congress which, of course, is located in the
Legislative Branch. In that case the appeals court affirmed a
lower ruling dismissing a mandamus action brought to compel the
Register of Copyrights to register a proposed copyright as a
``work of art.'' Among the contentions of the appellant was the
claim that the Register of Copyrights is a legislative office
and cannot perform executive functions since it is part of the
Library of Congress which, through the Congressional Research
Service (CRS), performs exclusively legislative functions as a
support agency for the Congress. As a consequence of this
activity, it was urged, the Library as a whole must be deemed
legislative in character and its copyright functions cannot be
lawfully exercised, citing the Supreme Court's then recent
decision in Buckley v. Valeo, supra, as controlling authority.
The appellant also argued that receipt of its annual
appropriation in the Legislative Branch appropriations
legislation was a determinative indication that it was a
legislative branch agency incapable of exercising executive
functions. The appeals court unequivocally rejected these
arguments in an opinion in which it delineated the executive
character of the Library despite the unique presence of CRS,
the constitutional necessity of presidential appointment of the
Librarian, the irrelevance of receiving funding under the
Legislative Branch appropriations measure, and the
appropriateness of the appointment of the Register by the
Librarian.
The registration of copyrights cannot be likened to
the gathering of information ``relevant to the
legislative process'' nor does the Register perform a
function ``which Congress might devolve to one of its
own committees.'' The operations of the Office of the
Register are administrative and the Register must
accordingly owe his appointment, as he does, to
appointment by one who is in turn appointed by the
President in accordance with the Appointments Clause.
It is irrelevant that the Office of the Librarian of
Congress is codified under the legislative branch or
that it receives its appropriation as a part of the
legislative appropriation. The Librarian performs
certain functions which may be regarded as legislative
(i.e. Congressional Research Service) and other
functions (such as the Copyright Office) which are
executive or administrative. Because of its hybrid
character, it could have been grouped code-wise under
either the legislative or executive department. But
such code-grouping cannot determine whether a given
function is executive or legislative. After all, the
Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, under which the
Federal Election Commission reviewed in Buckley was
appointed, is codified under the legislative heading
and its appropriations were made under the heading.
Neither the Supreme Court nor the parties in Buckley
regarded that fact as determinative of the character of
the Commission, whether legislative or executive. It is
not more permissible to argue, as the appellant did in
the article in the George Washington Law Review, that
the mere codification of the Library of Congress and
the Copyright Office under the legislative branch
placed the Copyright Office ``within the constitutional
confines of a legislative agency'' than it would be to
contend that the Federal Election Commission, despite
the 1974 amendment of the Act with reference to the
appointment of its members, is a legislative agency
unconstitutionally exercising executive administrative
authority.
The Supreme Court has properly assumed over the decades
since 1909 that the Copyright Office is an executive office,
operating under the direction of an Officer of the United
States and as such is operating under the direction of an
Officer of the United States in conformity with the
Appointments Clause. The challenges of the appellant to the
constitutionality of the 1909 Act and to the Register's power
thereunder, would, if properly before us, be without merit.
(579 F.2d at 300-01 (footnotes omitted))
The Committee's proposed restructuring of GPO is neither
anomalous or innovative. It abandons Congress' unconstitutional
direct control of GPO's executive decision making; allows the
President unfettered removal power over his appointees who are
to administer the agency; and maintains the agency's historic
and prophylactic independence from the agencies it is directed
to regulate. The scheme plainly is in accord with separation of
powers principles.
The authorities of the Joint Committee on Printing over
Congressional printing are transferred to the House Committee
on House Oversight and the Senate Committee on Rules and
Administration (acting respectively for each house or jointly
for both houses of Congress). The legislative oversight
jurisdiction for the Government Publications Office remains
with the House Committee on House Oversight and Senate
Committee on Rules and Administration, and the appropriations
authority for the Government Publications Office remains with
the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittees.
Title I also provides that the current Government Printing
and Binding Regulations administered by the Joint Committee on
Printing shall stay in effect and be administered by the
Administrator of the Government Publications Office until final
regulations are published by the Administrator under
authorities provided in Title II of the Act. Additionally, all
waivers and other provisions required of executive and judicial
branch agencies by the Joint Committee on Printing before the
date of enactment of the Act shall remain in effect until 120
days following final promulgation of regulations authorized
under Title II of the Act. The purposes of these provisions are
to minimize disruption of printing and dissemination activities
of government agencies during the implementation of this
legislation, and to ensure that, at some point early in the
life of the newly established Government Publications Office,
there is a reconciliation of waiver and exemption records
between the Government Publications Office and the government
agencies.
Efficient and economical production and dissemination
Titles II, III, and IV of the Act facilitate production of
Government printing and public access to Government
publications by establishing a mechanism that assures the
efficient and economical production of Government printing and
publications and an effective and equitable system of
dissemination.
Title II amends current chapter 3, title 44, United States
Code, ``Government Printing Office'', by abolishing the
Government Printing Office and transferring its authorities,
responsibilities, and functions to the Government Publications
Office, an independent entity in the Federal government,
independent of executive agencies.
As noted earlier:
The intention here is to continue to the new GPO the
historical recognition of its necessary independence
from the executive agencies that it will regulate and
the fact that it will service the printing and
procurement requirements of agencies in all three
branches. The reaffirmation of GPO's unique mission
will, therefore, require continued funding under the
annual Legislative Branch appropriations measure and
placing GPO's annual budget under the requirements of
31 U.S.C. 9104. The maintenance of these historical
vestiges of independence, in view of the overall
structural nature of the new GPO, raises no substantial
separation of powers concerns under current Supreme
Court separation jurisprudence.
Because the agency is ``an independent entity in the
Federal government, independent of executive agencies'', the
Committee believes the general management laws which govern the
operations of other Federal agencies should apply selectively
to the Government Publications Office. In large part, the
Committee is concerned that no new constitutional separation of
powers issues are raised by making the agency generally subject
to requirements or practices imposed on the agencies and
offices of any single branch. Nonetheless, the Act requires
that the laws applicable to the Government Printing Office on
the day before the effective date of this Act will be
applicable to the Government Publications Office, and that the
Administrator adopt policies, procedures, and regulations
appropriate to the agency which incorporate provisions of the
general management laws identified at Sec. 201(c)(2) of the Act
and any future general management laws expressly made
applicable by law.
This agency will be headed by an Administrator, appointed
by the President, with the advise and consent of the Senate,
with two additional Presidential appointees, the Superintendent
of Government Publications Access Programs and the
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and
Procurement Services, who will oversee the two key missions of
the agency.
The person serving as Public Printer on the day before
enactment of this Act may serve as the Administrator on the
effective date of this Act until the President appoints and
theSenate confirms a successor Administrator. Additionally, all the
assets and personnel of the Government Printing Office on the day
before enactment of this Act shall be the assets and personnel of the
Government Publications Office on the effective date of this Act.
The Administrator is authorized to use any measures
necessary to carry out the duties and powers of the office, and
to remedy neglect, delay, duplication, or waste in the
production or procurement of the Government's printing,
binding, and blank-book work, the dissemination of the
Government's publications, and maintenance of permanent public
access to the Federal government's publications. Chief among
the Administrator's authorities is the ability to issue
regulations to carry out the purposes of the Act after notice
and comment, and in consultation with the Office of Management
and Budget, the Congress, and the Administrative Office of the
U.S. Courts.
In addition, the Administrator is authorized to appoint a
deputy and a disbursing officer; employ personnel and
establish, through collective bargaining, wages for the
employees of the agency; administer the agency's revolving fund
which will include the separate accounts of the programs
supervised by the two Superintendents; make purchases--without
reference to the Federal Property and Administrative Services
Act of 1949, as amended--for the agency and the Federal
government; pay for those purchases from the agency's revolving
fund; and, establish whatever advisory committees determined
appropriate.
The Committee, being very sensitive to the desire of
Federal agencies to have greater flexibility in how and where
they procure their printing needs, but recognizing the
importance of a centralized facility to ensure full and open
competition for the purposes of procurement and enhanced and
expanded dissemination for the purposes of public access to the
Government's publications, has provided broad delegation
authorities to the Administrator. The Committee intends that
these delegation authorities will be used, fairly, liberally
and uniformly to ensure the efficient operation of the GPO, and
to enable agencies to take advantage of the best practices
available to produce or procure their printing and publication
needs. The Administrator is to promulgate regulations governing
the delegation of authority, and these regulations will address
the means by which the procurement of printing is executed, and
the means by which agencies are to assure that their
publications will be made accessible to the public through the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs.
The print procurement delegation authority administered
under this Act is patterned after a delegation model
administered by the General Services Administration (GSA)
through its Public Building Service Leasing Program. Under the
GSA program, the procedures are streamlined and simplified.
They provide agencies maximum flexibility, with minimum
compliance requirements.
Finally, in Title II, the Administrator has authority to:
Requisition machinery, material, equipment, or
supplies for printing, binding, and blank-book work
determined by the head of an agency to be no longer
required or authorized for service;
Manufacture inks and glues and other supplies needed
by GPO and sell those materials to other departments
and establishments in the Government;
Detail GPO employees to any office of the Government,
but only for work pertaining to GPO;
Designate personnel to serve as security personnel
for the agency;
Transfer surplus property to other Federal entities
or non profit organizations; and,
Sell publication production reproducibles to any
person at a price not to exceed the cost of their
creation to the Government.
Some have expressed concern that the Administrator, using
the authority to requisition machinery, material, equipment, or
supplies for printing, binding, and blank-book work determined
by the head of an agency to be no longer required or authorized
for service, could arbitrarily commandeer an agency's
equipment. Under 44 U.S.C. 312, on the day before the effective
day of this Act, the Public Printer had the same authority. To
the best knowledge of the Committee, this authority was never
used to commandeer agencies' equipment. It is the Committee's
expectation that the case will be the same with the enactment
of this Act. The decision to ``surplus'' equipment is that of
the head of an agency. Once notified by the head of an agency,
the Administrator can then determine if the GPO has a use or
need for the equipment, and make arrangements, including
reimbursement to the agency, for GPO to acquire the equipment.
Title III amends current chapters 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15,
title 44, United States Code. In chapter 5, the general
authorities of the Government Publications Office, as the only
agency authorized by law to produce or procure the production
of Government publications, regardless of form or format, for
all other agencies and offices of the Federal government,
except the Supreme Court, are outlined. As explained
previously, by tying the production of Government publications
to their dissemination, the Congress historically has assured
itself that all of the Government's publications could be
identified and obtained for the various public access programs
managed by the Superintendent of Documents. Practices of
agencies to avoid compliance with title 44, United States Code,
over the past several years have resulted in large numbers of
the Government's publications being no longer available through
the Superintendent's programs, most notably the Federal
Depository Library Program.
Some have charged that the centralized printing procurement
system authorized under current title 44, United States Code,
and reaffirmed in S.2288, turns back the clock on a number of
procurement reforms enacted over the past few years, most
notably the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (108 Stat.
3342 et seq.), The Information Technology Management Reform Act
(40 U.S.C. 1401 et seq.), and the recommendations of the
National Performance Review. This argument ignores several
facts:
1. Since the initial enactment of the Federal
Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 as
amended (41 U.S.C. 301 et seq.), the GPO has
specifically been statutorily exempt from the
provisions of this law. Not even the revisions made in
the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (108 Stat.
3342 et seq.) changed that fact.
2. The GPO administers a body of procurement policies
and regulations which have been reviewed by Office of
Management and Budget staff and judged to be simpler,
and more fair than the Federal Acquisition Regulations
administered under the Federal Property and
Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended.
3. The Information Technology Management Reform Act
(40 U.S.C. 1401 et seq.) addresses, as its name
implies, the procurement of information technology, not
printing. The Congress made no effort when it passed
this act to include the Government Printing Office or
its activities in the Act, and it is not within the
Committee's jurisdiction to amend 40 U.S.C. 1401 et
seq. to include the production or procurement of
printing or publications.
4. The National Performance Review, while containing
several important recommendations to improve the
efficiency of the Federal government, was insensitive
to the historic requirements of the Congress regarding
the expectation that the American public should be
informed about the activities of its Federal
government, or the need to make that information
permanently accessible to the public. Recognition of
these policy objectives would be beneficial to the
successful implementation of pertinent National
Performance Review recommendations.
Thus, one rationale for reaffirming a centralized
publication production and procurement system is grounded in
the longstanding, successful model prescribed in 44 U.S.C. 501.
Another rationale for reaffirming a centralized publication
production and procurement system is to facilitate the ability
of the private sector printing industry to compete fully and
fairly to fulfill the printing needs of the Federal government.
Without a centralized procurement system, private sector
printing companies would be forced to monitor the activities of
the entire Federal government--agency by agency, office by
office--in order to learn of, and compete for, the government's
needs. Such a decentralized system would invite noncompetitive
practices, and result in increased costs and reduced
efficiency.
As introduced, this legislation did not define the term
``printing''. Instead, the term ``Government publication'' was
used to reference the commodity which was being produced,
procured, and disseminated. The rationale for not using the
term ``printing'' was that ``printing'', as defined in 44
U.S.C. 501, is an outmoded term which does not fully reflect
the evolving technologies and names for the processes used to
produce images on paper. At the July 29, 1998 Rules Committee
hearing on S. 2288, however, several witnesses including those
representing the Government Printing Office and the private
sector printing industry, argued that only 50 percent of the
Federal government's use of the processes which put large runs
of images on paper resulted in the manufacture of Government
publications. The other 50 percent resulted in the production
of forms, stationery, and other image on paper items used to
transact the Federal government's business. To satisfy these
concerns, the term ``printing'' was added to S. 2288, using the
basic definition which appears in 44 U.S.C. 501. Added to this
definition is a requirement that the Administrator review the
definition of printing to ensure its consistency with
international and commercial standards, and make
recommendations for change at least every five years.
In addition to exempting the Supreme Court, certain types
of work required by various other Federal courts, the Central
Intelligence Agency, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency,
the National Reconnaissance Office, the Defense Intelligence
Agency, the National Security Agency, and agencies procuring
not more than $1,000 of noncontinuing, nonrepetitive printing
of a class certified by GPO as work that cannot be provided
more economically through GPO, S. 2288 exempts agencies which
create publications only for dissemination through an
electronic communications system or network, provided the
requirements of chapter 19 are fulfilled. This is viewed by the
Committee as a large incentive for agencies to utilize the new
technologies to their maximum extent for the creation and
dissemination of Government publications.
Under delegation of authority from the Administrator,
agencies also will have broad flexibility to procure printing
for themselves, provided they comply with the dissemination
requirements of chapter 19 (Sec. 402 of the Act).
Section 501(d) prohibits agencies from entering into any
partnership or alliance, or any contractual or cooperative
agreement or similar contractual arrangement, public or
private, for the production or procurement of printing,
binding, and blank-book work or dissemination of a Government
publication, regardless of form or format, that is not in
compliance with the public access requirements of chapter 19 as
amended by this Act.
It is the intent of the Committee to ensure against evasion
of the public access requirements of chapter 19 of the bill to
the maximum extent feasible. In the past, a variety of agency
schemes to avoid compliance with current law have come to the
Committee's attention. The most egregious involved the
privatization of the prestigious Journal of the National Cancer
Institute (JNCI) through an arrangement called a ``Cooperative
Research and Development Agreement'' (CRADA) between its
longtime government publisher, the National Cancer
Institute(NCI) and Oxford University Press (OUP). The arrangement,
purportedly effected under the authority of the Federal Technology
Transfer Act of 1986 (FTTA), 15 U.S.C. 3710a et seq. (1994), allows OUP
to take over and ultimately own, the JNCI. NCI will maintain a symbolic
editorial presence, but OUP will market the Journal. The stated purpose
of the CRADA ``is to create a state-of-the-art multi-media, hyper-
linked, interactive journal.'' However, it is clear that in
establishing a new type of contractual relationship between a federal
laboratory and a non-federal party for research and development
purposes under the FTTA, Congress did not intend that a CRADA was to be
a substitute for a procurement contract and thereby evade federal
procurement laws. (See 15 U.S.C. 3710a(d)(1))
Its purpose is to improve and facilitate the transfer of
commercially useful technologies from federal laboratories to
the private sector in order to increase the nation's economic
competitiveness. The FTTA defines a CRADA as an agreement
between the laboratory and a non-federal party under which each
agree to provide resources ``toward the conduct of specific
research or development efforts which are consistent with the
missions of the laboratory.'' Id. (See also Chem Service Inc v.
Environmental Monitoring Systems, 12 F.3d 1256, 1265
(``Congress did not intend CRADA's to be used to circumvent the
nation's procurement laws'').
The NCI-OUP CRADA is no more than a production contract.
The ``research'' to be done by OUP is no more than developing a
technology to disseminate research already done by others which
has been submitted to (or developed by) NCI for publication in
the Journal. OUP is a product marketer. The agreement makes
clear that ``[f]rom the outset of the CRADA, OUP will assume
production duties for the print journal as specified in this
CRADA.'' In addition, submitter of research articles must
assign copyright rights to OUP, and OUP can sell advertising
and has control of the journal's pricing and subscription
lists. The agreement had no provision for providing copies for
distribution to Federal Depository Libraries until the Joint
Committee on Printing learned of the arrangement and raised
objections. Although OUP readily agreed to provide the
necessary copies, the necessary diligence required raises
danger signals with respect to such arrangements. (The CRADA
also raises a serious question whether NCI has the authority to
privatize the Journal. Neither the language or legislative
history of 42 U.S.C. 284b or 285a-2 indicates a congressional
intent to allow privatization of any or all of its information
dissemination functions and responsibilities. Indeed the
language of 42 U.S.C. 285a-2(a)(1) appears to commit to the
Director of NCI the sole responsibility to maintain channels of
communication and dissemination between the NCI and the public
and the NCI and the scientific community. In such circumstances
an agency cannot relinquish its statutory mission without
further congressional authorization. Board of Trade of the City
of Chicago v. S.E.C., 677 F2d 1137, 1142 note 8 (7th Cir.
1982); Ft. Pierce Utilities Authority v. U.S., 609 F 2d 986,
995 (D.C. cir. 1979), cert denied, 444 U.S. 842 (1979); Talley
v. Mathews, 350 F. 2d 911, 919 and note 21 (4th Cir. 1977).
The Committee's intent is to ensure that the Superintendent
has the ability to review and approve only the public access
features of such arrangements, and then only as far as the
arrangements accommodate the public access requirements
established by the legislation and the rules promulgated in
support of those requirements.
For purposes of clarity, the Smithsonian Institution is not
an agency as defined by this Act, and their publications are
not publications of the nature defined in this Act.
Other important provisions of section 301 of the Act
include:
The appointment of a Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services by the
President within 180 days of the Act's enactment;
The appointment of a Deputy Superintendent by the
Superintendent;
Authorization for the promulgation of regulations
governing the production and procurement of printing,
binding, and blank-book work;
Authorization for the promulgation of standards for
printing and writing papers used in all Government
printing, binding, and blank-book work;
Preparation and submission by all agencies of annual
plans on the production or procurement of printing,
binding, and blank-book work; and,
Preparation, submission, and implementation by all
agencies with internal printing capabilities of plans
to reduce that capability in increments over five years
to a level not greater than that required to provide
for the agencies' immediate internal administrative and
office support needs.
Section 302 of the Act amends the provisions of title 44,
United States Code, which authorize the production and
procurement of printing and publication services for the
Congress. The most notable provision of this section transfers
the authorities of the Joint Committee on Printing over
Congressional printing to the Senate Committee on Rules and
Administration and the House Committee on House Oversight. Each
committee will make determinations for its respective house,
and will act jointly on those matters affecting both houses of
Congress.
The United States Congressional Serial Set is the historic
bound compilation of the Senate and House documents, reports,
presidential and other executive publications, treaty
materials, and selected reports of nongovernmental
organizations. The Set is composed of over 20,000 numbered
bound volumes beginning with the 15th Congress in 1817.
Because the Serial Set is used by the Congress, its staff,
scholars, legal researchers, and others as the basis of
research into the legislative history of the United States, it
must bepreserved so that the public record is complete and
accurate. Librarians, archivists, and historians have maintained that
the only recognized and proven permanent medium available today that
will guarantee that the Set will continue to be around 200 years from
now is permanent acid free paper. The Committee supports the provision
in electronic format of the underlying information represented in the
individual publications contained in the Set, but believes that the
compilation of that information is best preserved in bound volumes of
acid free permanent paper until technology is developed that will
assure that electronic versions will be available to our descendants
some 200 years in the future just as our ancestors made sure that we
would be able to study and learn from their work.
Section 303 of the Act amends and revises chapter 9 of
title 44, United States Code, affecting the production and
distribution of the Congressional Record.
Section 304 of the Act amends chapter 11 of title 44,
United States Code to reflect the elimination of the JCP and
the transfer of JCP's authorities over Congressional printing
to the Congress.
Over the years a number of executive branch publications
were specifically authorized by law in chapter 13 of title 44,
United States Code. Section 305 repeals all those
authorizations with the exception of the authorities granted
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The
Committee sees no impact from this provision given the
authority of agency heads to authorize the production of their
agency's printing and publication production. NOAA specifically
requested that this authority under chapter 13 be continued.
In addition to publications specifically authorized by law,
title 44, United States Code, also has been amended over time
to exempt agencies from the provisions of 44 U.S.C. 501. The
Congressional Research Service and others have, from time to
time, attempted to compile a complete inventory of all agencies
with legislated exemptions from 44 U.S.C. 501, but these
efforts have not been totally successful. The existence of
these waivers is believed by the Committee to be a contributing
factor to the fugitive documents problem. Agencies having a
waiver from the printing and print procurement provisions of
title 44, United States Code, believe they have a waiver from
all provisions of title 44, United States Code. This is not the
case. Therefore, in the interest of reconciling the record and
assuring agency compliance with the dissemination provisions of
this Act, all legislated waivers from title 44, United States
Code, are repealed, effective 120 days after enactment of this
Act.
Public access to Government publications
The right of the public to access publications produced by
the Federal government is guaranteed by the provisions of Title
IV of the Act. The purposes of this title are: To broaden,
strengthen, and enhance public access to all Government
publications regardless of form or format through Federal
Publications Access Programs; and, to provide permanent public
access to and ensure the authenticity of Government
publications regardless of form or format.
Under section 402 of the Act, the Office of the
Superintendent of Documents, who serves at the pleasure of the
Public Printer, is reestablished as the Office of the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs,
headed by a Presidential appointee who serves for a term of
five years, and is eligible for reappointment. The authorities
of the Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs are delineated to include, but are not limited to:
Using whatever measures are necessary to ensure the
timely dissemination of Government publications to the
public and to expand and improve the maintenance of
permanent public access to Government publications;
Issuing regulations, in consultation with the
Administrator of the Government Publications Office,
the Office of Management and Budget, the Administrative
Office of the United States Courts, and the Congress to
carry out the duties and powers of the office;
Managing the Federal Publications Access Library
Program, formerly known as the Federal Depository
Library Program;
Operating and maintaining GPO Access, the on-line
service providing access to a broad range of Federal
databases, bulletin boards, agency websites, and the
Government Information Locator Service (GILS);
Operating the Superintendent's sales program,
including the GPO bookstores; and
Seeking and obtaining the guidance and counsel of
various affected interests to ensure, to the highest
degree possible, permanent public access to the
Government's publication.
Like the Superintendent of Government Publications
Production and Procurement Services and the Administrator, the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs has
authority to appoint a deputy, and is required to prepare a
business-like budget for the program under his supervision.
Within this title there are two critical definitions. The
first is the definition of the term, ``agency'' which means:
``An executive department, government corporation, government-
controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive
branch of Government, including the Executive Office of the
President, any independent regulatory agency, and establishment
orcomponent of the legislative branch as determined by the
rules of the Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively, or
judicial branch of the Government.''
This definition, which is drawn from provisions of title 5,
United States Code, is intended to ensure that all agencies and
offices of the Federal government, in all three branches, are
included in the coverage of this legislation. The exception to
this general definition is the Smithsonian Institution which is
not an agency under this definition.
The second definition is the term, ``Government
publication'', which means: Any information product or other
discrete set of Government information, regardless of form or
format, that is created or compiled by the Government, at
Government expense in whole or in part, or as required by law,
and an agency discloses, disseminates, or makes available to
the public, and shall not include information that is required
for official use only or is for strictly internal
administrative, or operational purposes having no public
interest or educational value, is classified for reasons of
national security, or in the case of an agency within the
judicial branch, orders, notices, or documents filed by
litigants.''
It is the intent of the Committee that the definition of
``Government publication'' in chapter 19 shall be construed
broadly to include publications in all formats from all three
branches of Government. In order to ensure the public has
access to information necessary to make informed decisions and
to hold the Government accountable for its actions, the
objective of S. 2288 is to capture in the Federal publications
access programs the widest range of information products that
agencies disclose, disseminate, or make available for
dissemination to the public at large or as a whole, not to
individual members of the public or to specific groups or
sectors of the public.
The phrase ``any information product or other discrete set
of information'' is intended to include, but is not limited to,
any book, document, report, newsletter, periodical, journal,
bulletin, pamphlet, map, photo, poster, film, data base, audio
file, video file, compilation, catalog, or other published work
or information product, regardless of the form or format in
which the work may be created, compiled, produced, distributed,
disseminated, or accessed.
It is not the intent of the Committee to include, for
purposes of this definition, individual ``records'' covered
under section 3301 of title 44 of the United States Code;
``documentary material'' covered under section 2201 of title 44
of the United States Code; administrative material, opinions,
and orders placed in agency reading rooms and not otherwise
more broadly disseminated; documents reproduced or released in
response to individual requests filed under section 552 of
title 5 of the United States Code (FOIA); or drafts of peer-
reviewed articles authored by government employees.
In addition, it is not intended that information or
publications created or compiled by an organization that is not
an agency, or by an individual or group of individuals that are
not employees of an agency, even if the information or
publication was financed in whole or part by a federal grant or
loan, unless the terms of the grant or loan specify that the
information or publication is to be the property of the United
States Government, be considered a ``Government publication''
under this definition.
The definition of ``Government publication'' in S. 2288
recognizes only three exceptions to the basic mandate
established by this act that all publications regardless of
form or format from all three branches of Government must be
included under chapter 19 and made available to the public
through the Federal publications access programs. These
exceptions are:
(1) those publications that are required for official
use only or are for strictly internal administrative or
operational purposes having no public interest or
educational value;
(2) publications classified for reasons of national
security and,
(3) orders, notices, or documents filed by litigants
in a proceeding before a judicial branch entity.
The Committee intends that, with respect to the first
exception, ``public interest or educational value'' is to be
interpreted broadly, and the Committee urges that any question
or uncertainty in this regard should be resolved in favor of
public access. The Committee recognizes that many Government
publications are not designed or published specifically for the
general public or with a large or general audience in mind, yet
these materials are extremely valuable and useful to members of
the public and often provide important historical information
that is of public interest or educational value to future
generations. Historically, some of the more popular Government
publications were initially produced by agencies for internal
use only. These publications, produced at taxpayer expense,
have been of immense interest to broad segments of the public.
The Committee recognizes that Government publications today
(and in the future) are produced and distributed in a growing
diversity of tangible formats and media, including tangible
electronic formats. Examples of tangible formats and media
include, but are not limited to, paper, microfiche, microfilm,
CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, magnetic diskette, audio cassette,
videocassette, slides, or multi-media kits. In addition, the
Committee recognizes that agencies increasingly are utilizing
electronic information technologies to disseminate or make
accessible Government publications through the Internet and
other electronic communications systems or networks.
