[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1595 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1595

 To require that all Federal lithographic printing be performed using 
          ink made from vegetable oil, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 1, 1993

   Mr. Durbin (for himself, Mr. Leach, Mr. Penny, and Mr. Bereuter) 
   introduced the following bill; which was referred jointly to the 
      Committees on House Administration and Government Operations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To require that all Federal lithographic printing be performed using 
          ink made from vegetable oil, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Vegetable Ink Printing Act of 
1993''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) more than 95 percent of Federal printing involving 
        documents or publications is performed using lithographic inks;
            (2) various types of oil, including petroleum and vegetable 
        oil, are used in lithographic ink;
            (3) increasing the amount of vegetable oil used in a 
        lithographic ink would--
                    (A) help reduce the Nation's use of nonrenewable 
                energy resources;
                    (B) result in the use of products that are less 
                damaging to the environment;
                    (C) result in a reduction of volatile organic 
                compound emissions; and
                    (D) increase the use of renewable agricultural 
                products.
            (4) the technology exists to use vegetable oil in 
        lithographic ink and, in some applications, to use lithographic 
        ink that uses no petroleum distillates in the liquid portion of 
        the ink;
            (5) some lithographic inks have contained vegetable oils 
        for many years; other lithographic inks have more recently 
        begun to use vegetable oil;
            (6) according to the Government Printing Office, using 
        vegetable-based ink appears to add little if any additional 
        cost to Government printing;
            (7) use of vegetable-based ink in Federal Government 
        printing should further develop--
                    (A) the commercial viability of vegetable-based 
                ink, which could result in demand, for domestic use 
                alone, for 2,500,000,000 pounds of vegetable crops or 
                500,000,000 pounds of vegetable oil; and
                    (B) a product that could help the United States 
                retain or enlarge its share of the world market for 
                vegetable ink.

SEC. 3. FEDERAL PRINTING REQUIREMENTS.

    (a) Definition.--In this section, ``Federal agency'' means--
            (1) an executive department, military department, 
        Government corporation, Government-controlled corporation, or 
        other establishment in the executive branch of the Government 
        (including the Executive Office of the President), or any 
        independent regulatory agency; and
            (2) an establishment or component of the legislative or 
        judicial branch of the Government.
    (b) Vegetable-Based Inks.--
            (1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other law, beginning 
        on the date that is 180 days after the date of enactment of 
        this Act, all lithographic printing performed or procured by a 
        Federal agency that uses oil in its ink shall use the maximum 
        amount of vegetable oil that is technologically feasible and 
        results in printing costs that are cost-competitive with 
        printing using petroleum-based inks.
            (2) Minimum percentages.--Except as provided in paragraph 
        (3), in no event shall a Federal agency use any ink that 
        contains less than the following percentages of vegetable oil 
        in its ink used for lithographic printing:
                    (A) In the case of news inks, 40 percent.
                    (B) In the case of sheet-fed inks, 20 percent.
                    (C) In the case of forms inks, 20 percent.
                    (D) In the case of heat-set inks, 10 percent.
            (3) Suspension of effectiveness of paragraph (2).--(A) At 
        any time at which a Federal agency determines that the cost of 
        printing with vegetable-based ink is significantly greater than 
        the cost of printing with petroleum-based ink, the Federal 
        agency may perform or procure lithographic printing using ink 
        that contains less than the percentages of vegetable oil in its 
        ink than those specified in paragraph (2) until such time as 
        the cost of printing with vegetable-based ink is not 
        significantly greater than the cost of printing with petroleum-
        based ink.
            (B) A determination made under subparagraph (A) shall be 
        reviewed--
                    (i) at least once every quarter, for the 
                performance or procurement of printing of materials 
                that are printed on a regular basis; and
                    (ii) prior to performing or procuring the printing 
                of particular material of significant size that is 
                printed once or is printed at intervals of 6 months or 
                more.

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