Increasingly, agencies today use the World Wide Web,
electronic bulletin boards, FTP, and other online means to
disseminate Government publications electronically. It is the
Committee's intent to establish unequivocally that electronic
Government publications are included in the Federal
publications access programs. Electronic Government
publications may include, but are not limited to, publications
originally created and disseminated electronically using
desktop publishing technologies, publications converted to
electronic format by scanning, publications stored on CD-ROMs
or other electronic storage media, audio or video files
madeavailable on the Internet, or publications created, maintained, or
disseminated using future electronic methods or technologies. The
definition of ``Government publication'' in section 1902 is intended to
include all publications, regardless of their medium, form, or format.
It is the intent of the Committee, under Section 301 of the
Act to ensure that ``cooperative publications'' as currently
defined in 44 U.S.C. 1903, also be made accessible through the
Superintendent's access programs.
Nonetheless, there are publications, created under
cooperative agreements, primarily between the Smithsonian
Institution, the National Archives, the National Gallery of
Art, and the Library of Congress and private sector publishers
for the production, sale, marketing or subsidiary rights of
trade publications. Such publications include books, exhibition
catalogs, calendars, and posters, which:
Highlight certain collections, exhibits or special
events of those entities;
Are not primarily prepared using appropriated
funding;
Are intended to be self-sustaining; and,
Are intended to be available for sale through
traditional outlets for books, calendars and similar
published items.
These are not ``cooperative publications'' for the purposes
of this definition.
Further, the definition is modified to ensure that program
libraries have access to agencies' fee-based Government
information services at no charge. During its hearings the
Committee discovered and was alerted to numerous cases where
agencies had contracted or otherwise made cooperative
arrangements with Government and non-Government publishers to
create, produce, publish, or distribute publications developed
and paid for, in whole or in part, with taxpayer funds. In
addition, agencies increasingly are charging user fees to
access online information services to defray costs or generate
revenue.
These publications generally were excluded from depository
libraries, although some of these publications were distributed
later to depositories after investigation and directive action
by this Committee or the Joint Committee on Printing. It is the
intent of the Committee that the definition in chapter 19
include fee-based publications, publications made available by
agencies through fee-based electronic networks or online
services, Government publications contracted out to private
sector publishers, and so-called cooperative publications that
must be sold in order to be self-sustaining.
The Committee intends that the definition of Government
publications in section 1902 include electronic information
systems such as the Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and
Retrieval (EDGAR) system of the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC). However, in the case of the EDGAR system, it
is the intent of the Committee that the requirements of chapter
19, providing for dissemination to the public of an agency's
Government publications, is satisfied by the dissemination, at
no charge to the Federal Publications Access Libraries, of
identical information by the SEC through other electronic
networks, provided such information is made available within a
day of its posting on the EDGAR system. The Committee
encourages the SEC to work with the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs to address the
potential of making the EDGAR system available, on a marginal
cost basis, to the Federal Publications Access Libraries in the
future.
The judicial branch
Public access to American jurisprudence is essential to our
democratic society. The full participation of the judiciary,
including the Federal courts, in this reform of Title 44 is
crucial to ensuring that American citizens have access to the
law of the land so that they can fully participate in their
government. S. 2288 demonstrates the commitment of this
Committee to provide the American public with access to
judicial branch publications, including court opinions, through
Federal publications access libraries.
The Committee intends that agencies within the judicial
branch comply with the chapter 19 requirements for
participation in the Federal Information Access Program in a
manner identical to the requirements for agencies within the
executive and legislative branches. The Federal courts, with
the exception of the Supreme Court, have neglected their
dissemination responsibilities under current title 44, United
States Code. With the exception of slip opinions of the Supreme
Court and the official bound United States Reports, which are
produced through the Government Printing Office and distributed
to depository libraries, the opinions of the Federal courts
have not been part of the depository library program.
In 1939, the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP) and the
Government Printing Office (GPO) granted waivers to the
judiciary for the printing of opinions of the United States
Courts of Appeals. These opinions had previously been published
by the GPO. This waiver began the long-standing practice that
exists today of permitting the Administrative Office of the
United States Courts (AOUSC) to directly procure the printing
of slip opinions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals. This
decentralized procurement and printing model permits the Courts
to determine how and to whom court opinions are to be
disseminated. The waiver given to the courts in 1939 over time
became an ad hoc waiver from the dissemination of court
opinions through the depository library program that continues
today.
The lack of full compliance by the courts with the chapter
19 dissemination requirements of title 44, United States Code,
was never intended by the JCP in granting the printingwaiver.
Consequently, while Section 501(a)(2)(D) of this legislation allows the
Judiciary to continue to produce or procure, outside of the GPO, the
printing, binding and blank-book work for appellate slip opinions and
the Bankruptcy Noticing Center, the language very clearly states
``provided that the requirements of chapter 19, title 44, United States
Code, are fulfilled.''
Overcoming fugitive documents
Two of the central purposes of S. 2288--enhancing timely,
no-fee public dissemination of federal Government publications
and ensuring permanent public access to those publications--are
grounded on the bedrock of the Federal Depository Library
Program. Yet, no matter how strong and efficient that program,
these two central objectives cannot be attained if Government
publications, regardless of form or format, do not get into the
program in the first instance. Thus capturing the so-called
``fugitive document'' is a critical element of this
legislation.
A number of witnesses at the Committee's hearing on Public
Access to Government Information in the 21st Century emphasized
the growing problem of fugitive documents. Those testifying
about this problem included American Library Association
President Betty J. Turock, Superintendent of Documents Wayne P.
Kelley, and librarians Daniel P. O'Mahony and Christie D.
Vernon. Ms. Vernon's stories about wasted time, bewilderment,
and frustration in dealing with government information systems
were particularly instructive.
Each time a government publication escapes the depository
library program, the public is deprived of the benefit of its
tax dollars in creating the publication, as well as the benefit
of convenient, timely, long-term access to the information
contained in that publication. The cumulative loss to our
society is incalculable.
The need to ensure participation and compliance by agencies
in all three branches of Government in getting publications
into the program in the first place was addressed in Committee
hearings last year by Francis J. Buckley, now Superintendent of
Documents but at the time Director of the Shaker Heights Public
Library, who testified for the American Library Association.
Mr. Buckley made clear that ``a balance of incentives and
enforcement is necessary to ensure agency participation and
compliance so that information created at taxpayer expense
remains in the public domain and permanently available to the
public.'' (Title 44, United States Code--Proposals for
Revision, Hearings before the Committee on Rules and
Administration, U.S. Senate, 105th Cong., 1st Sess., S. Hrg.
105-139 (1997).)
In introducing S. 2288, Senator Ford put it even more
bluntly:
a principal issue to be addressed by reform legislation
is the need for enforcement--I underscore enforcement--
of title 44 to ensure that executive agencies comply
with the centralized printing and dissemination
requirements that otherwise lead to the creation of
fugitive documents. (Cong. Rec. S7955 (daily ed. July
10, 1998).)
S. 2288 attempts to effect a balance of incentives and
enforcement.
At the heart of chapter 19, intended to modernize the
Federal Depository Library Program into an improved and
enhanced Federal publications access program, stands the
authority of the Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs to implement and enforce the provisions of this
chapter. Carried over from 44 U.S.C. 1914 is the authority to
``use whatever measures are necessary'' to implement chapter
19. (Sections 1904(a), 1906(a)(1); 1906(a)(2)(B)(i).) This
authority is further bolstered by the ability of the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs under
section 1904(e)(1) to adopt regulations ``as are necessary to
implement the requirements of this chapter.''
Nonetheless, the Superintendent does not alone bear the
responsibility for ensuring that Government publications reach
the public through the Government publications access programs.
Under sections 1905, 1906, 1906a, and 1906b, each agency head
in the executive branch, the Administrative Office of the U.S.
Courts, and the Congress through the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House
Oversight of the House of Representatives are charged with
taking necessary actions to facilitate compliance with the
requirements of chapter 19 and movement into the access
programs of the Government publications of each of the three
branches of Government.
The enforcement provisions of S. 2288 do not stop with the
general directions and authorizations that the Superintendent
and other responsible persons and entities, as a general
proposition, implement the Federal publications access
programs. See sections 1905(a), 1906a(a)(2), 1906b(a)(2). A
comprehensive and workable three-part implementation scheme is
embodied in the legislation. These three parts involve
notification, certification, and rectification.
Notification.--The first part of the enforcement scheme
requires that each agency, under section 1905(b)(1), notify the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs of
the agency's intent ``to produce or procure, substantially
modify, or terminate the production of a Government
publication, regardless of form or format . . .'' .
This will allow the Superintendent to obtain access to
electronic communications or to order publications that will be
made available to the public through the Government
publications access programs.
Certification.--The second part of the enforcement scheme
requires that each agency, pursuant to section 1905(b)(3)-(4),
include in any contract for the production or procurement of a
publication a certification ensuring that notice has been given
to theSuperintendent of Government Publications Access Programs
as required above. The contract must specify the number of copies
required by the Superintendent for its program or terms and conditions
of access for the program.
Rectification.--The third part of the enforcement scheme is
intended to rectify a violation of the requirements of chapter
19 by an agency that results in a fugitive Government
publication. Under section 1906(a)(2)-(4), the Superintendent
may secure access to the Government publication and have it
produced or reproduced or otherwise made available to the
public through the Government publications access programs, and
may obtain reimbursement for any costs associated with doing
so. The reimbursement process is set in motion with a
determination (under section 1906(a)(2)(A)) that an agency has
not complied with the requirements of chapter 19. Once the
Superintendent has taken steps necessary to bring the agency
into compliance, a vouchered reimbursement from the Treasury to
cover costs of bringing the agency into compliance (for
example, costs of reprinting and distribution of a document, in
the case of a printed publication) may follow.
Taken together, these three parts of the enforcement
scheme--coupled with the Superintendent's authority and the
agency heads', Administrative Office of the U.S. Court's, and
the Congress through relevant Committees' responsibilities--
will go a long way toward making sure that agencies do not and
cannot, intentionally or inadvertently, subvert or circumvent
the Government publications access programs established under
S. 2288.
Additionally, noncompliance with the requirements of
chapter 19 will affect the agency's ability to obtain or
sustain delegation of production or procurement authority under
section 501. A determination of noncompliance by the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs under
section 1906 shall, under section 1906(a)(5), be deemed a
determination of noncompliance under section 501, as well. Thus
noncompliance with chapter 19 may lead to the agency's being
denied delegated authority to procure publications production
or procurement services under section 501(b)(1).
Federal publications access libraries
The Committee recognizes that Congress, as the branch of
Government most directly accountable to the local electorate,
has a special obligation to inform the American people of the
actions, decisions, policies, and activities of the Federal
Government. Since the earliest years of the nation, Congress
has exercised this responsibility by designating certain
libraries in each state and congressional district to receive
Government publications so that these materials are available
to the general public on an equitable and no fee basis.
Through their local depository libraries, constituents have
had ready access to materials that enable them to keep informed
about the workings of the Federal Government.
Linking the designation of program libraries to
congressional districts has enabled the program to adjust
systematically over time to growing or shifting populations and
to the changing Government information needs of local
communities.
The Committee recognizes that the designation of such
libraries is a serious commitment on the part of the designated
library and the Federal Government to enter into a continuing
and mutually beneficial partnership. Further, to ensure the
broadest and most equitable access to Government publications
by all citizens, the Committee recognizes the importance in
having a diversity of library types participating in the
Federal publications access library program (e.g., public,
academic, land grant institution, state, law, court, Federal
agency, and other libraries).
Each library serves its own local clientele as well as the
constituents in the library's congressional district or, in the
case of regional libraries, the citizens of the entire state.
All designated libraries cooperatively work with other
libraries in the program to participate in a nationwide network
to serve the public's Government information needs.
The intent of section 1908 is to continue to embody in
statute the process by which new libraries are designated as
Federal publications access libraries. Sections 1908(a) through
1908(c) of the act bring together the various provisions in the
current law that provide for library designations. In addition,
it is the intent of the Committee to provide flexibility for
the program to respond to changing conditions and to meet the
needs of undeserved areas. For purposes of section 1908(e), the
Committee intends that an ``undeserved area'' means a service
area within the Federal publications access library program
where the Government information needs of the people are not
sufficiently addressed by the program libraries already
designated. An example of an ``undeserved area'' might be a
geographically isolated area where there are no program
libraries within a reasonable distance to centers of
population. Section 1908(f) ensures that every library
currently designated as a Federal Depository Library as of the
effective date of the act shall become a Federal publications
access library as of that date.
While the Joint Committee on Printing historically has
played the role of compliance officer on behalf of GPO, under
the system established by this legislation, it is GPO which
must assume that role, especially to ensure that agencies are
providing access to their publications through the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs. In
general terms, agencies are required to notify the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs when
they create, change the format of, or intend to eliminate a
publication so that the Superintendent may ride the printing
order, orobtain an image file of the publication, for
dissemination through the various access tools at the Superintendent's
disposal.
Permanent public access--the electronic era
The Committee intends that S. 2288 promote public
availability of Government information in the electronic age
through a Federal publications access program that provides no-
fee availability, regardless of format. The first line of
responsibility for implementation of the Federal publications
access programs remains with the agencies, the courts, and the
Congress. In faithfully carrying out their responsibilities,
they will be enriching the lives and businesses and studies of
the American public both now and in the future. Together, the
implementation provisions of S. 2288 will ensure that much of
the informational output of Government will be widely and
permanently available to the people.
The Committee finds that permanent public access to Federal
Government publications regardless of form or format must be
guaranteed. One of the key purposes of this act is to clarify
the Government's ongoing responsibility to provide for the
preservation and continuous and permanent access to Government
publications regardless of form or format so that they remain
available for current and future users.
The Committee acknowledges that the responsibility for
providing permanent public access for tangible Government
publications currently is being carried out primarily by the
Regional depository libraries in the Federal Depository Library
Program. The comprehensive collections maintained by the 53
Regional depositories across the country provide the public
with reliable and ongoing access to Government publications
distributed through the program.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
provides permanent care for the record set of Government
publications used by the Superintendent for cataloging, and
NARA houses the publications cataloged by the Government
Printing Office dating back to the beginning of the program.
The Committee does not intend to modify the responsibilities of
Federal agencies, and the authorities and responsibilities of
NARA under chapters 21, 22, 29, 31, and 33 of title 44, United
States Code. The duties vested in the Superintendent of
Government Publication Access Programs in this bill are
intended to ensure that Government publications, as defined in
section 1902, are made permanently accessible to the public,
and such duties do not replace the authorities of NARA.
The Committee envisions that the Regional depository
libraries and NARA will continue to provide permanent public
access to tangible Government publications in the future.
The Committee recognizes that continuous and permanent
access to electronic Government publications must also be
guaranteed. At its hearings, the Committee heard numerous
examples of electronic publications and files that no longer
are accessible to the public. These electronic publications
were lost because agencies deleted the files from their Web
site, agencies no longer maintain the files or the computer
server upon which they resided, the format of the electronic
files became obsolete, or other reasons that resulted in loss
of access. It is the Committee's intent to guarantee continuous
and permanent public access to Government publications in
electronic formats so that current and future generations have
access to this material regardless of changing technologies.
The coordination of permanent public access to electronic
Government publications is a logical extension of the
Superintendent's responsibilities under the Federal Government
publications access programs. The Committee recognizes that
this is a complex undertaking that will require the cooperative
efforts of many parties. The committee on permanent public
access established under section 1907(d) of the act is intended
to include representatives from the various stakeholders both
inside and outside of the Federal Government responsible for or
concerned with these issues. The charge of the committee for
permanent public access is to investigate the technological and
organizational factors relating to establishing a distributed
system of permanent public access, to make recommendations to
the Superintendent on the components of such a system, and to
make recommendations to the Superintendent on the strategy for
achieving such a system to provide permanent public access for
the Government publications of all three branches of
Government. Not later than 24 months after the effective date
of this act, the committee on permanent public access should
provide recommendations to the Superintendent for necessary
statutory and regulatory changes to implement a system of
permanent public access.
The Committee notes that the Archivist of the United States
has begun to address problems of providing permanent public
access to electronic materials within his purview. The
Committee intends that the Superintendent and the Archivist
work cooperatively to achieve shared objectives through the
committee on permanent public access.
The Committee envisions that the system of permanent public
access shall be a distributed system that provides for adequate
redundancy at multiple sites. Relying on a single site to
retain and provide access to all electronic government
publications is dangerous; such sites, like physical
collections of tangible publications, are vulnerable to natural
and physical disasters, accidents, and other problems that can
destroy facilities or interrupt access. A distributed system of
permanent public access provides the opportunity for many
libraries and other partners to cooperate with the
Superintendent and agencies in providing permanent public
access to electronic Government publications. The system shall
require official and contractual agreements among participating
entities to ensure that the regulations and standards of
permanent publicaccess are consistent throughout the program.
The Committee notes that the Government Printing Office already has
developed model agreements for permanent public access partnerships
that can be used as models for this program.
Superintendent of Government Publications--other authorities
Other key provisions of S. 2288 include the Superintendent
of Government Publications Access Program's authorization to
sell Government publications, and to establish sales prices for
those publications as well as the terms and conditions the
resale of Government publications could be made to book
dealers. This program is intended to be self-sustaining to the
greatest extent possible. The Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs may also sell Government blank
forms to the public.
The Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs' account is to bear the cost of providing the National
Archives one bound copy each of all documents, public reports,
journals, public bills and resolutions of each house of the
Congress, the United States Code, the United States Reports,
and all other documents bearing Congressional numbers or
printed upon order of a committee in either house of Congress
or of a department, independent agency or establishment,
commission, or officer of the Government. In addition, the
Superintendent is to provide Government publications to the
Secretary of the Senate, the Clerk of the House of
Representatives, the Library of Congress, Congressional
Research Service, and to the International Exchange Program
operated by the Library of Congress. These entities will
reimburse the Superintendent from funds appropriated for this
purpose. Like all other provisions of S. 2288, these provisions
take effect on January 1, 1999, except the provisions affecting
the Library of Congress which will take effect on October 1,
1999. The delayed effective date is required to enable the
Library of Congress to obtain an appropriation for this
purpose, the FY '99 appropriations cycle having already begun.
Agency heads may return to the Superintendent extra copies
of Government publications they no longer wish to maintain in
their agency, and they may exchange surplus Government
publications for Government publications they desire for their
agency.
Administrative savings
Finally, the Committee intends that all proceedings,
including notices of proposed rulemaking, or any application
for any license, permit, certificate, or financial assistance
pending before the Government Printing Office at the time the
Act takes effect shall continue following the effective date of
the Act, and any arrangement or proceeding, including
contractual arrangements between agencies and outside parties
which may otherwise be affected by this Act, continue until
they are discontinued or modified, at which time the agencies
and parties are to conform their arrangement to the terms of
the Act.
III. Need for the Legislation
A. Policy Origins
The Constitution of the United States created a government
accountable to the people with accountability among its three
coequal branches as well. It was expected that Government
leaders would keep the citizenry informed of developments, or
at least maintain a record of their activities. In this regard,
the Constitution, for example, specifies that each house of
Congress ``shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from
time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in
their Judgment require Secrecy'' (Article I, Section 5, clause
3). With regard to the subnational level of government, the
Constitution states: ``Full Faith and Credit shall be given in
each State to the Public Acts, Records, and judicial
Proceedings of every other State'' (Article IV, Section 1,
clause 1).
Moreover, with its system of checks and balances, the
Constitution anticipated that each branch would be
knowledgeable of the activities and interests of the other two.
In this regard, the Constitution specifically provides that,
when the President vetoes a bill, ``he shall return it, with
his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated,
who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal and
proceed to reconsider it'' (Article I, Section 7, clause 2).
Concerning interbranch accountability, the President is vested
with the duty to ``take Care That the Laws be faithfully
executed'' (Article I, Section 3, clause 4) and provision is
made for the President to ``require the Opinion, in writing, of
the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments,
upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective
Offices'' (Article II, Section 2, clause 1). Further, the
Constitution indicates that the President ``shall from time to
time give to the Congress Information of the State of the
Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he
shall judge necessary and expedient'' (Article II, Section 3,
clause 1).
In turn, the Constitution's vesting of ``All legislative
Powers'' in a Congress of the United States has been
consistently interpreted by the Supreme Court as providing the
basis for broad congressional oversight and investigation so
that the House and the Senate may inform themselves and the
public concerning the effectiveness and the honesty of
Government agencies in performing their responsibilities. These
powers have been held to ``encompass[] inquiries concerning the
administration of existing laws as well as proposed or possible
needed statutes'' and ``to expose corruption, inefficiency or
waste,'' 1 as well as to preserve a historical
record of presidential actions.2
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\1\ Watkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178, 187 (1957). See also
McGrain v. Daugherty, 272 U.S. 135 (1927); Eastland v. United States
Serviceman's Fund, 421 U.S. 491 (1975).
\2\ Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S. 425
(1977).
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Since the earliest days of the Federal Government, most
aspects of government information policy and practice have been
established by Congress. Statutory provision was made in the
early years, for example, for the printing and distribution of
both laws and treaties,3 the preservation of state
papers,4 and the maintenance of official files in
the new departments.5 Just before the Nation erupted
in civil war, a permanent printing organization--the Government
Printing Office (GPO)--was statutorily mandated to produce all
public printing.6 The Joint Committee on Printing,
which had been established earlier in 1846,7
exercised oversight over both GPO and public printing
activities, as well as remedial powers over printing
operations.8 Later, with the rise of the
administrative state early in the twentieth century, Congress
established arrangements for the publication of related rules,
regulations, and legal instruments,9 and for their
orderly creation.10 More recent developments include
legislated procedures facilitating public access to unpublished
department and agency records,11 as well as the
inspection by individuals of files maintained on them by these
executive branch entities.12
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\3\ See 1 Stat. 68, 443, 519, 724; 2 Stat. 302; 3 Stat. 145, 439,
576.
\4\ See 1 Stat. 168.
\5\ See 1 Stat. 28, 49, 65. These and other similar provisions were
consolidated in the Revised Statutes of the United States (1878) at
section 161, which is presently located in the United States Code at 5
U.S.C. 301 (1994).
\6\ See 12 Stat. 117.
\7\ 9 Stat. 114.
\8\ 44 U.S.C. 103.
\9\ See 49 Stat. 500; 50 Stat. 304.
\10\ See 60 Stat. 237.
\11\ See 5 U.S.C. 552.
\12\ See 5 U.S.C. 552a.
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Several developments during the past 10 years have prompted
congressional reconsideration of some of the longest enduring
institutions and arrangements for producing and disseminating
government information, including congressional literature.
These new developments include the rise of the electronic
information phenomenon, the erosion of the Public Printer's
authority to supervise the public printing system,
constitutional challenges, and, against a background of budget
reduction and government downsizing, desires for greater
efficiency and economy in the production and dissemination of
government information products. Among the institutions and
arrangements that came under reconsideration were GPO and the
JCP, the required procurement of largely all executive branch
and legislative branch printing and information products
through GPO, and the depository library program.
B. The Electronic Information Phenomenon
The phenomenon of government information being collected,
maintained, used, and disseminated in electronic formats has
been a recent development presenting various new opportunities,
challenges, and problems. A pioneering, comprehensive
assessment of the electronic collection and dissemination of
information by the Federal agencies, produced by a committee of
the House of Representatives in the spring of 1986, offered a
number of relevant and prescient findings.
``Increasing amounts of information--both private and
public--are being maintained in electronic data
bases,'' and this ``trend will both continue and
accelerate.''
``Electronic collection, maintenance, and
dissemination of information by Federal agencies can
undermine the practical limitations and legal
structures'' governing public access to, as well as
government collection, creation, and dissemination of,
such information.
``Electronic information systems offer the
opportunity to make more government information readily
available'' to the public and this same information
``technology also permits government information to be
used in ways that are not possible when the information
is stored on paper records.''
``The development and installation of an electronic
information system requires advanced planning and may
require sizable capital expenditures.''
``The Federal Government must understand the
consequences of electronic information systems and must
recognize the need for new policies that will prevent
these systems from being used in unintended ways.''
``There is little communication among Federal
agencies about electronic information activities, and
there is little central administrative
guidance''.13
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\13\ U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations.
Electronic Collection and Dissemination of Information by Federal
Agencies: A Policy Overview. H. Rept. 99-560, 99th Congress, 2d
session. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1986, pp. 10-11.
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These 1986 findings revealed a relatively new
technology of growing use and application, one
conveying considerable discretionary capability to
Federal agencies concerning government information
management, while simultaneously outstripping the
existingpractical limitations and legal structures
governing many aspects of the government information life cycle.
An October 1988 Office of Technology Assessment (OTA)
report gave further testimony to the impact of the electronic
information phenomenon upon existing government information
policy and practice. Among the ``problems and challenges''
identified in the OTA study were the following:
a blurring or elimination of ``many distinctions
between reports, publications, databases, records, and
the like, in ways not anticipated by existing statutes
and policies;''
electronic technology permitting ``information
dissemination on a decentralized basis that is cost-
effective at low levels of demand, but in ways that may
challenge traditional roles, responsibilities, and
policies;''
electronic technology ``eroding the institutional
roles of government-wide information dissemination
agencies;'' and
electronic technology that ``has outpaced the major
government-wide statutes that apply to Federal
information dissemination.'' 14
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\14\ U.S. Office of Technology Assessment. Informing the Nation:
Federal Information Dissemination in an Electronic Age. Washington:
October 1988, p. 8.
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Calling explicitly for a defining of ``GPO's role in the
dissemination of electronic formats'' and ``GPO's role relative
to the growth in agency desktop and high-end electronic
publishing systems,'' the report concluded:
the government needs to set in motion a comprehensive
planning process for creatively exploring the long-term
future (e.g., 10 to 20 years from now) when the
information infrastructure of the public and private
sectors could be quite different. At the same time, the
government needs to provide short-term direction to
existing agencies and institutions with respect to
electronic information dissemination.15
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\15\ Id., pp. 10, 11.
A subsequent response to these recommendations was the
passage of the Government Printing Office Electronic
Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993.16 This
statute directed the Superintendent of Documents to provide a
system of online access to the Congressional Record and the
Federal Register by June 1994. The Superintendent was given
discretion to make available other appropriate publications,
and responsibility for maintaining an electronic directory of
Federal electronic information, as well as for operating an
electronic storage facility for Federal electronic information.
In addition to the online Congressional Record and Federal
Register, GPO also created a legislation database containing
all published versions of House and Senate bills introduced
since the 103rd Congress. The GPO Electronic Information Access
Enhancement Act provided free online access for all depository
libraries and cost recovery based upon the marginal cost of
dissemination for all other users. Subsequently, GPO made
arrangements with 20 libraries around the country to offer
``gateway'' access to the GPO databases via the Internet or
through a local phone call. Anyone, therefore, could get access
to the GPO electronic material by connecting to these
libraries. Finally, in December 1995, GPO announced that it was
making the GPO Access service directly available over the
Internet and that it was dropping the subscription fee.
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\16\ P.L. 103-40; 107 Stat. 112; 44 U.S.C. 4101-4104 (1994).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the 104th Congress passage of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 (PRA) provided a statutory framework for electronic
information policymaking in the Federal
Government.17 The Act established agency and Office
of Management and Budget responsibilities for the entire
information life cycle and set in place principles for
electronic dissemination of government information.
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\17\ P.L. 104-13; 109 Stat. 163; 44 U.S.C. 3501-3520 (1996).
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The rapid growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web
(WWW), which facilitates easy access to remote databases, has
greatly expanded dissemination of government information
electronically. According to a June 1997 General Accounting
Office study, ``42 federal organizations reported having a
total of about 4,300 WWW sites . . .''18 Agencies
increasingly provide information on their WWW sites to enhance
public access to government information, increase efficiency
and reduce costs, and improve service to the public. Congress
also now supplies a significant amount of legislative
information to the public via the Internet. The Government
Printing Office's ACCESS system and the Library of Congress'
THOMAS system both provide public access through their WWW
sites to congressional documents, including, among other
legislative information, bills, committee reports and hearings,
and the Congressional Record. Both of these systems have been
extremely popular with the public. The growth of Government WWW
sites greatly expands the ability of the public to quickly
acquire a broad range of government data and public information
on a distributed basis directly from the originating agency.
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\18\ U.S. General Accounting Office. Internet and Electronic Dial-
Up Bulletin Boards, GAO/GGD-97-86. Washington: June 1997, p. 2.
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While the explosion of the Federal Government's use of the
Internet for disseminating information creates enormous
opportunities, it also poses potential problems. Of
particularconcern is the possibility that citizens without access to
computer and network technologies will become information ``have nots''
in our society. In addition, the Government faces the new and
significant challenge of preserving electronic material for long term
public access absent proven approaches for ensuring the durability of
different formats and migrating data to new technologies as they
emerge. As agencies replace traditional paper-based documents with new
electronic publications, they may gain certain features, such as
currency or the ability to search data, but also may lose others, such
as readability or access by certain communities of users. The dynamics
of electronic publishing also may shift some costs from the agency
publishers to the end users. Ensuring public access to the growing
amount of government information in electronic formats, both currently
and in the long term, necessitates clear policy direction from Congress
and a system that can adapt to the changing technological environment
of government publications.
C. Erosion of the Public Printer's Supervisory Authority
Another development prompting congressional reconsideration
of arrangements for producing and disseminating government
information is the erosion of the Public Printer's authority to
supervise the public printing system. As the General Accounting
Office reported in April 1994, ``for all practical purposes,
the framework of laws and regulations used to manage many
aspects of government publishing has become outdated'' as a
consequence of the emergence and use of various new electronic
information technologies.19 GPO was deemed ill-
equipped to continue to assert monopoly control over agency
printing-like operations. Moreover, ``some agencies want to
publish their work independent of GPO involvement'' and can do
so as a ``result of significant advances in publishing
technologies.'' 20 Remedying the situation, however,
is complicated by constitutional challenges to the roles
heretofore played by GPO and the JCP.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\19\ U.S. General Accounting Office. Government Printing: Legal and
Regulatory Framework Is Outdated for New Technological Environment.
GAO/NSIAD-94-157. Washington: April 1994, p. 3.
\20\ Id., p. 2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
D. Constitutional Challenges
A third development prompting congressional reconsideration
of Government publication arrangements is rooted in the 1983
Supreme Court invalidation of Congress's so-called legislative
veto authority. That ruling inspired a well-orchestrated quest
by the executive branch for more independence to set
publication policy and to procure its own printing and
information products that has proved increasingly more
disruptive of interbranch relations.
In the milestone Chadha decision of June 23, 1983, the
Supreme Court found adoption of a simple resolution by one
congressional chamber to veto executive action or policy
unconstitutional because it was an exercise of legislative
power which did not follow the constitutionally prescribed
lawmaking process: bicameral consideration and presentation of
a bill or joint resolution to the President for his signature
or veto.21 The potential breadth of the Court's
ruling was signaled by its definition of a legislative act.
Whether an action is an exercise of legislative power will
depend on its purpose and effect. It concluded that, where such
action has ``the purpose and effect of altering legal rights,
duties and relations of persons . . . outside the legislative
branch,'' it must be effected through the constitutionally-
mandated lawmaking process.22 The wide reach of the
Court's rationale was shortly confirmed by its summary
affirmance of two appeals court rulings invalidating one- and
two-house vetoes of agency rulemaking, and was shortly
recognized by the Department of Justice as an effective vehicle
to challenge the very foundation of Congress' control of
Federal printing.23
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\21\ INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919 (1983).
\22\ Id., at 952.
\23\ Process Gas Consumers Group v. Consumer Energy Council of
America, 463 U.S. 1216 (1983); and United States Senate v. Federal
Trade Commission, 463 U.S. 1216 (1983).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Until Chadha, the historic prerogative of Congress to
control public printing through the JCP was virtually
unquestioned. The basic authority of the panel--to ``use any
measures it considers necessary to remedy neglect, delay,
duplication, or waste in the public printing and binding and
the distribution of Government publications''--is sweeping and
unqualified.24 Its exercise extends beyond oversight
and veto to affirmative direction and control. The JCP's role
has been likened to that of the board of directors of a
corporation,25 and it assumed powers of commensurate
scope without any serious challenge. This status was confirmed
by a decision of the Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit announced shortly before Chadha.26
Ten unions and four employees of GPO challenged the decision of
the Public Printer to furlough the entire work force of GPO for
six days. The Printer's decision was made in the face of a JCP
directive that he delay implementation of his furlough plans
until the JCP evaluated GPO's personnel requirements. The
Printer had contended that, while the JCP had a final say over
``wages, salaries, and compensation,'' that authority did not
extend to matters involving personnel policy.27 The
District Court rejected this contention as contrary to the
intent of Congress to place GPO in a subordinate relation to
the JCP, saying:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\24\ 44 U.S.C. 103.
\25\ See Congressional Record, v. 65, June 4, 1924, p. 10556; U. S.
Congress. Senate. Committee on Rules and Administration. Report with
Recommendations of the Committee on Rules and Administration on the
Joint Committee on Printing. S. Rept. 327, 95th Congress, 1st session.
Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1977, p. 2; 41 Op. Atty. Gen. 282,
286-287 (1957).
\26\ Lewis v. Sawyer, 698 F.2d 1261 (D.C. Cir. 1983). Lewis was
decided immediately after three D.C. Circuit rulings overturning a
variety of legislative veto provisions.
\27\ See 44 U.S.C. 305.
In the exercise of its powers under [section 103 of]
Title 44, the Joint Committee adopted its resolution of
May 11, 1982, which commanded the Printer not to
furlough GPO workers. Although the statutory scheme
envisions a cooperative relationship between the
Printer and the Joint Committee, that scheme also
places final authority to resolve disputes in the hands
of the Joint Committee, as the agent of Congressional
oversight. Consequently, the Court finds, in the
context of this particular conflict between the Joint
Committee and the Printer, that the Joint Committee's
will must prevail. In the circumstances of this case,
the Joint Com mittee having gone on record against
furloughs, the Printer does not have authority to
furlough workers.28
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\28\ Lewis v. Sawyer, C.A. 82-1515, July 2, 1982, per Gasch, J.,
slip opinion, p. 8.
On review, the appeals court summarily adopted the result
and reasoning of the lower court. Judge Patricia Wald, however,
filed a concurring opinion in which she made clear her view of
the relationship between the JCP and GPO and the Federal
printing establishment generally. Judge Wald initially noted
that it was well established that GPO is a legislative branch
agency,29 whose prime function is to support
Congress in its legislative activities and its constitutional
responsibility under Article 1, section 5, clause 3 that ``Each
house shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to
time publish the same . . .'' She then gave recognition to the
long history of close congressional control of the public
printing function, which had been maintained ``in part because
the activity is vital to Congress' ability to operate.''
30 Judge Wald acknowledged that often that control
had included assigning GPO publishing duties for the executive
branch, or including GPO employees under some personnel
statutes which also covered executive branch employees, thereby
``enmesh[ing] the GPO to some degree with the executive.''
Judge Wald found that such executive connections do not alter
the essential character of GPO as a legislative support agency,
a conclusion supported by the control ``over a myriad of GPO
operational decisions'' Congress has maintained through
numerous statutes. Concluding, she wrote:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\29\ Citing the recent decision in Thompson v. Sawyer, 678 F. 2d
257, 264 (D.C. Cir. 1982).
\30\ 698 F.2d, at 1263.
In sum, the GPO's purpose, performance, history, and
ongoing relationship with Congress do not suggest that
the JCP encroached on another branch and thereby
offended the constitutional separations of powers when
it ordered the Printer to halt his furlough plans. I do
not think that the GPO, by nature a legislative support
unit, vital to the flow of information within Congress
and from Congress to the nation, can be metamorphosed
into an executive agency by according GPO employees
civil service protections applicable to and run by
executive branch personnel.31
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\31\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
By 1983, the statutory scheme of Title 44, United States
Code, as interpreted and applied by the courts, the General
Accounting Office, and the Attorney General, appeared to
prescribe a predominant role for the JCP with respect to the
central tasks of satisfying the printing needs of Congress and
the other branches of government and making it possible for the
broadest segment of the public to have direct access to
government publications. To assure accomplishment of those
tasks, Congress long ago had established the JCP to oversee the
process and invested it with ample power to enforce compliance
either directly pursuant to its authority under 44 U.S.C. 103,
or indirectly through its general managing agent, the Public
Printer. The JCP had three kinds of authority it could exercise
over government printing: (1) statutory requirements that the
Public Printer and Government agencies obtain JCP approval
prior to taking action, (2) regulations promulgation, and (3)
the managerial and remedial power of 44 U.S.C. 103. In view of
this, the authority of the JCP over the Public Printer and the
Federal printing establishment was virtually plenary.
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court's Chadha decision,
the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) began to question the longstanding assumption
that Congress, through the Joint Committee on Printing, had
plenary authority to control public printing throughout the
Federal Government. For instance, the DOJ Office of Legal
Counsel (OLC) advised the Department of Defense in a March 2,
1984, legal opinion that Pentagon compliance with 44 U.S.C.
501(2), requiring the prior approval of the JCP before printing
could be undertaken, was no longer required because of the
Chadha ruling. OLC also maintained that the veto condition was
severable from the statute and, thus, the Department retained
the power to conduct printing activities outside of GPO to the
extent it was so ``permitted by its authorization and
appropriations legislation and considerations of efficiency.''
OLC suggested that the agency continue to notify JCP of its
proposed actions.32
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\32\ U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Legal Counsel.
Memorandum from Theodore B. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General, for
William H. Taft IV, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Department of Defense.
``Effect of INS v. Chadha on 44 U.S.C. Sec. 501, `Public Printing and
Documents'.'' Washington, March 2, 1984.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Next, OLC issued an April 11, 1984, opinion to OMB
regarding the JCP's proposedrevision of its printing
regulations, which had been published November 11, 1983.33
It concluded that the proposed regulations were not authorized by any
statute and the execution of the authority purportedly vested in the
JCP by the regulations not only would violate the constitutionally
mandated placement of executive authority in the
President,34 but also would be inconsistent with the
provisions of Article I of the Constitution, which, as interpreted by
the Chadha Court, forbid the legislative imposition of binding
directives on the executive branch without compliance with that
article's prescribed lawmaking procedures.35
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\33\ See Congressional Record, v. 129, November 11, 1983, p. H9709
(daily edition).
\34\ Citing Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976) (officers of the
United States may not be appointed by Congress).
\35\ 8 Op. O.L.C. 53-65 (1984).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Several months later, the JCP published another version of
its revised printing regulations, designating them ``proposed
policies and guidelines.'' 36 OLC responded with the
same conclusions it had offered previously: if the new
proposals were truly guidelines, ``then executive departments
are under no obligation to comply with them in formulating
their decisions'' with respect to agency printing policy. If,
however, they were intended to in any way bind executive branch
officials, OLC found that there was no statutory authority to
support ``the promulgation of mandatory guidelines or the
compulsory subordination of executive management discretion to
a committee of Congress.'' Moreover, said the opinion, even if
such statutory authority was deemed to exist, ``they would
represent a constitutionally impermissible legislative trespass
under the rights, duties, and responsibilities of the Executive
Branch [under the Buckley and Chadha decisions].''
37
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\36\ See Congressional Record, v. 130, June 26, 1984, p. H7075
(daily edition).
\37\ U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Legal Counsel.
Memorandum from Theodore B. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General, for
Michael J. Horowitz, Counsel to the Director, Office of Management and
Budget. ``Government Printing, Binding, and Distribution Policies and
Guidelines of the Joint Committee on Printing.'' Washington, August 21,
1984.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three years later, the Department of Defense, the General
Services Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration published notice of their intention to
implement, on July 1, 1987, a final rule supplanting the
current Federal Acquisition Rule (FAR) dealing with the
acquisition of printing and related supplies.38 The
agencies explained that revision of the rule was made necessary
by Chadha's implicit invalidation of JCP's approval requirement
under 44 U.S.C. 501(2), referencing the DOJ March 2, 1984,
opinion. The new rule, it was said, ``reflects the deletion of
the [old rules'] approval procedure, substitution of a
notification requirement, and revision of definitions to
reflect the statute rather than JCP regulations.''
39
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\38\ See 48 C.F.R. 8.800-8.802 (1986).
\39\ Federal Register, v. 54, March 20, 1987, p. 9037.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The proposed revision of the FAR, however, would have gone
beyond simply conforming the regulatory scheme to the
constitutional strictures announced by the Chadha Court. The
new FAR not only would have eliminated the JCP's supervisory
role and veto power, it also would have divested GPO of any
role in printing decisionmaking, allowing the individual agency
with printing capability, or the funds to contract out for
printing, to decide where and how printing shall be
accomplished.
Congress responded by placing an appropriations limitation
in the FY1988 legislative branch appropriation measure,
proscribing any executive agency procurement of commercial
printing, with certain limited exceptions, unless authorized by
GPO.40 The conference report on the legislation made
clear the congressional intent to override the FAR:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\40\ P.L. 100-202, sec. 309; 101 Stat. 1329.
The conference agreement includes a provision which
requires executive branch agencies who wish to procure
printing services from commercial sources to do so
through the Government Printing Office. Exceptions are
provided for a number of printing practices and
activities that for reasons of necessity, practicality,
efficiency, or statutory authority have been, and
should continue to be, performed other than through the
Government Printing Office. The overall intent is to
maintain the status that existed prior to the
implementation of the recent change in the Federal
Acquisition Regulation * * *. This provision revises a
provision inserted by the Senate.41
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\41\ U.S. Congress. House. Committee of conference. Making Further
Continuing Appropriations for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30,
1988. H. Rept. 100-498, 100th Congress, 1st session. Washington: U.S.
Govt. Print Off., 1987, p. 1001.
The proposed FAR was subsequently withdrawn.
Congress imposed the same limiting language in legislative
branch appropriations acts for FY1989, FY1990, and FY1991. The
FY1991 version, however, made the provision
permanent.42 In the legislation for FY1993, Congress
repealed the FY1991 provision and, in its stead, enacted one
that swept more broadly.43 The General Services
Administration (GSA) attempted to challenge the
constitutionality of this version by seeking an opinion to that
effect from the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel. Acting Assistant
Attorney Walter Dellinger found the limitation to be
constitutionally valid, saying: ``It does not give the GPO the
authority to refuse to print any materials, but merely requires
that printing be procured `by or through' the GPO.''
44
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\42\ See P.L. 101-520, sec. 206; 104 Stat. 2274.
\43\ See P.L. 102-392, sec. 207; 106 Stat 1719-1720. Previous
versions were narrower in that they applied only to printing ``from
commercial sources''. The new version applied to virtually all spending
by all executive agencies for any printing.
\44\ U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Legal Counsel.
Memorandum from Walter Dellinger, Assistant Attorney General, for Emily
C. Hewitt, General Counsel, General Services Administration. ``General
Services Administration Printing Operations.'' Washington, September
13, 1993.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1994, Congress again altered the limitation by requiring
that executive branch agencies receive a certification from the
Public Printer before procuring the production of certain
documents outside of GPO, and by expanding the types of
materials that are to be produced by GPO.45 This
modification prompted President Clinton to comment in his July
22, 1994, signing statement that the provision ``raises serious
constitutional concerns'' and to declare that he would
``interpret the amendments to the public printing provisions in
a manner that minimizes the potential constitutional
deficiencies in the Act''.46
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\45\ P.L. 103-283, sec. 207; 108 Stat. 1423, 1440.
\46\ Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, v. 30, July 29,
1994, pp. 1541- 1542.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Later, as revealed in a September 19, 1994, memorandum from
OMB Acting Director Alice Rivlin to department and agency
heads, an accommodation between the two branches was reached
concerning public printing. She announced: ``The leadership of
the Congressional committees of jurisdiction has agreed to work
with the Administration to produce a legislative approach to
solving this problem'' of comprehensive reform of Federal
Government printing. As a consequence, she directed the
executive departments and agencies ``to maintain the status quo
regarding present printing and duplicating arrangements during
Fiscal Year 1995 to allow this initiative to go forward.''
47 However, the accommodation proved to be temporary
when, several weeks later, the President's political party lost
majority control of both Houses of Congress and congressional
reconsideration of public printing arrangements came under new
leadership.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\47\ Memorandum reprinted in Congressional Record, v. 140,
September 29, 1994, pp. E1997-E1998 (daily edition).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nonetheless, executive branch resolve in challenging
congressional efforts at controlling Federal printing practices
may have been buttressed by several judicial rulings since
Chadha which have substantially narrowed the ways in which
Congress may directly control executive agency decisionmaking.
In one such case, Bowsher v. Synar, the Supreme Court ruled
that, ``because Congress has retained removal authority over
the Comptroller General, he may not be entrusted with executive
powers''.48 In another, the Court held that a board
of review, which was composed of Members of Congress and could
exercise veto power over the operational decisions of the
Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority, was
unconstitutional.49 More recently, the Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, reviewing the
subsequent congressional effort to repair the defects found by
the Supreme Court, held that scheme--creating a board of review
which could only recommend, but not veto, the operational
decisions of the Airport Authority--to be unconstitutional as
well. The appeals court found the review board to be an agent
of Congress, allowing for a direct exercise of congressional
influence, which was deemed sufficient to thereby taint the
scheme.50 In this latter regard, the appeals court
was following its recent holding in Federal Election Commission
v. NRA Political Victory Fund, in which it invalidated an
arrangement whereby Congress appoints two of its agents as non-
voting ex officio members of the Federal Election
Commission.51
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\48\ Bowsher v. Synar, 478 U.S. 714, at 732 (1986).
\49\ Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority v. Citizens for the
Abatement of Aircraft Noise, Inc., 501 U.S. 252 (1991).
\50\ Hechinger v. Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority Board
of Review, 36 F.3d 97 (D.C. Cir. 1994), cert. denied, 115 S. Ct. 934
(January 23, 1995).
\51\ Federal Election Commission v. NRA Political Victory Fund, 6
F.3d 821 (D.C.Cir. 1993), cert. dismissed for want of jurisdiction, 115
S.Ct. 537 (1994).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
These emerging legal authorities buttressing Chadha,
coupled with Congress's effort to expand the definition of
``printing'' subject to GPO control to include ``duplicating''
in the FY1995 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act and the
collapse of the Rivlin accommodation after the fall 1994
congressional elections, prompted the Justice Department to
issue its most direct legal challenge to congressional control
of executive branch printing. In a May 31, 1996, opinion, the
Office of Legal Counsel found that the current extent of
congressional control over the printing operations of GPO, and,
in particular, the printing needs of the executive branch, was
an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers
doctrine. OLC also assured all executive branch officers and
employees who act in conformity with its opinion that they
would not be subject to liability or sanction even if their
actions were contrary to the views and rulings of the
Comptroller General.52 The OLC opinion is the
clearest indication that the heretofore challenges by the
executive to congressional attempts to maintain direct control
of executive branch printing are not likely to abate. Indeed,
OLC's invitation to ignore the contrary views of the
Comptroller General, which would ordinarily deter certifying
and disbursing officers from acting contrary to his
advice,53 marks an unprecedented deterioration of
interbranch comity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\52\ U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Legal Counsel.
Memorandum from Walter Dellinger, Assistant Attorney General, for Emily
C. Hewitt, General Counsel, General Services Administration.
``Government Printing Office Involvement in Executive Branch
Printing.'' Washington, May 31, 1996.
\53\ See 31 U.S.C. 3522-3530 (1994).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
E. Reinventing, Downsizing, and Economizing
Shortly after his inauguration, President Clinton announced
on March 3, 1993, that he was initiating a National Performance
Review (NPR) to be conducted over the next six months by a task
force headed by Vice President Albert Gore, Jr. ``Our goal,''
said the President, ``is to make the entire Federal Government
both less expensive and more efficient, and to change the
culture of our national bureaucracy away from complacency and
entitlement toward initiative and empowerment. We intend to
redesign, to reinvent, to reinvigorate the entire National
Government.'' 54
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\54\ Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, v. 29, March 8,
1993, p. 350.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The final report of the NPR was delivered to the President
on September 7, 1993. It criticized Federal Government hiring,
purchasing, decisionmaking structure, program duplication, and
administrative procedures. To rectify the situation, over 380
major recommendations were offered. Among these was a proposal
to eliminate the Government Printing Office's monopoly over the
procurement of government printing. GAO had criticized GPO's
monopoly status in 1990.55 The report also called
for Congress to end the oversight role of the Joint Committee
on Printing for all executive branch printing.56
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\55\ U.S. General Accounting Office. Government Printing Office:
Monopoly-Like Status Contributes to Inefficiency and Ineffectiveness.
GAO/GGD-90-107. Washington: September 1990.
\56\ Office of the Vice President. From Red Tape to Results:
Creating a Government that Works Better & Costs Less. Report of the
National Performance Review, pp. 6-7.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
An April 11, 1996, memorandum from White House Chief of
Staff Leon E. Panetta reflected the willingness of the Clinton
Administration to continue to pursue new printing policy that
would address various pending problems to the satisfaction of
both Congress and the administration. The memorandum, addressed
to all heads of executive departments andagencies, reminded
these officials ``to make maximum use of the capabilities and expertise
of the Government Printing Office in handling your agency's printing
and duplicating procurements during the next 12 months, in accordance
with the following:
Agencies should continue to procure printing and high
volume duplicating through the Government Printing
Office.
Existing agency in-house printing and duplicating
operations and cross-servicing arrangements may
continue to operate normally.
Plans to downsize internal printing and duplicating
capacity shall continue to be carried out.''
57
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\57\ The White House. Memorandum from Leon E. Panetta, Chief of
Staff, for heads of executive departments and agencies. ``Procurement
of Printing and Duplicating through the Government Printing Office.''
Washington, April 11, 1996.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Approximately one month later, as indicated above, a May
31, 1996, Department of Justice memorandum provided a sharp
reminder that the constitutional problems plaguing public
printing policy and practice not only had not disappeared, but
were becoming somewhat more acute. Prepared by Assistant
Attorney General Walter Dellinger, Office of Legal Counsel, the
memorandum revisited the provisions in the Legislative Branch
Appropriations Act of 1995 expanding the definition of printing
and requiring the agencies to receive a certification from the
Public Printer before procuring the production of certain
official documents from sources other than GPO. These were the
same provisions to which President Clinton had taken exception
when signing the legislation into law. The Dellinger memorandum
found ``that the GPO is subject to congressional control, and
conclude that the GPO's extensive control over executive branch
printing is unconstitutional under the doctrine of separation
of powers.'' Moreover, the memorandum concluded ``that
executive branch departments and agencies are not obligated to
procure printing by or through the GPO'' and ``we perceive
little or no risk of liability or sanction to contracting
officers who act consistently with this opinion'' as the
Department of Justice would decline to prosecute
them.58
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\58\ U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Legal Counsel.
Memorandum from Walter Dellinger, Assistant Attorney General, for Emily
C. Hewitt, General Counsel, General Services Administration.
``Government Printing Office Involvement in Executive Branch
Printing.'' Washington, May 31, 1996, pp. 1, 18.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
IV. Committee Action
In 1996, during the second session of the 104th Congress,
the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration began
examining the issues surrounding public access to Government
Information in the 21st Century. This initiative was taken in
light of a series of actions in the House of Representatives,
and the activities of the Administration in light of the
recommendations of the National Performance Review.
To address these concerns, the Committee convened a series
of four hearings, on June 18, 1996, June 19, 1996, July 16,
1996, and July 24, 1996 with the objectives to:
1. Ensure continued public access to Government
information;
2. Encourage technological advances for even broader
public access without creating a society of information
``haves'' and ``have-nots''; and,
3. Bring title 44, United States Code, into the 21st
century with a minimum cost to the taxpayers.
At the June 18, 1996, hearing, the Committee received
testimony from Wayne P. Kelley, Superintendent of Documents,
U.S. Government Printing Office; Daniel P. O'Mahony, Government
Documents Coordinator, Brown University Library, Providence,
Rhode Island; Betty J. Turock, President, American Library
Association, Washington, D.C.; and, Christie D. Vernon, Saint
Leo College, Yorktown, Virginia.
During the hearing on June 19, 1996, the Committee received
testimony from William A. Wulf, Professor of Computer Science,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia; Dennis F.
Galletta, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Robert L.
Smith, Jr., Interactive Services Association, Silver Spring,
Maryland; and, Hon. Jeanne Hurley Simon, Chairperson, U.S.
National Commission on Libraries and Information Science,
Washington, D.C.
At the July 16, 1996, hearing, the Committee received
testimony from Eric Massant, Director, Government and Industry
Affairs, LEXIS-NEXIS and Congressional Information Service,
Inc.; William A. Gindlesperger, President, ABC/BIDS Plus,
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; Robert G. Claitor, President,
Claitor's Law Books and Publishing Division, Inc. Baton Rouge,
Louisiana; and Benjamin Y. Cooper, Vice President, Government
Affairs, Printing Industries of America, Alexandria, Virginia.
On July 24, 1996, the Committee received testimony from
Hon. Royce C. Lamberth, United States District Court Judge from
the District of Columbia; and, Hon. Sally Katzen,
Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs,
Office of Management and Budget, Washington, D.C.
Shortly after the convening of the 105th Congress, the
chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration
initiated an effort to develop a public printing reform bill.
While addressing the various technological, managerial, and
constitutional challenges, opportunities, and problems
confronting the public printing system, the resulting reform
proposal was to be designed to garner broad support within
Congress as well as the approval of the Clinton Administration.
Consequently, in April 1997, a legislative working group was
formed, consisting of staff from the Senate Committee on Rules
and Administration, the Joint Committee on Printing, and the
Office of Management and Budget. This group met regularly
during the spring, summer, and fall months.
Some members of the working group also held discussions
with representatives of various organizations having a direct
interest in public printing policy and practice. These
deliberations provided an opportunity for exchanging ideas,
recommendations, and rationales for reform. As a draft bill
began to take shape, various agency representatives were
consulted to obtain their reactions to the reform measure, as
were House and Senate officials who would be affected by the
new arrangements.
The Committee on Rules and Administration also held a
series of hearings during the 105th Congress to review
legislative recommendations on certain revisions to Title 44 of
the United States Code. At a April 24, 1997, hearing, the
Committee heard testimony from Michael F. DiMario, Public
Printer, and George E. Lord, chairman, Joint Council of Unions,
both of the Government Printing Office; Royce C. Lamberth,
United States District Judge for the District of Columbia; and
William J. Boarman, Communications Workers of America.
At a May 8, 1997, hearing, the Committee received testimony
from Sally Katzen, Administrator, Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget; Richard L.
Shiffrin, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal
Counsel, Department of Justice; Francis J. Buckley, Shaker
Heights Public Library, Shaker Heights, Ohio, on behalf of
library organizations; Ben Cooper, vice president, Office of
Government Affairs, Printing Industries of America, Inc.; and
Ronald G. Dunn, president, Information Industry Association.
Those testifying at the Committee's May 22, 1997, hearing
included Henry J. Gioia, Senior Management Analyst, Office of
the Director of Administration and Management, Office of the
Secretary of Defense; Gary R. Bachula, Deputy Under Secretary
for Technology Administration, Department of Commerce; John W.
Carlin, Archivist of the United States; and Joan K. Lippincott,
interim Executive Director, Coalition for Networked
Information.
Following over a year of discussion and negotiation between
committee staff and representatives of the Inter-Association
Working Group on Government Information Policy on behalf of the
library community, the Office of Management and Budget, the
Institute for Federal Printing and Publishing, the Information
Industry Association, the Printing Industry of America, and ABC
Advisors, S. 2288, the Wendell H. Ford Government Publication
Reform Act of 1998 was introduced by Senators Warner and Ford
on July 10, 1998.
Subsequently, the Committee held two hearings on the bill.
At a July 29, 1998, hearing, the Committee received
testimony from Barbara J. Ford, Executive Director, University
Library Services, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond,
Virginia, on behalf of the American Library Association; Daniel
P. O'Mahony, Coordinator of Government Documents and Social
Sciences Data Services, Brown University, Providence, Rhode
Island, on behalf of the Inter-Association Working Group on
Government Information Policy; Robert L. Oakley, Director of
the Law Library and Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law
Center, Washington, D.C., on behalf of the American Association
of Law Libraries; Ben Cooper, vice president, Office of
Government Affairs, Printing Industries of America, Inc.; and
Daniel Duncan, vice president, Information Industry
Association; Patrice McDermott, Information Policy Analyst, OMB
Watch; Michael F. DiMario, Public Printer, and George E. Lord,
chairman, Joint Council of Unions, both of the Government
Printing Office; and, William J. Boarman, vice president,
Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO. Submitting
testimony, but not appearing were Donald R. Arbuckle, Acting
Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs,
Office of Management and Budget; and William Treanor, Deputy
Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, Department
of Justice; L. Nye Stevens, Director, Federal Management and
Workforce Issues, General Government Division, U.S. General
Accounting Office; and Joyce C. Doria, vice president, Booz-
Allen & Hamilton, Inc.
At a September 16, 1998 hearing, the Committee received
testimony from J. Michael Farren, vice president, External
Affairs, Xerox Corporation, on behalf of the Information
Technology Industry Council; Leonard Pomata, president, Litton/
PRC, on behalf of the Professional Services Council; and
William Gindlesperger, president, ABC Advisors, Inc.
The Committee convened to mark up and report out S. 2288 on
September 28, 1998. The Committee, by voice vote, reported
favorably S. 2288 with an amendment in the nature of a
substitute, and recommended that the bill, the ``Wendell H.
Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998,'' pass.
V. Section-by-Section Analysis
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
Findings
Subsection (a) of this legislation specifies certain
findings by Congress concerning the public career of Senator
Wendell H. Ford of Kentucky, concluding with the finding that
it is altogether fitting and proper that this legislation, the
most comprehensive and far reaching proposal to ensure
permanent public access to the Government's publications,
regardless of form or format, to come before the Congress of
the United States during the tenure of Senator Ford, be named
in his honor.
Short Title
Subsection (b) of this section entitles this legislation
the ``Wendell H. Ford Government Publications Reform Act of
1998.''
SECTION 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
The table of contents of this legislation is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Table of contents.
Sec. 3. Findings and purposes.
Sec. 4. Definitions.
TITLE I--TRANSFER OF FUNCTIONS OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING
Sec. 101. Purpose.
Sec. 102. Repeal of provisions establishing the Joint Committee on
Printing.
Sec. 103. Legislative oversight functions.
Sec. 104. Repeal of waivers.
Sec. 105. References.
Sec. 106. Effective date.
TITLE II--GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS OFFICE
Sec. 201. Government Publications Office.
TITLE III--GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS OFFICE; PUBLICATIONS PRODUCTION AND
PRODUCTION PROCUREMENT SERVICES
Sec. 301. Government Publications Office; publications production and
production procurement services.
Sec. 302. Production of publications and procurement of publication
services by Congress and legislative agencies.
Sec. 303. Congressional Record.
Sec. 304. Production of publications and procurement of publication
services; legislative oversight.
Sec. 305. Particular Government publications.
Sec. 306. Costs of producing regulatory publications.
Sec. 307. Publications of the Supreme Court.
Sec. 308. Repeal of provisions exempting statutory publication
production and production procurement requirements.
Sec. 309. Additional technical and conforming amendments relating to
congressional publications.
TITLE IV--OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS ACCESS PROGRAMS
Sec. 401. Short title.
Sec. 402. Federal Publications Access Programs.
Sec. 403. Distribution and sale of Government publications by
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs.
Sec. 404. Technical and conforming amendments relating to the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs.
TITLE V--ADMINISTRATIVE AND SAVINGS PROVISIONS
Sec. 501. Continuation of employment terms and conditions.
Sec. 502. Proceedings not affected.
Sec. 503. Suits not affected.
Sec. 504. Nonabatement of actions.
Sec. 505. Separability.
Sec. 506. Transfer of certain functions of the Joint Committee on
Printing.
Sec. 507. Additional technical and conforming amendments.
Sec. 508. Implementation actions.
Sec. 509. Effective date.
SECTION 3. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES
Findings
Subsection (a) specifies nine findings underlying the
preparation and introduction of this legislation. These
findings are as follows:
(1) in a democracy, public access to Government
publications is fundamental to fostering an informed
citizenry in order to promote meaningful participation
in the democratic process;
(2) easy and equitable access to Federal Government
publications contributes to economic development in
many sectors of the Nation's economy;
(3) permanent public access to Federal Government
publications through a diversity of sources, including
a system of Federal publications access libraries,
should be guaranteed;
(4) the Federal Government should seek the most
effective and efficient means of producing,
disseminating, and providing permanent public access to
its publications, and these means should not be placed
at risk due to jurisdictional disputes between the
branches of the Federal Government;
(5) duplicative in-house agency publications
production is costly and inefficient and should be
phased out and replaced with--
(A) procurement through the Government
Publications Office, consistent with this Act;
or
(B) as appropriate, from competitively
selected private sector commercial sources;
(6) recent practices by Federal agencies of
privatizing Government publications have resulted in a
significant loss of publications that should have been
made available to the public through the Federal
publications access program;
(7) technological developments provide opportunities
for increasing efficiencies in the production and
dissemination of Government publications, but also pose
challenges for ensuring broad-based, permanent public
access to Government publications in new forms and
format;
(8) the establishment of a mechanism for
contemporaneous monitoring and evaluation of such
developments is essential in order to maintain a
continuous flow of timely, useful, and permanently
accessible Government publications to the public; and
(9) the dissemination and permanent public access of
Government publications must be guaranteed through a
mechanism with sufficient independence and authority to
ensure agency compliance with their obligation to
provide material for the Federal publications access
program.
Purposes
Subsection (b) specifies three purposes of this
legislation:
(1) reform the oversight and management of the
production, dissemination, and permanent public access
to the Federal Government's publications;
(2) guarantee permanent public access to publications
produced by the Federal Government, regardless of form
or format;
(3) facilitate the efficient and economical
production, dissemination, and permanent public access
to Government publications; and,
(4) limit the Federal government's internal
publication production capacity and to promote the
procurement of publication production from
competitively selected private sector commercial
sources to the maximum extent practicable consistent
with this Act.
SECTION 4. DEFINITIONS
1. The term ``Government publication'' has the meaning
specified under section 1902(3) of title 44, United States
Code, as amended by this legislation. As defined in that
section, ``Government publication'' means any information
product or other discrete set of Government information,
regardless of form or format, that is created or compiled (1)
by the Government, (2) at Government expense, in whole or in
part, or (3) as required by law, and an agency discloses,
disseminates, or makes available to the public. The term does
not include information that (1) is required for official use
only, (2) is for strictly internal administrative or
operational purposes having no public interest or educational
value, or (3) is classified for reasons of national security.
2. The term ``agency'' has the meaning given such term
under section 1902(1) of title 44, United States Code, as
amended by this legislation. As defined in that section,
``agency'' means (1) an executive department, government
corporation, government-controlled corporation, or other
establishment in the executive branch of the Government,
including the Executive Office of the President and any
independent regulatory agency, and (2) an establishment or
component of the legislative branch as determined by the rules
of the Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively.
It also embraces (3) an establishment or component of the
judicial branch of the Government, including courts, unless
they are otherwise excepted.
3. The term ``House of Representatives'' is defined to
include delegates of the U.S. Territories and the District of
Columbia and the Resident Commissioner.
Title I--Transfer of Functions of the Joint Committee on Printing
SEC. 101. PURPOSE
Section 101 indicates that the purpose of this title is to
provide for the orderly transfer of functions of the Joint
Committee on Printing, as appropriate, to the Committee on
Rules and Administration of the Senate, the Committee on House
Oversight of the House ofRepresentatives, and the Government
Publications Office, and within that agency, as appropriate, to the
Administrator, the Superintendent of Government Publications Production
and Procurement Services, and the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs.
SEC. 102. REPEAL OF PROVISIONS ESTABLISHING THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON
PRINTING
Section 102 repeals chapter 1 of title 44, United States
Code, and amends the table of chapters for title 44 by striking
the item relating to chapter 1.
SEC. 103. REGULATION
Section 103 generally directs that, unless otherwise
provided by this Act, the Administrator of the Government
Publications Office shall continue to keep in effect, as
appropriate, the Government Printing and Binding Regulations
No. 26, effective February 1990, as contained in Senate
Publication, S. Pub. 101-9, until the Administrator publishes
final regulations in accordance with section 301 of title 44,
United States Code, as amended by this Act.
SEC. 104. REPEAL OF WAIVERS
Section 104 specifies that all waivers granted and other
provisions required of executive and judicial branch agencies
and independent establishments by the Joint Committee on
Printing under the Government Printing and Binding Regulations
before the date of enactment of this Act shall be void 120 days
after the promulgation of final regulations pursuant to section
308, Title 44, United States Code, as amended by this Act.
SEC. 105. REFERENCES
Section 105 specifies that a reference in any Federal law,
Executive order, rule, regulation, or delegation of authority,
or any document of or relating to the Joint Committee on
Printing shall be deemed to refer, as appropriate, to the
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, the
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives,
or the Government Publications Office.
SEC. 106. EFFECTIVE DATE
Section 106 specifies that title I of this Act shall take
effect on January 1, 1999.
Title II--Government Publications Office
Sec. 201(a). Government Publications Office.
Section 201(a) generally amends Chapter 3, title 44, United
States Code, to read as follows:
``CHAPTER 3--GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS OFFICE
``Sec.
``301. Administrator; Government Publications Office: appointment;
duties; and pay.
``302. Government Publications Office; Deputy Administrator:
appointment; duties; and pay.
``303. Government Publications Office; employee pay.
``304. Government Publications Office; night work.
``305. Disbursing officer, deputy disbursing officer, certifying
officers and employees.
``306. Revolving Fund for operation of Government Publications Office.
``307. Payments for printing, binding, blank paper, supplies, and
publications production services.
``308. Procurement authority.
``309. Machinery, material, equipment, or supplies from other Government
agencies.
``310. Inks, glues, and other supplies furnished to other Government
agencies: payment.
``311. Branches of Government Publications Office: limitations.
``312. Detail of employees of Government Publications Office to other
Government establishments.
``313. Government Publications Office security.
``314. Transfer of surplus property.
``315. Sales of reproducibles.
``316. Use of Federal advisory committees.''.
Sec. 301. Administrator; Government Publications Office:
appointment; duties; and pay
This section authorizes the President to appoint, with the
advice and consent of the Senate, the Administrator of the
Government Publications Office, who is authorized to take
charge of and manage the Government Publications Office. The
Administrator may use any measures the Administrator considers
necessary to carry out the duties and powers of the office, and
to remedy neglect, delay, duplication, or waste in the
production or procurement of printing, binding, and blank-book
work, as defined in section 501 of this Title, and
dissemination of theFederal Government's publications, and to
enhance and expand the dissemination of, and maintenance of permanent
public access to, the Federal Government's publications. After notice
and comment, and in consultation with the Office of Management and
Budget, the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, the
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Committee
on House Oversight of the House of Representatives, the Administrator
may issue regulations consistent with this title to carry out the
purposes of this title. All such regulations are to be promulgated in
accordance with the requirements of section 553 and section 556 of
title 5, United States Code, and the requirements of chapter 7, title
5, United States Code. Furthermore, all such regulations are to be
promulgated in accordance with chapter 8 of title 5, United States
Code, and, notwithstanding section 804(2), all such regulations
promulgated shall be treated as a ``major rule.'' The section sets the
annual rate of pay for the Administrator at a rate equal to the rate
payable for a position at level III of the Executive Schedule under
section 5314 of title 5.
Sec. 302. Government Publications Office; Deputy
Administrator: appointment; duties; and pay
The Administrator is authorized by this section to appoint
a suitable person to be the Deputy Administrator of the
Government Publications Office. The Deputy Administrator shall
perform all duties and responsibilities assigned by the
Administrator, and the duties and responsibilities of the
Administrator in the event of either a vacancy in the office of
the Administrator or the incapacity of the Administrator. In
the event of a vacancy or incapacity, the Deputy Administrator
serves until a successor Administrator is appointed, but for no
longer than 1 year after a vacancy or incapacity occurs. The
section sets the annual rate of pay for the Deputy
Administrator at a rate equal to the rate payable for a
position at level IV of the Executive Schedule under section
5314 of title 5.
Sec. 303. Government Publications Office; employee pay
The section authorizes the Administrator to employ persons
necessary for the work of the Government Publications Office at
rates of wages and salaries, including compensation for night
and overtime work, that the Administrator considers for the
interest of the Government and just to the persons employed,
except as otherwise provided by this section. The Administrator
may not employ more persons than the necessities of public work
require. The rate of wages, including compensation for night
and overtime work, for more than 10 employees of the same
occupation, are to be determined by a conference between the
Administrator and a committee selected by the trades affected.
Wages affecting the employees of the Government
Publications Office are to be negotiated between the
Administrator and bargaining representatives of the employees
of the Government Publications Office. If the Administrator and
the bargaining representatives of the employees fail to agree
to wages, salaries, and compensation, the dispute is to be
referred to an arbitrator chosen from a panel of 3 arbitrators.
The Administrator and the bargaining representatives of the
employees are authorized to enter into an agreement governing
the selection of arbitrators for the panel and the procedures
applicable to the panel. The Government Publications Office and
the bargaining representatives of the employees each pay 50
percent of the costs of the proceedings of the panel, including
transcripts expenses. The section specifies that a decision by
the arbitrator shall be final and binding on all parties. The
wages, salaries, and compensation so determined are not subject
to change more than once a year. The Administrator is
authorized to grant an employee paid on an annual basis
compensatory time off from work duty instead of overtime pay
for overtime work.
Sec. 304. Government Publications Office; night work
This section authorizes the Administrator to cause the work
of the Government Publications to be performed at night, as
well as through the day, when the exigencies of the public
service require such action.
Sec. 305. Disbursing officer; deputy disbursing officer;
certifying officers and employees
The Administrator is authorized by this section to appoint,
from time to time, a disbursing officer of the Government
Publications Office, who shall be under the direction of the
Administrator. The disbursing officer is responsible for
disbursing moneys of the Government Publications Office only
upon, and in strict accordance with, vouchers certified by the
Administrator or by an officer or employee of the Government
Publications Office authorized in writing by the Administrator
to certify such vouchers. The disbursing officer is also
responsible for examining vouchers, as may be necessary, to
ascertain whether they are in proper form, certified, and
approved. While the disbursing officer is to be held
accountable for these responsibilities, he or she is not to be
held accountable or responsible for any illegal, improper, or
incorrect payment resulting from any false, inaccurate, or
misleading certificate, the responsibility for which, under
subsection (c) of this section, is imposed upon a certifying
officer or employee of the Government Publications Office. Upon
the death, resignation, or separation from office of the
disbursing officer, his or her accounts may be continued, and
payments and collection may be made in his or her name, by any
individual designated as a deputy disbursing officer by the
Administrator, for a period of time not to extend beyond the
last day of the second month following the month in which the
death, resignation, or separation occurred. Accounts and
payments are to be allowed, audited, and settled; checks signed
in the name of the former disbursing officer by a deputy
disbursing officer are to be honored in the same manner as if
the former disbursing officer had continued in office. The
section specifies that a former disbursing officer of the
Government Publications Office or his or her estate may not be
subject to any legal liability or penalty for the official
accounts or defaults of the deputy disbursing officer acting in
the name or in the place of the former disbursing officer. Each
deputy disbursing officer is responsible for accounts entrusted
to him or her under paragraph (1) of this subsection, and the
deputy disbursing officer is liable for any default occurring
during his service under this paragraph.
The section authorizes the Administrator to designate in
writing officers and employees of the Government Publications
Office to certify vouchers for payment from appropriations and
funds. These designated officers and employees are to be
responsible for the existence and correctness of the facts
recited in the certificate or other voucher or its supporting
papers, and for the legality of the proposed payment under the
appropriation or fund involved. They are also responsible and
accountable for the correctness of the computations of
certified vouchers, and accountable for, and required to make
restitution to, the United States for the amount of any
illegal, improper, or incorrect payment resulting from any
false, inaccurate, or misleading certificate made by him or
her, as well as for any payment prohibited by law or which did
not represent a legal obligation under the appropriation or
fund involved. However, the Administrator may, at his or her
discretion, relieve such certifying officer or employee of
liability for any payment otherwise proper whenever the
Comptroller finds that the certification was based on the
official records and that such certifying officer or employee
did not know, and by reasonable diligence and inquiry could not
have ascertained, the actual facts; or when the obligation was
incurred in good faith, the payment was not contrary to any
statutory provision specifically prohibiting payments of the
character involved, and the United States has received value
for such payment. The Administrator is directed to relieve such
certifying officer or employee of liability for an overpayment
for transportation services made to any common carrier covered
by section 3726 of title 31, whenever he or she finds that the
overpayment occurred solely because the administrative
examination made prior to payment of the transportation bill
did not include a verification of transportation rates, freight
classifications, or land grant deductions. The section provides
that the liability of such certifying officers or employees
shall be enforced in the same manner and to the same extent as
provided by law with respect to the enforcement of the
liability of disbursing and other accountable officers. Such
certifying officers and employees have the right to apply for
and obtain a decision by the Comptroller General on any
question of law involved in a payment on any vouchers presented
to them for certification.
Sec. 306. Revolving Fund for operation of Government
Publications Office
Section 306 specifies that the revolving fund established
July 1, 1953, is available without fiscal year limitation for
the operation and maintenance of the Government Publications
Office, including the rental of buildings, attendance at
meetings, maintenance and operation of the emergency room,
employee training, uniforms or uniform allowances, repairs and
minor alterations to buildings, and any costs associated with
audits performed in accordance with this Act. Also included are
all expenses incurred by the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs for the production of, or
procurement for the production of, Government publications
found to be in violation of requirements of chapter 19, as
authorized by that chapter; and all receipts received through a
transfer by the Secretary of the Treasury in accordance with
chapter 19 and credited to the accounts of the Superintendent
of Government Publications Access Programs.
The section indicates that the Revolving Fund is to be
reimbursed for the cost of all services and supplies furnished
the Government Publications Office and credited with all
receipts, including sales of printing, print procurement and
related publications production services, waste, condemned and
surplus property, payments received for losses or damage to
property, and receipts received through a transfer by the
Secretary of the Treasury in accordance with chapter 19.
The Administrator is directed to maintain within the
Revolving Fund separate accounts for activities of the
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and
Procurement Services and the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs. All expenses and reimbursements
of costs of the respective Superintendents are to be accounted
for within the Revolving Fund. The Administrator is to ensure
to the greatest extent possible, net receipts of the respective
Superintendent's programs are used for the benefit and
enhancement of those programs, respectively. An adequate system
of accounts for the Revolving Fund are to be maintained on the
accrual method, and financial reports are to be prepared on the
basis of accepted accounting standards. The Administrator is
directed to prepare and submit an annual business-type budget
for this fund which is to include the programs and activities
of the Superintendent of Government Publications Production and
Procurement Services and the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs. This budget program is to be
considered and enacted as prescribed by section 9104 of title
31, United States Code. Notwithstanding paragraph (1), for the
purposes of section 8147 of title 5, United States Code, the
Government Publications Office (and each of its components) is
not considered to be an agency which is required by statute to
submit an annual budget pursuant to or as provided by chapter
91 of title 31.
The Administrator is directed to prepare annual financial
statements meeting the requirements of section 3515(b) of title
31. These financial statements are to be audited each year, in
accordance with applicable, generally accepted Government
auditing standards, by an independent external auditor selected
by the Administrator, with the concurrence of the Inspector
General of the Government Publications Office, or by the
Inspector General of the Government Publications Office. For
purposes of the audits, the Inspector General is to have such
access to the records, files, personnel, and facilities of the
Government Publications Office as the Inspector General
considers appropriate. The Inspector General shall furnish
reports of the audits to Congress and the Administrator.
The costs associated with the performance of an audit
conducted in accordance with this section shall be paid from
receipts in the Revolving Fund credited to the accounts of the
Administrator.
Sec. 307. Payments for printing, binding, blank paper,
supplies, and publications production services
This section provides that an agency of the Federal
Government ordering printing, binding, blank paper, supplies,
or other publications production services from the Government
Publications Office is to pay promptly by the most efficient
means available, including electronic funds transfer, to the
Administrator or the Administrator's designee, upon his written
request, either in advance or upon completion of the work, all
or part of the estimated or actual cost, as the case may be.
Bills rendered by the Administrator, or the Administrator's
designee, are not subject to audit or certification in advance
of payment. Adjustments on the basis of the actual cost of
delivered work paid for in advance is to be made monthly or
quarterly and as may be agreed by the Administrator and the
agency concerned. The Administrator is to present a bill or
advice of payment to an agency for which the Government
Publications Office has performed work no later than 90 days
after work has been completed. The agency is to pay the
Government Publications Office with funds obligated during the
fiscal year in which the order was placed.
For congressional orders which are in process 90 days
before Congress adjourns, the Administrator is to consult with
the appropriate office to determine whether the work will be
completed before Congress adjourns. The Administrator is to
bill for the cost of work completed for all jobs that are still
in process on the date that Congress adjourns within 45 days
after adjournment. The succeeding Congress must submit
requisitions to the Government Publications Office to authorize
completion of any job ordered by the prior Congress.
Sec. 308. Production and Procurement authority
Section 308 specifies that purchases may be made by the
Administrator without reference to the Federal Property and
Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended (40 U.S.C. 481
et seq.) concerning purchases for the Federal Government.
The section also indicates that publications production and
procurement regulations administered by the Government
Publications Office are to govern the production and
procurement of printing, binding, and blank-book work, as
defined in section 501 of this Title, by the Government
Publications Office or by an agency under a delegation of
authority granted by the Administrator.
Any agency that intends to procure printing, binding, and
blank-book work, as defined in section 501, title 44, United
States Code, as amended, through the Government Publications
Office or for that agency under a delegation of authority
granted by the Administrator, is to cause a notice to be posted
on a centralized notification system maintained by the
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and
Procurement Services that is electronically accessible.
The Administrator is authorized to prescribe such
regulations, policies, and directives, in accordance with
section 301(c) of title 44, United States Code, as amended by
this Act not inconsistent with the provisions of this section,
to carry out this section relating to the Government
Publications Office.
The Administrator is authorized to delegate and authorize
successive redelegation of any production or procurement
authority vested in the Administrator to any official in the
Government Publications Office, or any official in any agency
seeking authority for the procurement of services, if the
Administrator determines that the Government Publications
Office is not able or suitably equipped to execute such
procurement authority or as may be more economically or in the
better interest of Government executed elsewhere. Such
delegation or redelegation of production or procurement
authority is to be in accordance with this chapter and chapter
19. No delegation, or redelegation, of authority under this
section is to be granted by the Administrator until final
regulations providing for the requirements of any such
delegation, or redelegation, of authority are issued. Such
final regulations are to require that--
An agency may not contract for the production or
procurement of printing, binding, and blank-book work,
as defined in section 501, title 44, United States
Code, as amended with another agency or a private
sector commercial source unless that entity has been
certified by the Administrator as having met the
requirements of this title, including the notice
requirement of chapters 5 and 19, and remains certified
during the course of the procurement contract;
The Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs be a signatory to the procurement contract, or
that the Superintendent otherwise certifies that a
memorandum of understanding has been agreed to by the
procuring agency establishing the requirements to be
met for the Federal publications access program; and
The requirements of subsection (b) shall be met.
All delegations of authority for the production or
procurement of printing, binding, and blank-book work, as
defined in section 501, title 44, United States Code, as
amended, shall be done in conformance to this chapter and
chapters 5 and 19, United States Code, as amended.
Except as provided in subsections (f) and (g), and except
in the case of procurement procedures otherwise expressly
authorized by statute, the Administrator, in conducting a
procurement for property or services, and an agency acting
under a delegation of authority granted by the Administrator is
to obtain full and open competition through the use of
competitive procedures, in accordance with the requirements of
this section, and is to use the competitive procedure or a
combination of competitive procedures that is best suited under
the circumstances of the procurement. In determining the
competitive procedures appropriate under the circumstances, the
Administrator and an agency acting under a delegation of
authority granted by the Administrator is to solicit sealed
bids if time permits their solicitation, submission, and
evaluation; the award will be made on the basis of price and
other price-related factors; it is not necessary to conduct
discussions with the responding sources about their bids; and
there is a reasonable expectation of receiving more than 1
sealed bid. The Administrator is to request competitive
proposals if sealed bids are inappropriate under subparagraph
(A).
In addition to the authority otherwise provided by law, the
Administrator, and an agency acting under a delegation of
authority granted by the Administrator, may use procedures
other than competitive procedures only if the property or
services needed by the Government are available from only 1
responsible source and no other type of property or services
will satisfy the needs of the Government; the Government's need
for the property or services is of such an unusual and
compelling urgency that the Government would be seriously
injured unless the Administrator is permitted to limit the
number of sources from which the Government Publications Office
solicits bids or proposals; a statute expressly authorizes a
specified source; or the Administrator determines that it is
necessary in the public interest to use procedures other than
competitive procedures in the particular procurement concerned.
In order to promote efficiency and economy in contracting,
and to avoid unnecessary burdens for the Government and
contractors, the regulations issued, in accordance with this
section, are to provide for special, simplified procedures for
small purchases of property and services by the Government
Publications Office or any agency acting under a delegation of
authority granted by the Administrator. For the purposes of
this section, a small purchase is understood to be a purchase
or contract for an amount which does not exceed the small
purchase threshold. The section indicates that a proposed
purchase or contract for an amount greater than the small
purchase threshold may not be divided into several purchases or
contracts for lesser amounts in order to use the small purchase
procedures required under paragraph (1). In using small
purchase procedures, the Administrator and any agency acting
under a delegation of authority granted by the Administrator is
to promote competition to the maximum extent practicable. For
subsection (g), the term ``small purchase threshold'' has the
meaning given such term by regulations issued by the
Administrator under subsection (c).
Sec. 309. Machinery, material, equipment, or supplies from
other Government agencies
Section 309 specifies that agencies having machinery,
material, equipment, or supplies for printing, binding, and
blank-book work, including lithography, photolithography,
xerography, and other processes of reproduction, no longer
required or authorized for service, as determined by the agency
head, are to provide a description of such material, equipment,
or supplies to the Administrator. The Administrator may
requisition such articles as are serviceable in the Government
Publications Office, and such articles are to be promptly
delivered to the Government Publications Office.
Sec. 310. Inks, glues, and other supplies furnished to
other Government agencies: payment
Section 310 specifies that inks, glues, and other supplies
manufactured by the Government Publications Office, in
connection with its work, may be furnished to departments and
other establishments of the Government upon requisition, and
payment is to be made from appropriations available.
Sec. 311. Branches of Government Publications Office:
limitations
Section 310 specifies that appropriated funds may not be
used for maintaining more than 1 branch of the Government
Publications Office in any 1 building occupied by an executive
department of the Government, and a branch of the Government
Publications Office may not be established unless specifically
authorized by law.
Sec. 312. Detail of employees of Government Publications
Office to other Government establishments
Section 312 provides that an employee of the Government
Publications Office may not be detailed to duties not
pertaining to the work of the Government Publications Office in
any office in the Legislative, Executive or Judicial branches
of Government unless expressly authorized by law.
Sec. 313. Government Publications Office security
Section 313 authorizes the Administrator, or a delegate
appointed by the Administrator, to designate employees of the
Government Publications Office to serve as special policemen to
protect persons and property on the premises and in adjacent
areas occupied by or under the control of the Government
Publications Office. Under regulations to be prescribed by the
Administrator, employees designated as special policemen are
authorized to bear and use arms in the performance of their
duties, make arrest for violations of laws of the United
States, the several States, and the District of Columbia, and
to enforce the regulations of the Administrator, including the
removal from Government Publications Office premises of
individuals who violate such regulations. The jurisdiction of
special policemen on the premises occupied by or under the
control of the Government Publications Office and adjacent
areas shall be concurrent with the jurisdiction of the
respective law enforcement agencies where the premises are
located.
Sec. 314. Transfer of surplus property
This section provides that, notwithstanding title II of the
Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (40
U.S.C. 481 et seq.), the Administrator may transfer or donate
surplus and condemned Government Publications Office machinery,
material, equipment, and supplies, and surplus Government
publications to other Federal entities; any organization
described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 and exempt from tax under section 501(a) of such Code; or
State or local governments.
Sec. 315. Sales of reproducibles
This section authorizes the Administrator to sell to
persons who may apply, publication production reproducibles,
regardless of form or format, from which a Government
publication is produced at a price not to exceed the cost to
the Government, as determined by the Administrator.
Sec. 316. Use of Federal advisory committees
Section 316 authorizes the Administrator to establish such
advisory committees as the Administrator determines
appropriate. All meetings of such advisory committee(s) are
required to be open to the public, except when the
Administrator determines that the meeting or any portion of the
meeting, shall be closed to the public, consistent with the
provisions of section 552b(c) of title 5 and only after a 2/3
vote of the advisory committee(s). All meetings of any advisory
committee established by the Administrator are to be preceded
by timely public notice in the Federal Register of the time,
place, and subject of the meeting. Minutes of each meeting are
to be kept and shall contain a record of the people present and
a description of the discussion that occurred. The minutes and
records of all such meetings and other documents that were made
available to or prepared for an advisory committee established
by the Administrator are to be made publicly accessible, unless
the Administrator determines that a record or any portion of
such record, shall not be publicly disclosed, consistent with
the provisions of section 552 of title 5 and only after a 2/3
vote of the advisory committee.
Sec. 201(b)(1). Government Printing Office; Abolished
Section 201(b) reestablishes the Government Printing Office
as the Government Publications Office, as an independent entity
in the Federal government, independent of executive agencies.
SEC. 201(c). Report to Congress
Section 201(c) provides that acts applicable to the
Government Printing Office on the day before the effective date
of this Act are to apply to the Government Publications Office.
Any other acts that are generally applicable to executive
branch agencies are not applicable to the Government
Publications Office unless expressly made applicable by law.
The Administrator of the Government Publications Office is
directed to adopt such policies, procedures, and regulations as
are necessary to incorporate and thereby make the Government
Publications Office subject to the requirements of the Privacy
Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), the Government Performance and
Results Act of 1992 (107 Stat. 285), the Government Management
and Reform Act of 1994 (108 Stat. 3410), the Government in the
Sunshine Act of 1976 (5 U.S.C. 552b), the Chief Financial
Officers Act of 1990 (104 Stat. 2838), the Direct Deposit Act
(31 U.S.C. 3332), the Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act
of 1982 (31 U.S.C. 3512), the Prompt Payment Act (31 U.S.C.
3901), the Contract Disputes Act (41 U.S.C. 601 et seq.), and 5
U.S.C. 7351.
Sec. 201(d). Transfer
Section 201(d) transfers all duties, authorities,
responsibilities, and functions of the Public Printer of the
Government Printing Office on the day before the effective date
of this title to the Administrator of the Government
Publications Office for performance on and after such date.
Sec. 201(e). References
Section 201(e) provides that references in any other
Federal law, Executive order, rule, regulation, or delegation
of authority, or any document of or relating to (1) the
Government Printing Office is to be deemed a reference to the
Government Publications Office, (2) the Public Printer is to be
deemed a reference to the Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services or the
Administrator, as appropriate, (3) the Office of the Public
Printer is to be deemed a reference to the Office of the
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and
Procurement Services, or the Office of the Administrator, as
appropriate, (4) the Superintendent of Production Services is
to be deemed a reference to the Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services, and (5) the
Superintendent of Access Programs is to be deemed a reference
to the Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs.
Sec. 201(f). Transition
Section 201(f) indicates that the individual serving as the
Public Printer on the effective date of this title may serve as
the Administrator of the Government Publications Office until
the President appoints, with the advice and consent of the
Senate, a successor Administrator. The individual serving as
the Administrator pursuant to subparagraph (A) is to perform
all of the duties and responsibilities of the Administrator
until the President appoints a successor Administrator in
accordance with section 301 of title 44, United States Code, as
amended by this Act.
Assets and real property under the control of, in use by,
or assigned to the Public Printer on the day before the
effective date of this Act is placed under the control of the
Administrator on the effective date of this Act for the use of
the Administrator and the Acting Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs for purposes of implementing this
Act.
Personnel under the supervision of or assigned to the
Public Printer on the day before the effective date of this Act
are placed under the supervision of the Administrator, pursuant
to subsection (g) of title IV, on the effective date of this
Act for purposes of implementing this Act.
Sec. 201(g). Technical and conforming amendment
This subsection amends the table of chapters for title 44,
United States Code, by striking the item relating to chapter 3
and inserting the following:
``3. Government Publications Office...............................301.''
Title III--Government Publications Office; Publications Production and
Production Procurement Services
Sec. 301(a). Government Publications Office; Publications Production
and Production and Procurement Services
This subsection amends Chapter 5 of title 44, United States
Code, to read as follows:
``CHAPTER 5--GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS OFFICE; PUBLICATIONS PRODUCTION AND
PROCUREMENT SERVICES
``Sec.
``501. Government Publications produced by or procured through the
Government Publications Office.
``502. Government Publications Office; Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services: appointment;
duties; and pay.
``503. Printing in veterans' hospitals.
``504. Regulations for procurement of Government publications production
services.
``505. Time for printing documents or reports which include
illustrations or maps.
``506. Orders for printing and publications production services to be
acted upon within 1 year.
``507. Standards for papers used in Government publications.
``508. Annual plans for Government publications.''.
Sec. 501. Government Publications produced by or procured
through the Government Publications Office
Section 501 authorizes the Government Publications Office
to produce or procure the production of Government
publications, regardless of form or format, including
Government publications created for or transmitted through an
electronic communications system or network, as requisitioned
by Congress, Federal agencies and the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs. Notwithstanding any
other provision of law, and subject to subsection (b), the
Government Publications Office, with slight exception, is to be
the only authorized agency of the Federal Government to provide
printing, binding and blank-book work for Congress, the
Executive Office of the President, the Judiciary (other than
the Supreme Court of the United States) and every Executive
department and independent establishment of the Government,
publications production and procurement services. Exceptions to
this requirement include publications created only for
dissemination through an electronic communications system or
network, provided that the requirements of chapter 19 are
satisfied; individual production orders by the executive branch
costing not more than $1,000, if the work is not of a
continuing or repetitive nature, and as certified by the
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and
Procurement Services if the work is included in a class of work
which cannot be provided more economically through the
Government Publications Office, if the requirements of chapter
19 are satisfied; the production or procurement of printing,
binding, and blank-book work for the Central Intelligence
Agency, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, the National
Reconnaissance Office, the Defense Intelligence Agency, or the
National Security Agency; and the production or procurement of
printing, binding, and blank-book work, provided the
requirements of chapter 19 are fulfilled, for slip opinions of
the United States Circuit Courts of Appeals and the Bankruptcy
Noticing Center. Provision is made that no appropriated funds
may be obligated or expended by an executive branch entity for
the procurement of any printing related to the production of
Government publications (including printed forms) unless such
procurement is made by or through the Government Publications
Office. As used in the section, ``printing'' includes the
processes of composition, platemaking, presswork, duplicating,
silk screen processes, binding, microform, and the end items of
such processes. The Administrator is directed to review the
subsection to ensure that the definition of ``printing'' is
consistent with international and commercial standards, and to
review, as well, at intervals of not greater than five years,
the definition of ``printing'' to recommend revisions to
reflect current technology.
The section also provides that, under a delegation of
authority from the Administrator in accordance with section
308, an agency of the executive or judicial branch may produce
or procure printing, binding, and blank-book work, as defined
in section 501, title 44, United States Code, as amended, for
that agency if the agency certifies to the Administrator that
the agency is in full compliance with the requirements of this
chapter, chapter 19, and the publications production and
procurement services regulations administered by the
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and
Procurement Services.
The Administrator is to promptly notify the Superintendent
of Government Publications Production and Procurement Services
and the Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs of any decision to delegate authority under this
section. However, a delegation of authority to an agency under
this section is not to be granted unless and until the
Departmentof the Treasury has established a designated budget
account for the agency in accordance with section 1906(a). In
determining a delegation of authority under this section, the
Administrator is to take into account any prior determinations of
noncompliance issued against an agency under section 1906.
The section specifies that no agency is to produce or
procure printing, binding, and blank-book work, as defined in
section 501, title 44 United States Code, as amended, for
another agency, except for those publications created only for
dissemination through an electronic communications system or
network, unless expressly authorized by law enacted after the
effective date of this Act.
The section further specifies that, notwithstanding any
other provision of law, no agency may participate in a
partnership or alliance, public or private, to produce
Government publications, or enter into a contract or
cooperative agreement or similar contractual arrangement for
the production or procurement of printing, binding, and blank-
book work, as defined in section 501, title 44, United States
Code, as amended, or dissemination of a Government publication,
regardless of form or format, unless such action complies with
chapter 19 and is approved in advance by the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs.
Sec. 502. Government Publications Office; Superintendent of
Government Publications Production and Procurement
Services: appointment; duties; and pay
Section 502 specifies that the Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services, who may also
be referred to as the Superintendent of Production Services, is
to be appointed by the President, with the advice and consent
of the Senate, for a term of 5 years. This appointment is to be
made without regard to political affiliation, and solely on the
basis of professional qualifications to perform the duties and
responsibilities of the office. Allowance is made for an
individual to be appointed to more than 1 term in this
position.
The section also provides that the Superintendent of
Production Services, under the direction of the Administrator,
is to take all steps considered necessary to carry out the
duties and powers of the office and to remedy neglect, delay,
duplication, or waste in the production or procurement of
printing, binding, and blank-book work, as defined in section
501, title 44, United States Code, as amended. To the greatest
extent feasible, the Superintendent is to operate the
production and procurement services program on a self-
sustaining basis. Furthermore, the Superintendent of Production
Services must promptly notify the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs of any contract for the production
or procurement of production services of any Government
publication so that the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs may meet the requirements of
chapter 19.
The Administrator is to transfer to the authority of the
Superintendent of Production Services such personnel within the
Government Publications Office as the Administrator shall
determine are required by the Superintendent to perform the
duties of this chapter.
The Superintendent of Government Publications Production
and Procurement Services is to be paid, according to this
section, an annual rate of pay equal to the rate payable for a
position at level IV of the Executive Schedule under section
5315 of title 5, United States Code.
Provision is also made for a Deputy Superintendent of
Government Publications Production and Procurement Services,
who is to be appointed by the Superintendent of Production
Services. The Deputy Superintendent of Government Publications
Production and Procurement Services is authorized to perform
all duties and responsibilities assigned by the Superintendent
of Production Services and the duties and responsibilities of
the Superintendent of Production Services in the event of a
vacancy in the office of the Superintendent or the incapacity
of the Superintendent. In the event of a vacancy, the Deputy
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and
Procurement Services is to serve until a successor
Superintendent of Production Services is appointed and
qualifies, but for no longer than 1 year after a vacancy
occurs.
Compensation for the Deputy Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services is provided by
the section at an annual rate of pay equal to the rate payable
for a position on the Senior Executive Service under section
5316 of title 5, United States Code.
Lastly, notwithstanding subparagraph (A), for purposes of
section 8147 of title 5, United States Code, the activities of
the Superintendent of Production Services are not considered
activities that are required by statute to submit an annual
budget pursuant to or as provided by chapter 91 of title 31.
Sec. 503. Printing in veterans' hospitals
Section 503 provides that, notwithstanding section 501, the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs may use the equipment described
in subsection (b) for printing and binding that the Secretary
finds advisable for the use of the Department of Veterans
Affairs. The equipment described in subsection (b) is the
printing and binding equipment that the various hospitals and
homes of the Department of Veterans Affairs use for
occupational therapy.
Sec. 504. Regulations for procurement of Government
publications production services
This section indicates that the Administrator is to
promulgate and the Superintendent of Government Publications
Production and Procurement Services is to administer
regulations governing the production and procurement of
printing, binding and blank-book work, as defined in section
501, title 44, United States Code, as amended, through the
Government PublicationsOffice in accordance with chapters 3 and
19. All such regulations must be promulgated in accordance with the
requirements of section 553 and section 556 of title 5, United States
Code, and the requirements of chapter 7, title 5, United States Code.
The section further specifies that all such regulations must be
promulgated in accordance with chapter 8 of title 5, United States
Code, and notwithstanding section 804(2), all such regulations
promulgated are to be treated as a ``major rule.''
Sec. 505. Time for printing documents or reports which
include illustrations or maps
Section 505 provides that a document or report to be
illustrated or accompanied by maps may not be printed by the
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and
Procurement Services until the illustrations or maps designed
for it are ready for publication.
Sec. 506. Orders for printing and publications production
services to be acted upon within 1 year
Section 506 specifies that an order for production or
procurement of printing, binding, or blank-book work, as
defined in section 501, title 44, United States Code, as
amended, may not be acted upon by the Superintendent of
Government Publications Production and Procurement Services
after the expiration of 1 year, unless the entire copy and
illustrations for the work have been furnished within that
period.
Sec. 507. Standards for papers used in Government
publications
Section 507 provides that the Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services is to
establish appropriate standards for printing and writing papers
to be used in all Government printing, binding, and blank-book
work, as defined in section 501, title 44, United States Code,
as amended, and may procure such papers under procedures
established pursuant to section 308. These standards are to
detail the Government's minimum needs for each type and grade
of paper in such a way as to allow the use of as many existing
commercially available papers as practical, and to provide
maximum economy to the public. These standards, denominated the
``Government Paper Specification Standards,'' are to be
published periodically.
Sec. 508. Annual plans for Government publications
Section 508 indicates that, on the date that the head of
each agency submits an appropriation request under section 1108
of title 31 for the preparation of the budget, the agency head
must also submit a plan on the production or procurement of
printing, binding, and blank-book work, as defined in section
501, title 44, United States Code, as amended, and the
dissemination and accessibility of Government publications of
the agency.
Plans required under this section are to be submitted in
different ways by each branch of the Government. Agencies of
the executive branch and independent establishments are to
submit such plans and reports to the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget, the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate, the Committee on House Oversight
of the House of Representatives, and the Administrator of the
Government Publications Office. Agencies of the legislative
branch are to submit their plans and reports to the Committee
on Rules and Administration of the Senate, the Committee on
House Oversight of the House of Representatives, and the
Administrator of the Government Publications Office. Agencies
of the judicial branch, except the Supreme Court, are to submit
their plans and reports to the Director of the Administrative
Office of the United States Courts, the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate, the Committee on House Oversight
of the House of Representatives, and the Administrator of the
Government Publications Office.
A plan prepared pursuant to this section is not considered
to be in lieu of any requirements under chapter 35, title 44,
United States Code, as amended.
Sec. 301(b). Transition
This subsection provides that the individual serving as
Administrator pursuant to subsection (f) of title II of this
Act is to perform all duties and responsibilities of the
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and
Procurement Services as provided in chapter 5, title 44, United
States Code, as amended by this Act, until a Superintendent of
Production Services is appointed by the President, with the
advice and consent of the Senate, under section 502. The
subsection further specifies that the President must make this
appointment not later than 180 days after the effective date of
this Act.
Sec. 301(c). Report and 5-year plan
This subsection specifies that, not later than 180 days
after the effective date of this title, each agency must submit
a report that contains a plan, to be implemented during the 5-
year period following such effective date, that reduces the
publications production capacity, if any, of the agency; sets
annual dates, during such 5-year period, by which incremental
reductions of such capacity will be accomplished; and provides
for publications production performed by the agency to be
performed by non-Federal entities pursuant to contracts in
compliance with this act, and with appropriate protections to
ensure compliance with the requirements of chapter 19 of title
44, United States Code, regarding dissemination and permanent
accessibility of Government publications. On October 1 of each
of the 5 fiscal years following the submission date of such
reports, each agency must also submit a report on its
compliance with its plan. Reports under this subsection are to
be submitted in accordance with section 508 of title 44, United
States Code, as amended by this section.
Sec. 301(d). Technical and conforming amendment
This subsection amends the table of chapters for title 44,
United States Code, by striking the item relating to chapter 5
and inserting the following:
``5. Government Publications Office; Publications Production and
Procurement Services................................501''.
Sec. 302(a). Production of publications and procurement of publications
services by Congress and legislative agencies
This subsection amends chapter 7 of title 44, United States
Code, to read as follows:
``CHAPTER 7--PRODUCTION AND PROCUREMENT OF PUBLICATIONS SERVICES BY
CONGRESS AND LEGISLATIVE AGENCIES
``Sec.
``701. `Usual number' of bills, resolutions, documents, and reports;
distribution of the House of Representatives and the Senate
documents and reports; reports on private bills; number of
copies printed; distribution.
``702. Style, form, and manner of publication.
``703. Printing extra copies.
``704. Reprinting bills, laws, and reports from committees.
``705. Duplicate orders to print.
``706. Bills and resolutions: style and form.
``707. Bills and resolutions: binding sets for Congress.
``708. Public and private laws and treaties.
``709. Copies of Acts furnished to the Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services.
``710. Printing Acts, joint resolutions, and treaties.
``711. Journals of the Houses of Congress.
``712. Printing documents for Congress in 2 or more editions.
``713. Printing of documents not provided by law.
``714. Appropriation chargeable for printing of document or report by
order of Congress.
``715. Lapse of authority to print.
``716. Classification and numbering of publications ordered printed by
Congress; designation of publications of departments; printing
of committee hearings.
``717. Senate and House Manuals.
``718. Congressional Directory.
``719. Congressional Directory: sale.
``720. Memorial addresses: preparation; distribution.
``721. Statement of appropriations: `usual number'.
``722. Printing for committees of Congress.
``723. Committee reports: indexing and binding.
``724. United States Statutes at Large: distribution.
``725. United States Statutes at Large: references in margins.
``726. Distribution of documents to Members of Congress.
``727. Allotments of public documents printed after expiration of terms
of Members of Congress: rights of reelected and retiring
Members to documents.
``728. Documents and reports ordered by Members of Congress: franks and
envelopes for Members of Congress.
``729. Stationery and blank books for Congress.
``730. Binding for Members of Congress.
``731. Binding at expense of Members of Congress.
``732. Binding for Senate library and House of Representatives library.
``733. Distribution of Senate and House documents to Members.
``734. Publications stored at Capitol.
``735. Congressional printing and binding appropriations;
authorization.''.
Sec. 701. ``Usual number'' of bills, resolutions,
documents, and reports; distribution of the House
of Representatives and the Senate documents and
reports; reports on private bills; number of copies
printed; distribution
This section indicates when either House of Congress orders
the printing of a bill, resolution, document, or report, the
``usual number'' of copies for binding and distribution among
those entitled to receive them shall be ordered. A greater
number of copies than the ``usual number'' may not be printed
unless ordered by either House, or as provided by this section.
When a special number of a document or report is ordered
printed, the usual number shall also be printed, unless already
ordered.
At the beginning of each Congress, the ``usual number'' is
to be jointly established by the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House
Oversight of the House of Representatives, but in no case shall
the ``usual number'' be less than 1. Furthermore, the ``usual
number'' must be sufficient to provide copies for binding and
distribution as follows:
Copies of the bills, resolutions, documents, and
reports of the House of Representatives, unbound--to
the Senate document room for distribution to each
Senator, committees, and for other purposes; to the
office of the Secretary of the Senate; to the Clerk of
the House of Representatives for distribution to each
Member of the House of Representatives,committees, and
for other purposes; and to fulfill standing orders and such other
requirements authorized by law; and
Copies of the bills, resolutions, documents, and
reports of the Senate, unbound--to the Senate document
room for distribution to each Senator, committees, and
for other purposes; to the office of the Secretary of
the Senate; to the Clerk of the House of
Representatives for distribution to each Member of the
House of Representatives, committees, and for other
purposes; and to fulfill standing orders and such other
requirements authorized by law.
Of the number printed, the Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services is directed to
bind a sufficient number of copies for distributions as
follows:
Bills, resolutions, documents, and reports of the
House of Representatives, bound--to the Senate library;
to the library of the House of Representatives; and to
fulfill standing orders and such other requirements
authorized by law, except those designated Federal
publications access libraries which may prefer to have
documents in unbound form, and have so notified the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs in writing prior to the convening of each
Congress; and
Bills, resolutions, documents, and reports of the
Senate, bound--to the Senate library; to the library of
the House of Representatives; and to fulfill standing
orders and such other requirements authorized by law,
except those designated Federal publications access
libraries entitled to documents that may prefer to have
documents in unbound form, and have so notified the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs in writing prior to the convening of each
Congress.
Of Senate reports on private bills and concurrent or simple
resolutions, a sufficient number of copies are to be printed
for distribution to the Senate document room for distribution
to each Senator, committees, and for other purposes; to the
office of the Secretary of the Senate; to the Clerk of the
House of Representatives for distribution to each Member of the
House of Representatives, committees, and for other purposes;
and to fulfill standing orders and such other requirements
authorized by law.
Of House of Representatives reports on private bills and
concurrent or simple resolutions, a sufficient number of copies
are to be printed for distribution to the Senate document room
for distribution to each Senator, committees, and for other
purposes; to the office of the Secretary of the Senate; to the
Clerk of the House of Representatives for distribution to each
Member of the House of Representatives, committees, and for
other purposes; and to fulfill standing orders and such other
requirements authorized by law.
Until the ``usual number'' is established for a Congress
under this section, the ``usual number'' of publications, as
established in the immediately preceding Congress, shall remain
in effect.
This section does not prevent the binding of all Senate and
House of Representatives reports in the reserve volumes bound
for and delivered to the Senate and House of Representatives
libraries, nor abridge the right of the Vice President,
Senators, Representatives, Resident Commissioner, Delegates,
Secretary of the Senate, and Clerk of the House of
Representatives to have case bound in a durable material, 1
copy of every public document to which he or she may be
entitled. Copies of each report on bills for payment or
adjudication of claims against the Government shall be kept on
file in the Senate document room.
Bills and resolutions are to be produced in bill form and
are to be printed when referred to a committee, when reported
back, when ordered by either House, and when ordered by the
Secretary of the Senate under the direction of the Committee on
Rules and Administration of the Senate or by the Clerk of the
House under the direction of the Committee on House Oversight
of the House of Representatives.
Reports of committees are to be produced by requisition on
the order of the originating committee, and the Superintendent
of Government Publications Production and Procurement Services
is to provide to the committee a voucher for the cost of the
order. Preparation or presentation of the voucher is not to
delay the printing of the usual number of the report.
Sec. 702. Style, form, and manner of publication
This section provides that, at the beginning of each
Congress, the Committee on Rules and Administration of the
Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives are to determine the style, form, and manner of
printing for any publication authorized by simple resolution
under this title for their respective Houses. Similarly, at the
beginning of each Congress, the style, form, and manner of
printing for any publication authorized by joint or concurrent
resolution under this title is to be determined jointly by
these same committees. Finally, at the beginning of each
Congress, the style, form, and manner of printing for the
Congressional Record, all bills, and other congressional
publications, not otherwise provided for in this section, is to
be determined by these same committees, acting jointly.
The section further provides that, until the style, form,
and manner of printing publications is established for a
Congress under this section, the style, form, and manner of
printing publications as established in the immediate previous
Congress shall remain in effect.
Sec. 703. Printing extra copies
Section 703 specifies that orders for printing copies in
addition to the ``usual number'' otherwise provided for by this
section shall be by simple, concurrent, or joint resolution.
However, either House may print no more than 300 extra copies
by simple resolution. If the number exceeds that amount, the
printing is to be ordered by concurrent resolution, unless the
resolution is self-appropriating, when it shall be by joint
resolution. Resolutions, when presented to either House, are to
be referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration of the
Senate orthe Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives, which, in making their report, are to require of the
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and Procurement
Services the estimate of cost. Extra copies may not be printed before
the committee has reported. The Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services shall provide the
committees a voucher for the total cost of the order.
Sec. 704. Reprinting bills, laws, and reports from
committees
Section 704 provides that, when the supply is exhausted,
the Secretary of the Senate, under the direction of the Senate
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, and the
Clerk of the House of Representatives, under the direction of
the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives may order the reprinting of not more than 300
copies of a pending bill, resolution, or public law, or a
report from a committee or congressional commission on pending
legislation not accompanied by testimony or exhibits or other
appendices.
Sec. 705. Duplicate orders to print
Section 705 indicates that, if the Superintendent of
Government Publications Production and Procurement Services
receives duplicate Senate and House of Representatives orders
for printing, the Superintendent of Production Services shall
consult with the Committee on Rules and Administration of the
Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives to determine the appropriate order for
printing.
Sec. 706. Bills and resolutions: style and form
This section provides that, subject to sections 205 and 206
of title I, the Committee on Rules and Administration of the
Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives may authorize the printing of a bill or
resolution, with index and ancillaries, in the style and form
such committees consider most suitable in the interest of
economy and efficiency, and to so continue until final
enactment in both Houses of Congress. The committees may also
curtail the number of copies of bills or resolutions, including
the slip form of a public Act or public resolution, consistent
with section 701.
Sec. 707. Bills and resolutions: binding sets for Congress
Section 707 specifies that three sets of Senate and House
of Representatives bills and joint and concurrent resolutions
of each Congress, 1 for the Senate and 2 for the House of
Representatives, are to be bound by the Superintendent of
Government Publications Production and Procurement Services and
kept by the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House
of Representatives for reference.
Sec. 708. Public and private laws and treaties
Section 708 provides that the Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services is to print in
slip form copies of public laws, private laws, and treaties, to
be paid from funds appropriated for congressional printing and
binding. The Committee on Rules and Administration of the
Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives have control of the number and distribution of
such copies.
Sec. 709. Copies of Acts furnished to the Superintendent of
Government Publications Production and Procurement
Services
This section provides that the Archivist of the United
States must furnish to the Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services a copy of
every Act and joint resolution, as soon as possible after its
approval by the President, or after it has become a law under
the Constitution without his approval.
Sec. 710. Printing Acts, joint resolutions, and treaties
Section 710 directs the Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services, on receiving
from the Archivist of the United States a copy of an Act or
joint resolution, or from the Secretary of State, a copy of a
treaty, to print an accurate copy and transmit it in duplicate
to the Archivist of the United States or to the Secretary of
State, as the case may be, for revision. On the return of 1 of
the revised duplicates, the Superintendent of Production
Services shall make the marked corrections and print the number
specified by section 707.
Sec. 711. Journals of the Houses of Congress
Section 711 authorizes the printing of such copies of the
Journals of the Senate and House of Representatives as
determined by the Committee on Rules and Administration of the
Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives at the beginning of each Congress for
distribution to the Senate document room for distribution to
Senators; the Senate library; the office of the Secretary of
the Senate; the Clerk of the House of Representatives for
distribution to Members and for other purposes; the library of
the House of Representatives; and fulfill standing orders and
such other requirements authorized by law.
Sec. 712. Printing documents for Congress in 2 or more
editions
Section 712 directs the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House
Oversight of the House of Representatives, acting jointly, to
establish rules by which public documents and reports printed
for Congress, or either House, may be printed in 2 or more
editions, to meet public requirements.
Sec. 713. Printing of documents not provided by law
Section 713 provides that either House may order the
printing of a document not already provided for by law, when
accompanied by an estimate from the Superintendent of
Government Publications Production and Procurement Services as
to the probable cost. An agency of the executive or judicial
branch of the Government submitting reports or documents in
response to inquiries from Congress shall include an estimate
of the probable cost of printing the documents in the ``usual
number.''
Sec. 714. Appropriation chargeable for printing of document
or report by order of Congress
This section indicates that the cost of printing of a
document or report printed by order of Congress, which, under
section 1107, cannot be properly charged to another
appropriation or allotment of appropriation already made, upon
order of Congress, is to be charged to the allotment of
appropriation for printing and binding for Congress.
Sec. 715. Lapse of authority to print
Section 715 specifies that the authority to print a
document or report, or a publication authorized by law to be
printed, for distribution by Congress, lapses within 2 years
after the date of the original order, except orders for
subsequent editions, approved by Congress.
Sec. 716. Classification and numbering of publications
ordered printed by Congress; designation of
publications of departments; printing of committee
hearings
This section specifies that publications ordered by
Congress, or either House, regardless of form or format, shall
be in 4 series: (1) reports made by the committees of the
Senate, to be known as Senate reports; (2) reports made by the
committees of the House of Representatives, to be known as
House reports; (3) documents other than reports of committees,
the orders for printing which originate in the Senate, to be
known as Senate documents; and (4) documents other than
committee reports, the orders for printing which originate in
the House of Representatives, to be known as House documents.
The Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives
are jointly responsible for compilation and distribution of the
bound United States congressional serial set, which is to be
numbered consecutively from the first Congress onward and to
include the reports and documents of the Senate and the House
of Representatives. The publications in each series are to be
consecutively numbered, the numbers in each series continuing
in unbroken sequence throughout the entire term of a Congress,
but these provisions do not apply to the documents published
for the use of the Senate in executive session. These serial
sets are to be made available as provided under chapter 19 for
distribution and permanent public access by the Superintendent
of Government Publications Access Programs.
Copies of annual or serial publications originating in or
prepared by an executive department, bureau, office,
commission, or board which are intended for distribution to
designated Federal publications access libraries may not be
numbered in the document or report series of either House of
Congress, but are to be designated by title, bound, and made
available as provided under chapter 19, and the departmental
edition, if any, shall be printed concurrently.
The Superintendent of Government Publications Production
and Procurement Services shall supply the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs with sufficient copies
of publications distributed in unbound form, to be bound and
distributed to the designated Federal publications access
libraries for their permanent files. Every publication of
sufficient size on any 1 subject is to be bound separately and
receive the title suggested by the subject of the volume, and
the others are to be distributed in unbound form as soon as
printed. The library edition, as well as all other bound sets
of congressional numbered documents and reports, shall be
arranged in volumes and bound in the manner directed by the
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives,
acting jointly.
Transcripts of hearings of committees may be printed as
congressional documents only when specifically ordered by
Congress or by either House.
Sec. 717. Senate and House Manuals
Section 717 indicates that each House may order printed as
many copies as that House desires of the Senate Manual and of
the Rules and Manual of the House of Representatives.
Sec. 718. Congressional Directory
Section 718 authorizes the preparation, under the direction
of the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and
the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives, a Congressional Directory, which is to be
printed and distributed as early as practicable during the
first session of each Congress. The two committees, acting
jointly, have control of the content, quantity, and
distribution of the Congressional Directory, and shall
determine the manner in which 1 copy of it is to be bound for
distribution to each Member of the Senate and the House of
Representatives. The Directory also is to be maintained in
electronic format and accessible to the public through the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs on-
line service. This electronic version of the Directory is to be
updated at least quarterly, with the date of revision noted.
Sec. 719. Congressional Directory: sale
This section provides that the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs may offer copies of the current
Congressional Directory for sale at a price sufficient to
reimburse the costs of printing, consistent with section 1708.
Revenue derived from these salesare to be deposited to the
account of the Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs in the Revolving Fund of the Government Publications Office to
offset the cost of the Publications sales program.
Sec. 720. Memorial addresses: preparation; distribution
Section 720 authorizes, after the final adjournment of each
Congress, the compiling and binding in cloth in 1 volume of the
exercises at the general memorial services held in either House
during each session relative to the death of a Member of
Congress or Senator, a former Member of Congress who served as
Speaker, together with all relevant memorial addresses and
eulogies published in the Congressional Record during the same
session of Congress. To such compilation may be added any other
matter the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate
considers relevant to a Senator or any other matter the
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives
considers relevant to a Member of Congress or former Member of
Congress who served as Speaker. The printing and distribution
of such compilations include 50 copies delivered to the family
of the deceased, 100 copies for the successor in office of a
deceased Senator, Representative, Resident Commissioner or
Delegate, and 2 copies each to the libraries of the Senate and
the House of Representatives, respectively.
Sec. 721. Statement of appropriations: ``usual number''
Section 721 specifies that, of the statements of
appropriations required to be prepared under the Act of October
19, 1888 (2 U.S.C. 105), there shall be printed, after the
close of each regular session of Congress, the ``usual
number,'' as provided by section 701.
Sec. 722. Printing for committees of Congress
Section 722 provides that a committee of Congress may not
procure the printing of more than 300 copies of a hearing
transcript, or other document germane thereto, for its use,
except by simple, concurrent, or joint resolution, as provided
by section 702.
Sec. 723. Committee reports: indexing and binding
Section 723 directs the Secretary of the Senate and the
Clerk of the House of Representatives to procure and file, for
the use of their respective Houses, copies of all reports made
by committees, and, at the close of each session of Congress to
have the reports indexed and bound, with 1 copy deposited in
the library of each House and 1 copy deposited with the
committee from which the report emanates.
Sec. 724. United States Statutes at Large: distribution
Section 724 directs the Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services, after the
final adjournment of each regular session of Congress, to print
and bind copies of the United States Statutes at Large. This
undertaking is to be charged to the congressional allotment for
printing and binding. The Committee on Rules and Administration
of the Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House
of Representatives are responsible for controlling the number
and distribution of the copies. Senators and Representatives
will receive a copy of such documents if they make a request in
writing in advance of publication.
Similarly, the Superintendent of Production Services also
is directed by the section to print and, after the end of each
calendar year, bind, and deliver to the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs a number of copies of
the United States Treaties and Other International Agreements
not exceeding the number of copies of the United States
Statutes at Large required for distribution in the manner
provided by chapter 19 of this title.
Sec. 725. United States Statutes at Large: references in
margins
Section 725 specifies that the Archivist of the United
States is to include in the references in margins of the United
States Statutes at Large the number of the bill or joint
resolution under which each Act was approved and became a law.
Designations to be used include S. for Senate bill, H.R. for
House bill, S.J. Res. for Senate joint resolution and H.J. Res.
for House joint resolution, as the case may be. The reference
in the margins is to be placed within brackets immediately
under the date of the approval of the Act at the beginning of
each Act as printed, beginning with volume 32 of the United
States Statutes at Large.
Sec. 726. Distribution of documents to Members of Congress
This section indicates that, unless provided elsewhere in
law, the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate
and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives are to determine the quantity and distribution
of documents to the Members, committees, and offices of their
respective Houses.
Sec. 727. Allotments of public documents printed after
expiration of terms of Members of Congress: rights
of reelected and retiring Members to documents
Section 727 provides that the congressional allotment of
Government publications, other than the Congressional Record,
printed after the expiration of the term of office of the Vice
President of the United States, or Senator, Representative, or
Resident Commissioner, is be delivered to his or her successor
in office, unless such individual takes the documents prior to
the 30th day of June next following the date of expiration.
Reelected and retiring Members may distribute public documents
to their credit, or the credit of their respective districts
during their successive terms, until their rights to frank
documents ends. Unless provided elsewhere in law, the
disposition of Government publications allotted and distributed
to Members during their terms of office shall be governed by
rules established by the Committee on Rules andAdministration
of the Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives for their respective Houses.
Sec. 728. Documents and reports ordered by Members of
Congress: franks and envelopes for Members of
Congress
This section provides that the Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services, on order of a
Member of Congress and prepayment of the cost, may reprint
documents and reports of committees together with the evidence
papers submitted, or any part ordered printed by Congress. The
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives
are to establish for their respective Houses rules governing
the style, content, quantity, printing, distribution, and
method of payment to the Superintendent of Production Services
for franks printed on sheets and perforated, or singly, and
envelopes used for mailing public documents. Franks may also
contain information relating to missing children as provided in
section 3220 of title 39. Moneys accruing under this section
are to be deposited by the Superintendent of Government
Production Services to the Government Publications Office
Revolving Fund as provided in section 502.
Sec. 729. Stationery and blank books for Congress
Section 729 authorizes the Superintendent of Production
Services, upon requisition of the Secretary of the Senate and
the Clerk of the House of Representatives, respectively, to
furnish stationery, blank books, tables, forms, and other
necessary papers preparatory to congressional legislation,
required for the official use of the Senate and the House of
Representatives, or their committees and officers. Rules
governing the method of payment to the Superintendent of
Production Services for such papers are to be established by
the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives
for their respective Houses. Moneys accruing under this section
are to be deposited by the Superintendent of Government
Production Services to the Government Publications Office
Revolving Fund as provided in section 502. This section does
not prevent the purchase by the officers of the Senate and
House of Representatives of stationery and blank books
necessary for sale to Senators and Members in the stationery
rooms of the 2 Houses as provided by law.
Sec. 730. Binding for Members of Congress
This section authorizes the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House
Oversight of the House of Representatives to establish rules
regarding the binding needs of their respective Members.
Sec. 731. Binding at expense of Members of Congress
Section 731 provides that the Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services may bind at
the Government Publications Office books, maps, charts, or
documents published by authority of Congress upon application
of a Member of Congress, and payment of the actual cost of
binding. Moneys accruing under this section are to be deposited
by the Superintendent of Government Production Services to the
Government Publications Office Revolving Fund as provided in
section 502.
Sec. 732. Binding for Senate library and House of
Representatives library
Section 732 indicates that the Secretary of the Senate and
the Clerk of the House of Representatives may make requisition
upon the Superintendent of Government Publications Production
and Procurement Services for the binding of books for the
library of their respective Houses, subject to the approval of
the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives,
respectively.
Sec. 733. Distribution of Senate and House documents to
Members
Section 733 authorizes the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House
Oversight of the House of Representatives, respectively, to
determine appropriate mechanisms for the distribution of
congressional documents to the Members of each House.
Sec. 734. Publications stored at Capitol
This section provides that the Secretary and Sergeant at
Arms of the Senate and the Clerk and Sergeant at Arms of the
House of Representatives, at the convening in regular session
of each successive Congress, are to cause an inventory to be
made of Government publications stored in and about the
Capitol. This inventory shall not include publications in the
allotment of Members of Congress, in the Library of Congress
and the Senate and House libraries and document rooms. The
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives
are to determine the disposition of this inventory, save 4
copies of leather-bound publications, which shall be reserved
and carefully stored, for use in supplying deficiencies in the
Senate and House libraries caused by wear or loss.
Sec. 735. Congressional printing and binding appropriation;
authorization
This section provides that such sums are authorized to be
appropriated as may be necessary.
Sec. 302(b). Feasibility report
This subsection provides that, not later than 2 years after
the effective date of this Act, the General Accounting Office,
on behalf of the Administrator of the Government Publications
Office, is to submit to the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House
Oversight of the House of Representatives a report on the
feasibility of legislative branch agencies procuring printing
and publications services directly from nongovernmental sources
under a delegation of authority from the Administrator of the
Government Publications Office, if such agencies certify to the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs and
the Superintendent of Government Publications Production and
Procurement Services full compliance with the requirements of
chapters 5 and 19 of title 44, United States Code. This report
is to include an analysis of the impact on the procedures and
precedents of each House of Congress and on the integrity of
congressional publications of allowing legislative branch
agencies to procure directly from nongovernmental sources; a
study of the impact on the ability of the Government
Publications Office to continue to function as a central
procurement agency for the Federal executive, legislative, and
judicial branches, exclusive of the Supreme Court; and
recommendations for the assurance of information security,
convenience, quality, economy, and efficiency in the
procurement of printing services for all legislative branch
agencies.
Sec. 302(c). Serial set feasibility study
This subsection provides that, not later than 24 months
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Superintendent
of Government Publications Access Programs, in consultation
with the Federal Publications Access Library Council and
others, is to prepare and submit to the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House
Oversight of the House of Representatives a report with
recommendations on the feasibility of producing, disseminating,
and maintaining permanent public access to the serial sets
described under section 716 as publications created for or
transmitted through an electronic communications system or
network.
Sec. 302(d). Technical and conforming amendments
This subsection specifies that the table of chapters for
title 44, United States Code, is amended by striking the item
relating to chapter 7 and inserting the following:
``7. Production of Publications and Procurement of Publications
Services by Congress and Legislative Agencies.......701''.
sec. 303. congressional record
This section provides that chapter 9 of title 44, United
States Code, is amended to read as follows:
``CHAPTER 9--CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
``Sec.
``901. Congressional Record: arrangement, style, contents, and indexes.
``902. Congressional Record: indexes.
``903. Congressional Record: daily and permanent forms.
``904. Congressional Record: maps; diagrams; illustrations.
``905. Congressional Record: additional insertions.
``906. Congressional Record: gratuitous copies; delivery.
``907. Congressional Record: extracts for Members of Congress; mailing
envelopes.
``908. Congressional Record: payment for printing extracts or other
documents.
``909. Congressional Record: subscriptions; sale of current, individual
numbers, and bound sets; postage rate.
Sec. 901. Congressional Record: arrangement, style,
contents, and indexes
This section authorizes the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House
Oversight of the House of Representatives, acting jointly, to
control the arrangement and style of the Congressional Record,
and while providing that it shall be substantially a verbatim
report of proceedings, to take all needed action for the
reduction of its size. Authorization is also provided for an
index of the Congressional Record to be published semimonthly
during and at the close of sessions of Congress.
Sec. 902. Congressional Record: indexes
Section 902 provides that the Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services is to prepare
the semimonthly and the session index to the Congressional
Record. The Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate
and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives, acting jointly, are to direct the form and
manner of its publication and distribution. Those persons
employed in the Congressional Record Index Office on the
effective date of this Act are made employees of the Government
Publications Office subject to the provisions of this title
governing selection, appointments, employment in the Government
Publications Office, and any regulations thereunder.
Sec. 903. Congressional Record: daily and permanent forms
This section specifies that the public proceedings of each
House of Congress, as reported by the Official Reporters, are
to be published in the Congressional Record, which is to be
issued daily during each session and to be revised, printed,
and bound in permanent form subject to section 714 of this
title. The daily and the permanent Record are to bear the same
date, which shall be that of the actual day's proceedings
reported. The ``usual number'' of the Congressional Record may
not be printed.
Sec. 904. Congressional Record: maps; diagrams;
illustrations
Section 904 provides that maps, diagrams, or illustrations
may not be inserted in the Congressional Record without the
approval of the Committee on Rules and Administration of the
Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives, acting for their respective Houses.
Sec. 905. Congressional Record: additional insertions
Section 905 provides that the Secretary of the Senate,
acting under the direction of the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate, and the Clerk of the House of
Representatives, acting under the direction of the Committee on
House Oversight of the House of Representatives, are to cause
to be published in the daily Record the legislative program for
the day, together with a list of congressional committee
meetings and hearings and the place of meeting and subject
matter. Such committees are to cause a brief resume of
congressional activities for the previous day to be
incorporated in the Record, together with an index of its
contents, prepared under the supervision of the Secretary of
the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives,
respectively.
Sec. 906. Congressional Record: gratuitous copies; delivery
Section 906 indicates that, at the direction of the
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives,
jointly, the Superintendent of Production Services is to
furnish the bound edition of the Congressional Record as
follows: not more than 1 copy to the Vice President; not more
than 1 copy to those Senators and Members of Congress who so
request in writing, prior to its publication; not more than 1
copy each to the Secretary and the Sergeant at Arms of the
Senate, if so requested in writing, prior to its publication;
not more than 1 copy each to the Clerk of the House of
Representatives and the House Sergeant at Arms; not more than 2
copies each to the libraries of the Senate and House of
Representatives, respectively; a number, to be determined and
held by the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate
and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives, acting jointly, for the use by each House,
respectively; to fulfill standing orders and such other
requirements authorized by law; the Federal Publications Access
Libraries, in such numbers as the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs shall determine; and not more than
1 copy each to the Congressional Research Service and the Law
Library of the Library of Congress.
At the direction of the same two committees, the
Superintendent of Production Services is to furnish the daily
edition of the Record in such numbers as is to be determined at
the beginning of each Congress by the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House
Oversight of the House of Representatives, acting jointly, as
follows: to the Vice President; to the Senate document room for
distribution to each Senator, committees, and for other
purposes; to the offices of the Secretary of the Senate and
Senate Sergeant at Arms; to the Clerk of the House of
Representatives for distribution to each Member of the House of
Representatives, committees, and for other purposes and to the
House Sergeant at Arms; and to fulfill standing orders and such
other requirements authorized by law. In addition, 2 copies of
the daily edition of the Record is to be furnished to the Vice
President and each Senator and Representative in Congress, on a
nontransferable basis, of which 1 is to be delivered at his or
her office, and 1 at the Capitol. The Federal Publications
Access Libraries are authorized to receive the daily edition of
the Record in such numbers as the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs determines.
In addition to the foregoing, the Congressional Record and
the semimonthly index are also to be furnished in such numbers
as the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and
the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives, acting jointly, determine at the beginning of
each Congress, but in no case shall the usual number be less
than 1. Furthermore, the usual number shall be sufficient to
provide copies for distribution to the President; committees
and commissions of Congress; the Chief Justice and Associate
Justices of the Supreme Court; the Marshal and Clerk of the
Supreme Court; the United States circuit and district courts
and their respective libraries; the Tax Court of the United
States and its library; the Court of Veterans Appeals and its
library; the Office of the Congressional Record Index; the
Chaplain of the Senate; the Postmaster of the Senate; the
Secretaries to the Majority and Minority of the Senate; the
Office of the Parliamentarian of the Senate; the Office of the
Parliamentarian of the House of Representatives; the offices of
the Official Reporters of Debate of the Senate; the offices of
the Official Reporters of Debate of the House of
Representatives; the office of the stenographers to committees
of the House of Representatives; the offices of the
superintendents of the Senate and the House of Representatives
Press Galleries; the offices of the Legislative Counsel of the
Senate and the House of Representatives; the Architect of the
Capitol; the libraries of the Senate and the House of
Representatives; the library of the Supreme Court; the library
of the United States Court of Federal Claims; the library of
the United States Court of International Trade; the
Superintendent of Government Publications and Procurement
Services, for official use; the Botanic Garden; the Archivist
of the United States; the library of each Executive department
and independent establishment of the Government of the District
of Columbia, except those designated as Federal publications
access libraries, and the libraries of the municipal government
of the District of Columbia; the Smithsonian Institution; the
Naval Observatory; the Governors of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the
Virgin Islands; former Presidents and former Vice Presidents of
the United States; to each former Senator and Representative
andResident Commissioner, upon written request; to the
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Committee
on House Oversight of the House of Representatives; the Governor of
each State; each of the separate establishments of the Armed Services
Retirement Homes, the National Homes for Disabled Veterans, and the
State Soldiers Homes; the Federal Publications Access Libraries, in
such numbers as the Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs shall determine; the Department of State for United States
Embassies and Consular offices; foreign legations in Washington,
District of Columbia, whose governments extend a like courtesy to
embassies and legations of the United States abroad; each accredited
newspaper correspondent whose name appears in the Congressional
Directory; the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces the Library of
Congress; and the United States Customs Court and its library.
Copies of the daily edition, unless otherwise directed by
the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives,
jointly, are to be supplied and delivered promptly on the day
after the actual day's proceedings as originally published.
Each order for the daily Record is to begin with the current
issue, if previous issues of the same session are not
available. The apportionment specified by the committees
jointly for daily copies may not be transferred for the bound
form and an allotment of daily copies not used by a Member
during a session shall lapse when the session ends.
Sec. 907. Congressional Record: extracts for Members of
Congress; mailing envelopes
Section 907 provides that the Superintendent Production
Services may print and deliver, upon the order of a Member of
Congress and payment of the cost, extracts from the
Congressional Record. Provision of envelopes for the mailing of
such extracts is governed by sections 727 and 728.
Sec. 908. Congressional Record: payment for printing
extracts or other documents
Section 908 specifies that, if a Member or Resident
Commissioner fails to pay the cost of printing extracts from
the Congressional Record or other Government publications
ordered by him to be printed, the Administrator shall certify
the amount due to the Financial Clerk of the Senate or the
Chief Accounting Officer of the House of Representatives, as
the case may be, who shall deduct from the Member's office
account the delinquent amount, and pay the amount so obtained
to the Administrator, to be applied by the Administrator to the
satisfaction of the indebtedness.
Sec. 909. Congressional Record: subscriptions; sale of
current, individual numbers, and bound sets;
postage rate
This section authorizes the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs to sell subscriptions to the
Congressional Record and current, individual numbers, and bound
sets of the Record. The price of the subscription is determined
by the Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs and shall be sufficient to cover the cost of
publishing and distributing the Congressional Record in
accordance with section 1708. Such price must be paid in
advance and the receipts from any such sale are to be deposited
into the account of the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs within the Revolving Fund of the
Government Publications Office. The Congressional Record is
entitled to be mailed at the same rates of postage at which any
newspaper or other periodical publication, with a legitimate
list of paid subscribers, is entitled to be mailed.
SEC. 304. PRODUCTION OF PUBLICATIONS AND PROCUREMENT OF PUBLICATIONS
SERVICES; LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT
This section amends section 1108 of title 44, United States
Code, by striking ``subject to regulations by the Joint
Committee on Printing.'' It also amends section 1110 of title
44, United States Code, by striking the last sentence and
inserting the following: ``Publications ordered under this
section shall be paid in advance and the receipts from any such
sale shall be deposited into the account of the Superintendent
of Government Publications Access Programs within the Revolving
Fund of the Government Publications Office.''
This section repeals section 1112 of title 44, United
States Code and amends the table of sections for chapter 11 of
title 44, United States Code, by striking the item relating to
section 1112.
Section 1114 of title 44, United States Code, is amended by
this section to read as follows:
Sec. 1114. Annual reports: number of copies for Congress
At the beginning of each Congress, the Committee on Rules
and Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House
Oversight of the House of Representatives, respectively, shall
establish the number of annual reports of the departments to
Congress to be printed for the use of each House.
This section amends section 1121 of title 44, United States
Code, by striking ``under direction of the Joint Committee on
Printing,'' by striking ``sections 509-516 of this title'' and
inserting ``section 507,'' and by striking ``the District of
Columbia'' and inserting ``the national capital region'', as
defined by 40 U.S.C. 71.
Finally, chapter 11 of title 44, United States Code, is
amended by this section by striking ``Public Printer'' each
place it appears and inserting ``Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services,'' and, in
section 1108, by striking ``Superintendent of Documents'' and
inserting ``Superintendent of Government Publications
Production and Procurement Services.''
SEC. 305. PARTICULAR GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS
This section repeals chapter 13 of title 44, United States
Code, except for section 1307, and amends the table of chapters
for title 44 by striking the item relating to chapter 13. This
section becomes effective 120 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
SEC. 306. COSTS OF PRODUCING REGULATORY PUBLICATIONS
This section amends section 1509 of title 44, United States
Code, to read as follows:
Sec. 1509. Cost of publication, etc.
(a) The cost of printing, reprinting, wrapping, binding,
and distributing the Federal Register and the Code of Federal
Regulations, and, except as provided in subsection (b), other
expenses incurred by the Government Publications Office in
carrying out the duties placed upon it by this chapter shall be
charged to the Revolving Fund provided in section 306.
Reimbursements for such costs and expenses shall be made by the
Federal agencies and credited, together with all receipts, as
provided in section 306.
(b) The cost of producing, reproducing, and distributing
all other publications of the Federal Register program, and
other expenses incurred in connection with such publications,
shall be paid by the Archivist of the United States from
appropriations authorized by Congress for purposes of this
section.
SEC. 307. PUBLICATIONS OF THE SUPREME COURT
This section amends section 411 of title 28, United States
Code, to read as follows:
Sec. 411. Supreme Court reports; printing, binding, and distribution
(a) The decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States
shall be published and distributed in a manner and format
determined by the Supreme Court as soon as practicable after
rendition, and charged to the proper appropriation for the
judiciary.
(b) The Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs shall procure such copies of the publications of the
Supreme Court in accordance with chapters 17 and 19 of title 44
and the Government Publications Reform Act of 1998.
Section 412 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by
this section by striking ``Public Printer'' and inserting
``Superintendent of Government Publications Production and
Procurement Services,'' and by striking ``Superintendent of
Documents'' and inserting ``Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs.''
Section 676(b) of title 28, United States Code, is also
amended by striking ``Public Printer and the Superintendent of
Public Documents'' and inserting ``Administrator of the
Government Publications Office and the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs.''
SEC. 308. REPEAL OF PROVISIONS EXEMPTING STATUTORY PUBLICATIONS
PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTION PROCUREMENT REQUIREMENTS
This section amends section 3(a)(6) of the Presidential
Transition Act of 1963 (3 U.S.C. 102 note) to read as follows:
``(6) Payment of expenses for necessary printing and binding.''
Other amendments effected include section 4 of the Act of
August 31, 1922 (7 U.S.C. 285) by striking ``without regard to
section 501 of title 44, United States Code;'' section 101(f)
of the Department of Agriculture Organic Act of 1944 (7 U.S.C.
431) by striking ``without regard to existing laws applicable
to public printing;'' section 3(h) of the International Wheat
Agreement Act of 1949 (7 U.S.C. 1642(h)) by striking ``for
printing and binding'' and inserting ``for printing and
binding, subject to the provisions of title 44, United States
Code;'' section 2(a)(1) of the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945
(12 U.S.C. 635(a)(1)) by striking ``without regard to the
provisions of section 501 of title 44, United States Code,
whenever the Bank determines that publication in accordance
with the provisions of such section would not be practicable;''
and section 1 of the National Housing Act (12 U.S.C. 1702) in
the third sentence by striking ``, printing, and binding.'' The
Act entitled ``An Act to extend the time for purchase and
distribution of surplus agricultural commodities for relief
purposes and to continue the Federal Surplus Commodities
Corporation,'' approved June 28, 1937 (15 U.S.C. 713c) is
amended in the first proviso by striking ``, including rent,
printing and binding,'' and inserting ``(except printing and
binding) including rent.''
Other amended provisions include section 201(e)(1) of the
Export Administration Amendments Act of 1985 (15 U.S.C.
4051(e)(1)) by striking ``Notwithstanding the provisions of
section 501 of title 44, United States Code, and consistent''
and inserting ``Consistent;'' section 12 of the Tuna
Conventions Act of 1950 (16 U.S.C. 961) by striking clause (c)
and redesignating clauses (d) and (e) as clauses (c) and (d),
respectively; section 2(b)(2) of the Act entitled ``An Act to
authorize the construction of a National Fisheries Center and
Aquarium in the District of Columbia and to provide for its
operation,'' approved October 9, 1992 (16 U.S.C. 1052(b)(2)) by
striking ``all or any of which may be reproduced by any
printing or other process without regard to existing
regulations;'' section 5(c) of the National Foundation on the
Arts and Humanities Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 954(c)) by striking
the first sentence following clause (10); section 7(c) of the
National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965 (20
U.S.C. 956(c)) by striking the first sentence following clause
(10); section 2 of the Act entitled ``An Act to authorize the
Secretary of Agriculture to cooperate with the Government of
Mexico in the control and eradication of foot-in-mouth disease
and rinderpest,'' approved February 28, 1947 (21 U.S.C.114c) by
striking ``without regard to section 87 of the Act of January 12, 1895,
or section 11 of the Act of March 1, 1919 (U.S.C. title 44, sec.
111);'' section 2(b)(1) of the joint resolution entitled ``Joint
Resolution providing for acceptance by the United States of America of
the Constitution of the International Labor Organization Instrument of
Amendment, and further authorizing an appropriation for payment of the
United States share of the expenses of membership and for expenses of
participation by the United States,'' approved June 30, 1948 (22 U.S.C.
272a(b)(1)) by striking ``printing and binding without regard to
section 11 of the Act of March 1, 1919 (44 U.S.C. 111), and section
3709 of the Revised Statutes, as amended;'' section 2(b) of the joint
resolution entitled ``Joint Resolution providing for membership and
participation in the Caribbean Commission and authorizing an
appropriation therefor,'' approved March 4, 1948 (22 U.S.C. 280i(d)) by
striking ``printing and binding without regard to section 11 of the Act
of March 1, 1919 (44 U.S.C. 111), and section 3709 of the Revised
Statutes, as amended;'' section 2(b) of the joint resolution entitled
``Joint Resolution providing for participation by the Government of the
United States in the Pan American Railway Congress, and authorizing an
appropriation therefor,'' approved June 28, 1948 (22 U.S.C. 280k(b)) by
striking ``without regard to section 501 of title 44, United States
Code, and section 3709 of the Revised Statutes (41 U.S.C. 5);'' section
8 of the United Nations Participation Act of 1945 (22 U.S.C. 287e) by
striking ``without regard to section 11 of the Act of March 1, 1949 (44
U.S.C. 111);'' section 6(k) of the joint resolution entitled ``Joint
Resolution providing for membership and participation by the United
States in the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization, and authorizing an appropriation therefor,'' approved
July 30, 1946 (22 U.S.C. 287r(k)) by striking ``without regard to
section 11 of the Act of March 1, 1919 (U.S.C., title 44, sec. 111),
and section 3709 of the Revised Statutes (U.S.C. title 41, sec. 5);''
and section 3(b)(1) of the joint resolution entitled ``Joint Resolution
providing for membership and participation by the United States in the
World Health Organization and authorizing an appropriation therefor,''
approved June 14, 1948 (22 U.S.C. 290b(b)(1)) by striking ``without
regard to section 11 of the Act of March 1, 1919 (44 U.S.C. 111), and
section 3709 of the Revised Statutes, as amended.''
Finally, other amended provisions include section 401(w) of
the Foreign Assistance Act of 1969 (22 U.S.C. 290f(w)) by
striking ``without regard to section 501 of title 44, United
States Code;'' section 801(4) of the United States Information
and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (22 U.S.C. 1471(4)) by
striking ``, without regard to section 501 of title 44, United
States Code;'' section 5 of the International Atomic Energy
Agency Participation Act of 1957 (22 U.S.C. 2024) by striking
``without regard to section 11 of the Act of March 1, 1919 (44
U.S.C. 111);'' section 636(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of
1961 (22 U.S.C. 2396(b)) by striking ``without regard to
provisions of any other law;'' section 15(a) of the Peace Corps
Act (22 U.S.C. 2514(a)) by striking ``without regard to
provisions of any other law;'' section 48 of the Arms Control
and Disarmament Act (22 U.S.C. 2588) by striking ``without
regard to the provisions of section 11 of the Act of March 1,
1919 (44 U.S.C. 111);'' section 5(a)(1) of the Migration and
Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 (22 U.S.C. 2605(a)(1)) by
striking ``without regard to provisions of any other law;''
section 2(a) of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of
1956 (22 U.S.C. 2669(a)) by striking ``without regard to
section 11 of the Act of March 1, 1919 (44 U.S.C. 111);''
section 23 of the Act of June 25, 1910 (25 U.S.C. 47; 33 Stat.
861) by striking ``(including, but not limited to printing,
notwithstanding any other law)'' and inserting ``(including
printing);'' section 204(d)(3) of the Marine Resources and
Engineering Development Act of 1966 (33 U.S.C. 1123(d)(3)) by
striking ``, without regard to section 501 of title 44, United
States Code;'' section 405(c)(4) of the Public Health Service
Act (42 U.S.C. 284(c)(4)) by striking ``without regard to
section 501 of title 44, United States Code;'' section 11(g) of
the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 (42 U.S.C. 1870(g))
``, without regard to the provisions of section 87 of the Act
of January 12, 1895 (28 Stat. 622), and section 11 for the Act
of March 1, 1919 (40 Stat. 1270; 44 U.S.C., sec. 111);''
section 9(k) of the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Act (42
U.S.C. 3121 note; Public Law 100-460; 102 Stat. 2246) by
striking ``, notwithstanding any other provision of law;'' and
section 11(c) of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (45
U.S.C. 361(c)) by striking ``printing and binding.''
This section takes effect 120 days after the date of
enactment of this Act.
SEC. 309. ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS RELATING TO
CONGRESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS
This section amends section 107 of title 1, United States
Code, to read as follows:
Sec. 107. Printing of enrolled bills and resolutions
Enrolled bills and resolutions of either House of Congress
shall be printed in accordance with rules established by the
respective Houses of Congress.
The table of sections for chapter 2 of title 1, United
States Code, is amended by this section by striking the item
relating to section 107 and inserting the following: ``107.
Printing of enrolled bills and resolutions.'' Sections 211,
212, and 213 of title 1, United States Code, are repealed. The
table of sections for chapter 2 of title 1, United States Code,
is amended by striking the items relating to sections 211, 212,
and 213.
The section repeals the joint resolution entitled ``A joint
resolution to provide for the printing and distribution of the
Precedents of the House of Representatives compiled and
prepared by Lewis Deschler,'' approved October 18, 1976 (2
U.S.C. 28b, 28c, 28d, and 28e).
The first section of the joint resolution of December 24,
1970 (2 U.S.C. 168; Public Law 91-589; 84 Stat. 1586) is
amended to read as follows: ``That (a) The Director of the
Congressional Research Service shall have prepared every 10
years, a hardbound revised edition of the Constitution of the
United States of America--Analysis and Interpretation
(hereafter referred to as the ``Constitution Annotated'');
every 2 years in the interim period between decennial editions,
cumulative supplements to the most recent hardbound decennial
revised edition of the Constitution Annotated, which is to
contain cumulative analysis of decisions rendered by the
Supreme Court after the period covered by the last hardbound
decennial revised edition; and an electronic version of the
Constitution Annotated, to be updated regularly. Theedition of
the Constitution Annotated first prepared after the effective date of
this Act is to contain analysis and interpretation of decisions
rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States through the end of
its October 2001 term, construing provisions of the Constitution.
Subsequent decennial revised editions will then revise and update
analysis to cover constitutional law developments during the then-most-
recent 10 terms of the Supreme Court.
Section 145 of title 4, United States Code, is repealed by
this section; section 146 of title 4, United States Code, is
amended in the section heading by striking ``Sec. 146.'' and
inserting ``145;'' and the table of sections for chapter 5 of
title 4, United States Code, is amended by striking the items
relating to sections 145 and 146 and inserting the following:
``145. Authorization of appropriations.''
Title IV--Office of Government Publications Access Programs
SEC. 401. SHORT TITLE
This section specifies that this title may be cited as the
``Federal Publications Dissemination Act of 1998.''
Sec. 402(a). Federal Publications Access Programs
This subsection amends chapter 19 of title 44, United
States Code, to read as follows:
``CHAPTER 19--FEDERAL PUBLICATIONS ACCESS PROGRAMS
``Sec.
``1901. Purpose.
``1902. Definition.
``1903. Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs.
``1904. Access to Government publications through the Superintendent of
Government Publications; Superintendent responsibilities and
authorities.
``1905. Access to Government publications through the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs: agency
responsibilities and authorities.
``1906. Access to Government publications through the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs: compliance and
enforcement: executive branch.
``1906a. Access to Government publications through the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs: compliance and
enforcement: legislative branch.
``1906b. Access to Government publications through the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs: compliance and
enforcement: judicial branch.
``1907. Permanent Public Access to Government publications.
``1908. Designation of Federal publications access libraries.
``1909. Regional Federal publications access libraries.
``1910. Federal publications access libraries: responsibilities.
``1911. Federal publications access libraries council''.
Sec. 1901. Purpose
Section 1901 specifies that the purposes of this chapter
are to broaden, strengthen, and enhance public access to all
Government publications regardless of form or format through
Federal Publications Access Programs, and provide permanent
public access to and ensure the authenticity of Government
publications regardless of form or format.
Sec. 1902. Definition
Section 1902 defines certain terms used in this title.
1. The term ``agency'' means an executive department,
government corporation, government-controlled corporation, or
other establishment in the executive branch of the Government,
including the Executive Office of the President and any
independent regulatory agency, and also embraces an
establishment or component of the legislative branch, as
determined by the rules of the Senate and the House of
Representatives, respectively, or judicial branch of the
Government.
2. The term ``Federal publications access library'' means a
library designated under section 1908 to participate in the
Federal Publications Access Programs.
3. The term ``Government publication'', for purposes of
chapters 17 and 19, title 44, United States Code, as amended by
this Act, means any information product or other discrete set
of Government information, regardless of form or format, that
is created or compiled (1) by the Government, or (2) at
Government expense, in whole or in part, or (3) as required by
law, and an agency discloses, disseminates, or makes available
to the public. The term does not include information that (1)
is required for official use only, (2) is for strictly internal
administrative or operational purposes having no public
interest or educational value, (3) is classified for reasons of
national security, or, in the case of any agency within the
Judicial Branch, orders, notices, or documents filed by
litigants.
Sec. 1903. Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs
Section 1903 authorizes the President to appoint, with the
advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of 5 years, the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs,who
may also be referred to as the ``Superintendent of Access Programs.''
This officer is to be appointed without regard to political
affiliation, and solely on the basis of professional qualifications to
perform the duties and responsibilities of the office. An individual
may be appointed to more than 1 term as Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs. Serving under the direction of the
Administrator, the Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs is responsible for taking charge of and managing the Federal
Publications Access Program, including, but not limited to, the Federal
publications access library program as provided in chapter 19, the
Federal publications sales program as provided in chapter 17, and GPO
ACCESS, as provided in chapter 41.
In consultation with the Administrator of the Government
Publications Office, the Office of Management and Budget, the
Administrative Office of the United States Courts, the
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives,
the Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs
is authorized to issue regulations, consistent with this title,
that the Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs considers necessary to carry out the duties and powers
of his or her office to enhance the dissemination of Government
publications and to expand and improve the maintenance of
permanent public access to Government publications. All such
regulations are to be promulgated in accordance with the
requirements of section 553 and section 556 of title 5, United
States Code, and the requirements of chapter 7, title 5, United
States Code. All such regulations shall be promulgated in
accordance with chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, and,
notwithstanding section 804(2), all such regulations are to be
treated as a ``major rule.''
The annual rate of pay for the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs is set at a rate equal to the rate
payable for a position at level IV of the Executive Schedule
under section 5314 of title 5, United States Code.
The Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs is authorized to appoint a Deputy Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs, who shall perform all
the duties and responsibilities assigned by the Superintendent
of Government Publications Access Programs and the duties and
responsibilities of the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs in the event of a vacancy in the
office of the Superintendent or the incapacity of the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs. The
Deputy Superintendent, in the event of such vacancy, serves as
Superintendent until a successor to the position is appointed
and qualified, but for no longer than 1 year after a vacancy
occurs. The Deputy Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs is to be paid at an annual rate of pay equal to
the rate payable for a position on the Senior Executive Service
Schedule under section 5316 of title 5.
Within the Revolving Fund of the Government Publications
Office under section 306, an account, or accounts, under the
authority of the Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs is authorized to be available without fiscal
year limitation for the operation of the Federal Publications
Access Programs, including rental of buildings; attendance at
meetings; employee training; purchase, maintenance, and
operation of required equipment, supplies, and contracts; and
salaries and expenses of program employees. The fund is to be
reimbursed and the account, or accounts, of the Superintendent
of Government Publications Access Programs are to be credited
for the cost of all services and supplies furnished, including
those furnished by other appropriations of the Federal
Publications Access Programs, and with all receipts, including
sales of Government publications, waste, condemned and surplus
property, with payments received for losses or damage to
property, and with funds retrieved from agencies for the
procurement of or access to publications not compliant with
this title. An adequate system of accounts for the fund is to
be maintained on the accrual method, and financial reports
prepared on the basis of accepted accounting standards in
accordance with section 306.
The Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs is to prepare and submit to the Administrator an
annual business-type budget for the accounts under his
authority within the fund. This budget program is to be as
prescribed by section 9104 of title 31. There are authorized to
be appropriated such sums as are necessary for the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs for
the salaries and expenses of the Federal Publications Access
Programs, exclusive of the Government publications sales
program under chapter 17.
Sec. 1904. Access to Government publications through the
Superintendent of Government Publications;
Superintendent's responsibilities and authorities
This section authorizes the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs to use whatever measures are
necessary to ensure the timely dissemination of Government
publications to the public and to expand and improve the
maintenance of permanent public access to Government
publications. Notwithstanding any other provision of law,
Government publications of the executive, legislative, and
judicial branches must be made available at no charge to
Federal publications access libraries. The Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs is to certify, on every
contract for the production or procurement of any Government
publications entered into by an agency, the number of
additional copies required for the Federal publications access
programs, or the terms and conditions, if any, for accessing
Government publications required for the Federal publications
access programs. For on-line, fee-based services, the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs is to
negotiate terms and conditions for access by the Federal
publications access programs, based upon the incremental cost
of providing access to the Federal publications access
libraries. The Superintendent is authorized to procure such
access to ensure that the information needs of the user
community are met at no charge to the Federal publications
access libraries.
Other responsibilities of the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs specified in the section include
providing selection, cataloging, classification, locator, and
indexing services for all Government publications from the
executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Such services
may be provided by the Superintendent through cooperative
agreements with Government agencies or Federal publications
access libraries.
The Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs is also responsible for creating, maintaining, and
making available a comprehensive and timely catalog of
Government publications, regardless of form or format, that is
accessible to the Federal publications access libraries and to
the public, and for creating, maintaining, and making available
a locator, in accordance with chapter 41, of all Government
publications. This locator service must identify, describe, and
link users to Government publications available through
Government electronic communications systems or accessible
through public telecommunications networks. The Superintendent
is directed to consult with the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget, the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House
Oversight of the House of Representatives, the Administrative
Office of the United States Courts, and other agencies and
offices to coordinate implementation of the requirements of
section 3511, with locator services required under this
section.
Other duties of the Superintendent include creating,
maintaining, and making available a current, categorized list
of Government publications, including annotations of contents
and item identification numbers, to facilitate the selection
of, or access to those publications required by Federal
publications access libraries. The Superintendent must prepare
and produce a consolidated index of congressional documents,
and shall index single volumes of documents as the Committee on
Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Committee on
House Oversight of the House of Representatives direct.
The section authorizes the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs to adopt such regulations, in
accordance with section 1903(c), as are necessary to implement
the requirements of this chapter. Such regulations are to
include procedures for implementing this section and sections
1905, 1906, 1907, and 1911 to require the availability of
Government publications, regardless of form or format, to the
public through the Federal publications access programs. Such
regulations are to reflect the needs of the user community and
provide access to Government publications at no charge to the
Federal publications access libraries. Government publications
made available by the Superintendent may be chosen or accessed
by Federal publications access libraries according to
regulations and guidelines issued by the Superintendent for
such purposes. The Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs is to coordinate with the Committee on Rules
and Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House
Oversight of the House of Representatives, the Office of
Management and Budget, and the Administrative Office of the
United States Courts for the development and establishment of
uniform policies and procedures relating to the dissemination
of Government publications, including policies and procedures
for ensuring authenticity, and of guidelines to facilitate
permanent public access to and use of Government publications.
The procedures, guidelines, and regulations developed by
the Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs
under this section must be consistent with sections 1903(c) and
1907(f).
Finally, this section provides that the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs, after informing the
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives,
is to promulgate, through notice and comment, appropriate
regulations governing the qualifications, process for
selection, periodic inspection, collection maintenance,
termination, and total number of Federal publications access
libraries in accordance with sections 1903(c) and 1908.
Sec. 1905. Access to Government publications through the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs: agency responsibilities and authorities
This section provides that, notwithstanding any other
provision of law, each agency head of the executive branch, the
Administrative Office of the Courts, on behalf of the judicial
branch, and the Committee on Rules and Administration of the
Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives, respectively, for each House of Congress, are
authorized to take such action as is necessary to ensure that
all Government publications produced or procured for production
by the agency are made available to the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs, as required by this
chapter, for dissemination to the public through the Federal
publications access program, at no charge to Federal
publications access libraries.
Each agency head must immediately notify the Superintendent
of Government Publications Access Programs of the intent of the
agency to produce or procure, substantially modify, or
terminate the production of a Government publication,
regardless of form or format, so that the Superintendent may
have access to Government publications created for or
transmitted through electronic communications systems or
networks, or to order Government publications at the
incremental rate for the Federal publications access program.
Notification under this section is intended to be required in
addition to the requirements of section 3506 of title 44,
United States Code.
Agencies intending to eliminate printed copies of
Government publications and provide only electronic access to
those publications must notify the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs at least 60 days in advance.
Any contract for the production or procurement of any
Government publication, regardless of form or format, entered
into by an agency must contain a provision that certifies that
the head of the agency, in the executive branch, or the
Director of the Administrative Office of the United States
Courts, in the judicial branch, has given proper notification,
as prescribed in this section, to the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs before the awarding of
the contract. This contract must also include the number of
additional copies required by the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs for the Federal publications
access program or any terms and conditions for accessing
Government publications required by the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs for the Federal
publications access program. Such certification must require
that the procuring official ensures, before production, that
each contract for the procurement of Government publications
contains verification of the notice to the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs required by this title.
Agencies, upon request of the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs, agencies must promptly provide
copies of, or access to, electronic files of any Government
publication to which this section applies for purposes of
producing appropriate format material for the Superintendent
and providing permanent public access, in accordance with
section 1907, to Government publications created for or
transmitted through an electronic communications system or
network under this section.
Each agency must assure and provide permanent public access
to Government publications created for or transmitted through
an electronic communications system or network until a system
for permanent public access to Government publications created
for or transmitted through an electronic communications system
or network is established by the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs, in accordance with section 1907.
Each agency also must provide the Superintendent with a copy
of, or access to, any Government publication, created on or
after the date of enactment of this Act, regardless of form or
format, to enable the Superintendent to perform mandated
cataloging, locator, and indexing services, as provided by this
section.
Finally, when an agency makes a publication available only
as a Government database accessible on an electronic
communications system or network, the agency must immediately
furnish information about and access to that publication to the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs for
purposes of providing locator services.
Sec. 1906. Access to Government publications through the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs: compliance and enforcement: executive
branch
Section 1906 specifies that all Government publications,
regardless of form or format, of the executive branch, as
provided by this title, must be made available at no charge to
the Federal publications access libraries. The Superintendent
of Government Publications Access Programs is authorized to use
any measures the Superintendent considers necessary for the
economical and practical implementation of this chapter to
ensure the timely dissemination of Government publications to
the public and to expand and improve the maintenance of
permanent public access to Government publications, as provided
by this chapter.
Upon a determination by the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs that an agency has not complied
with the requirements of this chapter, the Superintendent is to
notify the Administrator.
If the Superintendent determines that a Government
publication of an agency has not been made available to the
Federal publications access libraries as provided by this
chapter, the Superintendent is authorized to use whatever
measures are necessary to bring the agency into compliance and
secure access to the Government publication, and certify to the
Administrator the costs associated with securing such access.
Upon the issuance of a final determination by the
Superintendent that an agency has not complied with the
provisions of this chapter, the Administrator is to certify to
the agency and the Department of the Treasury the costs
determined in accordance with subsection (a)(2) and is to
prepare a voucher for reimbursement of the certified costs.
The Department of the Treasury is directed to cause to be
established a designated budget account for each agency that
intends to produce, procure, or enter into a contract to
produce or procure a Government publication from which, upon
certification of noncompliance and associated costs in
accordance with subsection (a)(2), the Secretary of the
Treasury is authorized to transfer funds, upon presentation of
a voucher from the Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs, to the Revolving Fund of the Government
Publications Office, for reimbursement to the programs of the
Superintendent.
A final determination of noncompliance by the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs under
this subsection is to be deemed a determination of
noncompliance with section 501.
The section further specifies that each agency of the
executive branch must use the Government Publications Office as
its agent for the production or the procurement of production
of Government publications in accordance with section 501. No
agency may produce, procure, or enter into a contract for the
production or procurement of any Government publication,
regardless of form or format, unless such agency is in
compliance with the requirements of this chapter.
Upon a determination by the Superintendent of Government
Publications Production and Procurement Services that an agency
has not complied with the requirements of section 501, the
Superintendent shall notify the Administrator. The
Administrator is to certify to the agency and the Office of
Management and Budget that the agency is not in compliance and
shall suspend any delegation of authority provided under
section 501(b). Upon a final determination of noncompliance,
the Administrator is directed to withhold any delegation of
authority to the agency for a period of 24 months and shall
immediately revoke any delegation of authority which has been
granted to the agency under section 501(b). If an agency which
has been determined to be in noncompliance with section 501 is
also determined to be in noncompliance with the requirements of
this chapter under subsection (a), the Administrator is
directed to withhold any delegation of authority for an
additional period of 36 months.
Determinations made under this section may be reviewed by
the Administrator. A determination of the Superintendent of
Publications Production and Procurement Services and a
determination by the Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs become final unless overturned or revised by
the Administrator within 20 days after the determination. A
final determination under this section is not be subject to
judicial review.
Sec. 1906a. Access to Government publications through the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs: compliance and enforcement: legislative
branch
Section 1906a specifies that all Government publications,
regardless of form or format, of the legislative branch must be
made available, at no cost, to the Federal publications access
libraries. In the case of Senate publications, the Secretary of
the Senate, under the direction of the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate, and in the case of House
publications, the Clerk of the House of Representatives, under
the direction of the Committee on House Oversight of the House
of Representatives, are authorized to use whatever measures are
necessary to ensure the timely dissemination of Government
publications of the respective Houses to the public and to
expand and improve the maintenance of permanent public access
to Government publications under this chapter. In the case of
congressional publications, the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House
Oversight of the House of Representatives, acting jointly, are
authorized to use whatever measures are necessary to ensure the
timely dissemination of Government publications of Congress and
to expand and improve the maintenance of permanent public
access to Government publications of Congress under this
chapter. If the Committee on Rules and Administration of the
Senate determines that this section has not been complied with,
the Committee is authorized to direct the Secretary of the
Senate to bring the Senate into compliance. Upon approval by
the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate of a
voucher submitted by the Secretary of the Senate, the
contingent fund of the Senate is to be charged for the costs
incurred by the Secretary of the Senate to bring the Senate
into compliance under this subsection. If the Committee on
House Oversight of the House of Representatives determines that
this section has not been complied with, the Committee is
authorized to direct the Clerk of the House of Representatives
to bring the House of Representatives into compliance. As in
the case of the Senate, upon appropriate authorization, the
costs incurred by the Clerk are to be charged to the
appropriate House account.
If the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate
and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives, acting jointly, determine that the provisions
of this section regarding congressional publications have not
been complied with, these committees are authorized to jointly
take specific action to bring Congress into compliance with
this section.Upon the joint approval by these two committees of
a voucher submitted by the Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs, the Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation
is to be charged for the costs incurred by the Superintendent, as
authorized by this section.
Sec. 1906b. Access to Government publications through the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs: compliance and enforcement: judicial
branch
Section 1906b specifies that all Government publications,
regardless of form or format, of the judicial branch, including
court opinions, must be made available at no charge to the
Federal publications access libraries. The Director of the
Administrative Office of the United States Courts is authorized
to use whatever measures are necessary to ensure the timely
dissemination of Government publications of judicial branch
agencies and the courts to the public, and to expand and
improve the maintenance of permanent public access to
Government publications of judicial branch agencies and the
courts under this chapter. In the event of noncompliance with
the requirements of this title, the Director of the
Administrative Office of the United States Courts, in
consultation with the Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs, is authorized to establish a means to bring
the judicial branch into compliance with this chapter.
Sec. 1907. Permanent Public Access to Government
publications
Section 1907 defines the term ``permanent public access,''
as used in this section, to mean that a Government publication
within the scope of the Federal publications access program
must remain available for current, continuous, and future
public access; and be made available at no fee to Federal
publications access libraries.
The Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs is authorized to establish a system of permanent
public access to Government publications, for publications
other than those publications identified in subsection (c), in
accordance with the requirements of section 1909(c). The
Superintendent is also authorized to establish a system of
permanent public access to Government publications created for
or transmitted through an electronic communications system or
network.
The Superintendent is authorized, as well, to establish a
committee to make recommendations on the components of a
distributive system for permanent public access and the
strategy for achieving such system and access. This committee
is to include representatives of the Committee on Rules and
Administration of the Senate; the Committee on House Oversight
of the House of Representatives; the National Archives and
Records Administration; the Office of Management and Budget;
the Administrative Office of the United States Courts; the
Library of Congress and other national libraries; regional and
other Federal publications access libraries; the Federal
publications access library council; the National Commission on
Libraries and Information Science; the information, computer
software, and printing industries; the American Federation of
Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations; and other entities
as appropriate. The responsibilities of the committee, as
specified in this section, include, not later than 24 months
after the effective date of this Act, to provide
recommendations to the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs for necessary statutory and
regulatory changes to implement a system to provide permanent
public access to Government publications created for or
transmitted through an electronic communications system or
network; periodically review developments in public access to
Government publications created for or transmitted through an
electronic communications system or network, and make
recommendations for further action by the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs and Congress as
necessary; propose regulations to the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs to be promulgated under
section 1904 by the Superintendent as appropriate, necessary to
implement permanent public access to Government publications;
identify criteria for Government publications created for or
transmitted through an electronic communications system or
network that warrant permanent accessibility; and establish
certifying criteria to accompany Government publications
created for or transmitted through an electronic communications
system or network to ensure that such publications are official
versions.
The system of permanent public access to Government
publications created for or transmitted through an electronic
communications system or network established under this section
is to include a distributive system that provides for adequate
redundancy and requires official and contractual agreements
among participating entities. The Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs retains final responsibility for
permanent public access to Government publications created for
or transmitted through an electronic communications system or
network and for ensuring that the system is operated in
accordance with this section.
Until the system of permanent public access under this
section is established, each agency is to provide permanent
public access to the Government publications it creates for or
transmits through an electronic communications system or
network.
The Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs is responsible for developing, in consultation with
Congress, the Office of Management and Budget, and the
Administrative Office of the United States Courts, procedures
and guidelines for permanent public access to Government
publications created for or transmitted through an electronic
communications system or network for purposes of paragraph (1).
The Superintendent is authorized to offer to agencies, on a
cost-recovery basis, services for providing permanent public
access to the Government publications created for or
transmitted through an electronic communications system or
network.
Until such time as the bound permanent Congressional Record
and the bound United States Congressional serial set are
created for or transmitted through an electronic communications
system or network, such Record and set shall remain available
in a bound, printed format for those Federal publications
access libraries which have chosen to receive such Record and
set.
Sec. 1908. Designation of Federal publications access
libraries
This section provides that, subject to subsection (e),
Federal publications access libraries are to be designated by
certain elected officials as specified: each Senator
designating up to 2 libraries within the State represented;
each Representative designating up to 2 libraries within the
district represented; the Resident Commissioner designating up
to 2 libraries within Puerto Rico; the Mayor of the District of
Columbia designating up to 2 Federal publications access
libraries in the District of Columbia; the Governors of Guam,
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American
Samoa each designating 1 Federal publications access library in
each area represented; the Governor of the Virgin Islands
designating 1 Federal publications access library on the Island
of Saint Thomas and 1 on the Island of Saint Croix.
In addition, upon request of the institution, the following
authorized to be designated by the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs as Federal publications access
libraries: land grant colleges; State libraries; the library of
the highest State appellate court in each State; the library of
any law school accredited by a nationally recognized
accrediting agency or association, or accredited by the highest
appellate court of the State in which the law school is
located; and the libraries of the executive departments, the
United States Military Academy, the United States Naval
Academy, the United States Air Force Academy, the United States
Coast Guard Academy, and the United States Merchant Marine
Academy.
A Federal publications access library within each
independent agency may be designated by the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs upon certification of
need by the head of the agency to the Superintendent.
Additional Federal publications access libraries within
executive departments and independent agencies may be
designated by the Superintendent upon certification of
justifiable need by the head of the agency.
Before any additional or replacement Federal publications
access library is designated, the head of the library must
furnish the appointing authority justification of the necessity
for such designation. The justification must be approved by the
head of the library authority of the State, the District of
Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, within which the
proposed Federal publications access library is to be located,
or signed by the head of each existing Federal publications
access library within the congressional district, the State,
the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
The Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs
may designate as a Federal publications access library, upon
recommendation of a Senator or Representative representing the
area, any library serving an underserved area.
Notwithstanding the limitations on numbers of Federal
publications access libraries that may be designated under this
section, each library that is designated as a Federal
Depository Library as of the effective date of this Act shall
continue to be a Federal publications access library. A library
may be designated under this section as a Federal publications
access library only if it is able properly to maintain and
provide public access to Government publications, regardless of
form or format.
Sec. 1909. Regional Federal publications access libraries
Section 1909 specifies that not more than 2 Federal
publications access libraries, including any group of Federal
publications access libraries with a cooperative agreement, in
each State or service area and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
and the District of Columbia may be designated as regional
Federal publications access libraries and are authorized to
receive from the Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs copies of or access to all new and revised
Government publications disseminated to Federal publications
access libraries. A cooperative group of libraries that
includes libraries in more than 1 State may be designated under
this section.
Designation of regional Federal publications access
libraries may be made by a Senator or the Resident Commissioner
from Puerto Rico or the Mayor of the District of Columbia
within the areas represented by them, after consultation with
the head of the library authority of the State or the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or the District of Columbia, as the
case may be, who shall first ascertain from the head of the
library, or cooperative group of libraries, to be so designated
that the library will fulfill the requirements of a regional
Federal publications access library. The agreement to function
as a regional Federal public access information library is to
be transmitted to the Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs by the Senator or the Resident Commissioner
from Puerto Rico or the Mayor of the District of Columbia when
the designation is made.
The responsibilities of regional Federal publications
access libraries, as specified in this section, include
permanently maintaining for public use at least 1 copy of all
Government publications not created for or transmitted through
an electronic communications system or network, except those
authorized to be discarded by the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs, or coordinating with other
Federal publications access libraries in the applicable service
area to ensure that such service is provided by a Federal
publications access library in the area. In addition, within
the region served, a regional Federal publications access
library provides or coordinates the provision of all program-
related activities in the service area, including interlibrary
loans and reference services.
Sec. 1910. Federal publications access libraries:
responsibilities
Section 1910 specifies that Federal publications access
libraries are responsible for making Government publications
received or accessed through the Federal publications access
program available for the use of the public at no fee. All
Government publications not created for or transmitted through
an electronic communications system or network received by
Federal publications access libraries remain the property of
the United States Government. Federal publications access
libraries may dispose of Government publications only as
authorized by the Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs. Federal publications access libraries are to
operate in accord with regulations promulgated under section
1904.
Sec. 1911. Federal publications access libraries council
The Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs is authorized to establish a permanent Federal
Publications Access Library Council. The Superintendent is to
determine the composition of the Council and the duration of
terms of the members, and publish the membership of the Council
annually in the Federal Register. The Council's members are to
be representative of the various classes of libraries which
comprise the Federal publications access library program and
others. Appointments to the Council are to be made without
regard to political affiliation. The Council is responsible for
advising the Superintendent on appropriate items and preferred
formats for inclusion in the program under this chapter;
Government publications that are not included in the program
and the Council recommends for inclusion in the program; and
such other policy matters as the Superintendent may request.
The Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs is authorized to establish other advisory committees
consisting of representatives of Federal publications access
libraries, agencies, and users of Government publications, as
the Superintendent determines appropriate.
All meetings of the Council and those of any other advisory
committee established by the Superintendent must be open to the
public, except when the Superintendent determines that the
meeting or any portion of the meeting is to be closed to the
public consistent with the provisions of section 552b of title
5, and only after a two-thirds vote of the Council. All
meetings of the Council and those of any other advisory
committee established by the Superintendent must provide an
opportunity for public comment and be preceded by timely public
notice in the Federal Register of the time, place, and subject
of the meeting. Minutes of each meeting must be kept and are to
contain a record of the people present and a description of the
discussion that occurred. The minutes and records of all such
meetings and other documents that were made available to or
prepared for the Council or any other advisory council
established by the Superintendent must be made publicly
accessible, unless the Superintendent determines that a record
or any portion of such record is not to be publicly disclosed,
consistent with the provisions of section 552 of title 5,
United States Code, and only after a two-thirds vote of the
Council.
Sec. 402(b). Report to Congress
This subsection provides that, not later than 30 months
after the effective date of this Act, the Superintendent must
submit a report to the Committee on Rules and Administration of
the Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives concerning the status of the Federal
publications access program established under chapter 19 of
title 44, United States Code; the expected developments in the
program, including recommendations for necessary statutory and
subsequent regulatory changes to implement a system to provide
continuous and permanent access to Government publications
created for or transmitted through an electronic communications
system or network; and specific recommendations for legislative
proposals, as appropriate.
Sec. 402(c). Transfer
This subsection transfers to the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs, for performance on and
after the effective date of this Act, all of the duties,
authorities, responsibilities, and functions performed by the
Superintendent of Documents of the Government Printing Office
on the day before the effective date of this Act.
Sec. 402(d). References
This subsection provides that references in any other
Federal law, Executive order, rule, regulation, or delegation
of authority, or any document of or relating to the
Superintendent of Documents are to be deemed to refer to the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs, and
the Office of the Superintendent of Documents is to be deemed
to refer to the Office of the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs.
Sec. 402(e). Transition
This subsection provides that the individual serving as the
Superintendent of Documents of the Government Printing Office
on the effective date of this title may serve as Acting
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs of
the Government Publications Office until the President appoints
a Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs
under paragraph (2).
Paragraph (2) specifies that, not later than 180 days after
the effective date of this title, the President is to appoint a
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs of
the Government Publications Office in accordance with section
1903 of title 44, United States Code, as amended by this Act.
Assets and real property under the control of, in use by,
or assigned to the Superintendent of Documents by the Public
Printer on the day before the effective date of this Act is to
be under the control of the Acting Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs on theeffective date of this Act
for the use of the Acting Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs thereafter for purposes of implementing this Act.
Personnel under the supervision of or assigned to the
Superintendent of Documents by the Public Printer on the day
before the effective date of this Act are to be under the
supervision or assigned to the Acting Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs on the effective date
of this Act for purposes of implementing this Act.
Sec. 402(f). Technical and conforming amendment
The table of chapters for title 44, United States Code, is
amended by striking the item relating to chapter 19 and
inserting the following:
``19. Federal Publications Access Programs.......................1901''.
Sec. 403(a). Distribution and sale of government publications by
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs
This subsection amends Chapter 17 of title 44, United
States Code, to read as follows:
``CHAPTER 17--DISTRIBUTION AND SALE OF GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS
``Sec.
``1701. Publications for public distribution to be distributed by the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs;
mailing lists.
``1702. Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs; sale
of Government publications.
``1703. Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs:
assistants, blanks, printing, and binding.
``1704. Payment of costs.
``1705. Additional copies for sale to the public.
``1706. Production and sale of extra copies of Government publications.
``1707. Reproducing Government publications required for sale.
``1708. Prices for sales copies of publications; crediting of receipts;
resale by dealers; sales agents.
``1709. Blank forms: printing and sale to public.
``1710. Publications for use of the Superintendent of Publications
Access Programs.
``1711. Publications for use of National Archives and Records
Administration.
``1712. Publications for the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of
the House of Representatives.
``1713. Government publications for the Library of Congress.
``1714. Exchange of Government publications by heads of Federal
agencies.''
Sec. 1701. Publications for public distribution to be
distributed by the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs; mailing lists
This section prohibits the use of appropriated funds for
services in an executive department or other Government
establishment at the District of Columbia in the work of
addressing, wrapping, mailing, or otherwise dispatching a
publication for public distribution, except maps, weather
reports, and weather cards issued by them or for the purchase
of material or supplies to be used in this work. The
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs is
authorized to perform this work at the Government Publications
Office. The head of an executive department, independent
office, and establishment of the Government at the District of
Columbia, is to furnish from time to time to the Superintendent
mailing lists, in convenient form, and changes in them, or
penalty mail slips, for use in the public distribution of
publications issued by the department or establishment. The
Superintendent may furnish copies of a publication only in
accordance with law or the instruction of the head of the
department or establishment issuing the publication. This
section does not apply to orders, instructions, directions,
notices, or circulars of information printed for and issued by
an executive department or other Government establishment or to
the distribution of public publications by Senators or Members
of the House of Representatives or to the Senate Service
Department, House of Representatives Publications Distribution
Service, and document rooms of the Senate or House of
Representatives.
Sec. 1702. Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs; sale of Government publications
Section 1702 provides that, if an officer of the Government
who has Government publications for sale and desires to be
relieved of the publications, the officer may turn the
publications over to the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs, who is authorized to receive and
sell them under this section, or dispose of such publications
under section 306 or 314. Moneys received from the sale of such
Government publications is to be paid to the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs, placed in the
Revolving Fund of the Government Publications Office, and
credited to the account of the Superintendent.
This section also vests the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs with general supervision of a
Government publications sales program, which is to provide
Government publications to the public for purchase. The
Superintendent is to report monthly to the Administrator the
number of publications received by the Superintendent and the
disposition made of them.
Sec. 1703. Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs: assistants, blanks, printing, and binding
This section authorizes the Administrator to provide
convenient office space, storage, and distributing rooms for
the Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs.
The Superintendent of Government Production and Procurement
Services, upon requisition by the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs, is authorized to perform the
printing and binding required by the office in accordance with
section 1107.
Sec. 1704. Payment of costs
Section 1704 provides that employees in the Office of the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs may
be paid for night, Sunday, holiday, and overtime work at rates
not in excess of the rates of additional pay for this work
allowed other employees of the Government Publications Office
under section 303. The costs of printing and related services
incurred by the Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs under this chapter for work performed by the
Superintendent of Government Production and Procurement
Services is to be paid by the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs from accounts under the
Superintendent's authority within the Revolving Fund of the
Government Publications Office. The Administrator is authorized
to transfer funds from the account of the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs to the account of the
Superintendent of Government Production and Procurement
Services, upon a voucher prepared by the Superintendent of
Government Production and Procurement Services and approved by
the Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs.
Sec. 1705. Additional copies for sale to the public
Section 1705 provides that, upon requisition by the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs, the
Superintendent of Government Production and Procurement
Services is authorized to produce additional copies of a
Government publication, not confidential in character, required
for sale to the public, as determined by the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs. The cost of such
production is to be determined in accordance with section 1107.
Such production must not interfere with the prompt execution of
publications production for the executive, legislative, or
judicial branches of Government.
Sec. 1706. Production and sale of extra copies of
Government publications
This section provides that the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs may furnish to private,
nongovernmental applicants, giving notice before a publication
is produced, such copies of the requested Government
publication as the applicant requests. The applicant must pay
in advance the price of the requested Government publication as
determined by the Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs. The production of such copies for private,
nongovernmental parties must not interfere with the production
for the Government.
Sec. 1707. Reproducing Government publications required for
sale
Section 1707 indicates that the Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs may order reproduced,
from time to time, Government publications required for sale,
subject to the approval of the head of the department or agency
in which the Government publication originated. The
Superintendent of Government Production and Procurement
Services must be reimbursed by the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs for the cost of reproduction from
the moneys received from the sale of Government publications.
Such receipts are to be deposited in the Revolving Fund of the
Government Publications Office to the credit of the
Superintendent of Government Production and Procurement
Services.
Sec. 1708. Prices for sales copies of publications;
crediting of receipts; resale by dealers; sales
agents
Section 1708 specifies that, to the greatest extent
feasible, the Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs must operate the sales program of Government
publications on a self-sustaining basis. Sales prices for
Government publications sold by the Superintendent are to be
established by the Superintendent to cover the cost of
procurement or production, dissemination, and other appropriate
costs, including the offering of sales discounts and any costs
associated with the sales program. The Superintendent is
authorized to prescribe terms and conditions under which the
Superintendent authorizes the resale of Government publications
by book dealers. The Superintendent may designate any
Government officer, or any person who is not a Federal
employee, as his or her agent for the sale of Government
publications under terms and conditions agreed upon by the
Superintendent and the head of the respective agency of the
Government.
Sec. 1709. Blank forms: printing and sale to public
This section authorizes the Superintendent of Government
Publications Access Programs to have produced for sale to the
public, upon prepayment, additional copies of approved
Government blank forms.
Sec. 1710. Publications for use of the Superintendent of
Publications Access Programs
Section 1710 authorizes the Superintendent of Publications
Access Programs to retain out of all publications, bills, and
resolutions printed, the number of copies absolutely needful
for the official use of the Government Publications Office, not
exceeding 5 of each.
Sec. 1711. Publications for use of National Archives and
Records Administration
Section 1711 directs the Administrator to cause to be
printed and delivered to the National Archives and Records
Administration for use by the Archivist of the United States
one copy each of the following publications, chargeable to the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs:
House and Senate documents and public reports, bound; House and
Senate Journals, bound; United States Code and supplements,
bound; United States Statutes at Large, bound; United States
Reports, bound; all other documents bearing Congressional
number or printed upon order of a committee in either House of
Congress, or of a department, independent agency or
establishment, commission, or officer of the Government, except
confidential matter, blank forms, and circular letters not of a
public character; and public bill and resolutions in Congress
in each parliamentary stage. The cost of providing these
publications is deemed an expense of the Government
Publications Access Programs and is to be paid in accordance
with section 1902(g) of this Act. The Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs is to furnish to the
Archivist, without cost, copies of publications available for
free distribution.
Sec. 1712. Publications for the Secretary of the Senate and
the Clerk of the House of Representatives
This section provides that, when printing not bearing a
congressional number, except confidential matters, blank forms,
and circular letters not of a public character, is done for an
agency of Government, or not of a confidential character, is
done for use of congressional committees, 2 copies are to be
sent by the Government Publications Office to the Senate and
the House of Representatives libraries, respectively. These
purchases are to be made in accordance with section 1107, and
from funds appropriated for congressional printing and binding
under section 735 of title 44, United States Code, as amended
by this Act.
Sec. 1713. Government publications for the Library of
Congress
The Librarian of Congress is authorized to determine
annually the number of full and partial sets of Government
publications necessary for the Library's service to Congress,
maintenance of the Library's collection, and for use in the
international exchange program. The Director of the
Congressional Research Service is authorized to determine
annually the number of full and partial sets of Government
publications necessary for the Service to provide assistance to
Congress. The Superintendent of Government Publications Access
Programs is directed to provide these necessary documents to
the Library and the Congressional Research Service in a timely
manner and in the needed quantities.
The Librarian is also authorized to administer an
international exchange program, pursuant to the Brussels
convention of March 15, 1886, and subsequent similar bilateral
and multilateral treaties and agreements, by providing
Government publications for foreign governments which agree to
send to the United States similar publications of their
governments for deposit at the Library of Congress.
Payment by the Library of Congress and the Congressional
Research Service for Government Publications and related
services under this section are authorized to be made from
funds appropriated to each entity for such purposes. Payment
for such publications is mandated at the incremental cost of
printing, in accordance with section 1107, title 44, United
States Code, as amended by this Act.
An effective date of October 1, 1999, is prescribed for
this section.
Sec. 1714. Exchange of Government publications by heads of
agencies
Section 1714 authorizes the head of an agency to exchange
surplus Government publications for other Government
publications required by the agency, if it is to the advantage
of the public service.
Sec. 403(b). Technical and Conforming Amendment
This subsection amends the table of chapters for title 44,
United States Code, by striking the item relating to chapter 17
and inserting the following:
``17. Distribution and Sale of Government Publications...........1701''.
SEC. 404. TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS RELATING TO THE
SUPERINTENDENT OF GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS ACCESS PROGRAMS
This section amends section 1108 of title 44, United States
Code, by striking ``Superintendent of Documents'' and inserting
``Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs''.
It amends chapter 17, title 44, United States Code, by
repealing sections 1718 and 1719, effective October 1, 1999. It
also amends section 4101 of title 44, United States Code, by
striking ``Superintendent of Documents'' each place it appears
and inserting ``Superintendent of Government Publications
Access Programs'', by striking ``, under thedirection of the
Public Printer; and'', and by inserting before the semicolon in
subsection (a)(1) ``, for the executive, legislative, and judicial
branches of Government'', and by adding at the end the following new
subsection:
(d) Locator.--The electronic directory, or locator,
authorized under section 3511 shall not replace, but
shall be established in addition to, the locator
established by this section. The Superintendent of
Government Publications Access Programs shall be the
sole administrator of the Government locator
established under this section and shall coordinate and
integrate the services of the locator established under
section 3511.
Finally, this section repeals section 4102 of title 44,
United States Code, and amends the table of sections for
chapter 41, United States Code, by striking the item relating
to section 4102.
Title V--Administrative and Savings Provisions
SEC. 501. CONTINUATION OF EMPLOYMENT TERMS AND CONDITIONS
This section provides that compensation, benefits, and
other terms and conditions of employment in effect on the day
before the effective date of this Act, whether provided by
statute, regulation, or agreement between employees and the
Public Printer, continue to apply to officers and employees of
the Government Printing Office until modified or terminated in
accordance with law, including the provisions of this Act.
SEC. 502. PROCEEDINGS NOT AFFECTED
This section provides that the provisions of this Act do
not affect any proceedings, including notices of proposed
rulemaking, or any application for any license, permit,
certificate, or financial assistance pending before the
Government Printing Office at the time this Act takes effect,
with respect to functions transferred by this Act, but such
proceedings and applications are continued. Orders are to be
issued in such proceedings, appeals are to be taken therefrom,
and payments are to be made pursuant to such orders, as if this
Act had not been enacted, and orders issued in any such
proceedings are to continue in effect until modified,
terminated, superseded, or revoked by a duly authorized
official, by a court of competent jurisdiction, or by operation
of law. Nothing in this section is to be deemed to prohibit the
discontinuance or modification of any such proceeding under the
same terms and conditions and to the same extent that such
proceeding could have been discontinued or modified if this Act
had not been enacted.
SEC. 503. SUITS NOT AFFECTED
This section specifies that the provisions of this Act do
not affect suits commenced before the effective date of this
Act, and in all such suits, proceedings are to be had, appeals
are to be taken, and judgments are to be rendered in the same
manner and with the same effect as if this Act had not been
enacted.
SEC. 504. NONABATEMENT OF ACTIONS
This section provides that no suit, action, or other
proceeding commenced by or against the Government Printing
Office, or by or against any individual in the official
capacity of such individual as an officer of the Government
Printing Office, is to abate by reason of the enactment of this
Act.
SEC. 505. SEPARABILITY
This section specifies that, if a provision of this Act or
its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid,
neither the remainder of this Act nor the application of the
provision to other persons or circumstances is to be affected.
SEC. 506. TRANSFER OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON
PRINTING
This section makes modifications of references to the Joint
Committee on Printing by amending section 208 of title 1,
United States Code, in the section heading by striking all
after ``agencies'', and by striking ``Joint Committee on
Printing'' and inserting ``Administrator of the Government
Publications Office, in consultation with the Committee on
Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Committee on
House Oversight of the House of Representatives''. In addition,
the table of sections for chapter 3 of title 1, United States
Code, is amended in the item relating to section 208 by
striking all after ``agencies'' and inserting a period. Other
modifications include amendment of section 3 of the joint
resolution of December 24, 1970 (2 U.S.C. 168b) by striking
``Joint Committee on Printing'' and inserting ``Committee on
Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Committee on
House Oversight of the House of Representatives''; amendment of
section 2(b)(1) of Public Law 94-386 (2 U.S.C. 285b note;
District of Columbia Code, section 49-102) by striking ``Public
Printer'' and ``Public Printer (in consultation with the Joint
Committee on Printing)'' and inserting ``Superintendent of
Government Publications Production and Procurement Services (in
consultation with the Committee on Rules and Administration of
the Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of
Representatives)''; amendment of section 312 of the Federal
Water Power Act (16 U.S.C. 825k) by striking all beginning with
``Joint Committee on Printing'' in the fourth sentence through
the end of the section and inserting ``Administrator of the
Government Publications Office may prescribe''; amendment of
section 5(c) of the National Foundation on the Arts and the
Humanities Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 954(c)) by striking the
sentence following paragraph (10); amendment of section 7(c) of
the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of
1965 (20 U.S.C. 956(c)) by striking the sentence following
paragraph (10); amendment of section 602(d) of the Federal
Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (40 U.S.C.
474(d)(18)) by striking ``Joint Committee on Printing'' and
inserting ``Government Publications Office''; repealing chapter
1 of title 44, United States Code; amendment of the table of
chapters for title 44, United States Code, by striking the item
relating to chapter 1; amendment of chapter VII of title I of
the Second Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1976 (Public Law
94-303; 90 Stat.616; 44 U.S.C. 103 note) under the heading
``JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING'' by striking the 2 provisos; and
amendment of Title I of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 1978
(Public Law 95-94; 91 Stat. 669; 44 U.S.C. 103 note) under the heading
``JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING'' by striking the first 2 provisos.
SEC. 507. ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS
This section provides that, after consultation with the
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives,
the Administrator of the Government Publications Office, the
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs, and
the Superintendent of Government Publications Production and
Procurement Services are to each prepare and submit to Congress
recommended legislation containing technical and conforming
amendments to reflect the changes made by this Act. This
recommended legislation is to be submitted to Congress not
later than 6 months after the effective date of this Act.
SEC. 508. IMPLEMENTATION ACTIONS
This section provides that, effective on the date of
enactment of this Act, the Public Printer and the
Superintendent of Documents may each take such administrative
actions as necessary to provide for the orderly implementation
of this Act.
SEC. 509. EFFECTIVE DATE
This section specifies that, except as provided under
sections 305, 308, 403, 408, and 508, this Act is to take
effect on January 1, 1999.
VI. Cost Estimate
In compliance with paragraph 11(a) of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the estimate of costs of this
measure prepared by the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to
section 403 of the Congressional Budget Act, is as follows:
congressional budget office cost estimate
S. 2288--Wendell H. Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998
S. 2288 would make numerous changes to Title 44, United
States Code, regarding procedures for the production,
publication, and distribution of federal documents. The bill
would eliminate the Joint Committee on Printing and assign the
committee's authorities to the Committee on House Oversight,
the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, and the
Government Printing Office. In addition, it would rename and
reorganize the Government Printing Office as the Government
Publications Office (GPO) and move the office from the
legislative to the executive branch. S. 2288 also would
generally direct GPO to produce or procure all federal printing
within five years of the bill's enactment. The bill contains
many other provisions that aim to reform the production and
distribution of federal publications.
Enacting S. 2288 would affect direct spending, although the
net amounts involved would not be significant. Therefore, pay-
as-you-go procedures would apply to the bill. By requiring that
all agencies and departments procure printing services through
GPO, the bill will could affect the printing and reproduction
costs of agencies that receive no annual appropriations, such
as the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency. In addition, by allowing GPO to
transfer or donate its surplus machinery and other equipment,
the bill could decrease receipt from the sale of such property.
Finally, S. 2288 could affect the amount of receipts from the
public for GPO publications and other services.
Many of the provisions of S. 2288 would affect federal
discretionary spending. The proposed reorganization of the
Government Printing Office would increase administrative costs,
for example, whereas the procurement of federal printing
through GPO could eventually yield savings. At this time,
however, CBO cannot provide an estimate of the bill's net
effect on discretionary spending.
S. 2288 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal
governments. The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are John
R. Righter and Mark T. Grabowicz. This estimate was approved by
Paul N. Van de Water, Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
VII. Regulatory Impact Evaluation
In accordance with paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee believes that
passage of S. 2288 would have no regulatory impact. The
Government Printing Office currently administers a body of
regulation governing the procedures it follows in procuring
printing from the private sector on behalf of other Federal
agencies. S. 2288 directs that these regulations be adopted,
through notice and comment, to govern the procurement
procedures of the successor agency authorized in the bill.
Therefore, there will be no new regulatory requirement or
burdens imposed on any groups and classes of individuals or
businesses.
VIII. Changes in Existing Law
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee notes that this
bill substantially revises the administrative provisions of
title 44, United States Code.