[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 136 (Friday, September 27, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1727-E1728]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E1727]]



                  GPO--A NETWORK READY FOR THE FUTURE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 27, 1996

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the work conducted 
by a very important and often forgotten office which serves Congress 
each and every day. The Government Printing Office [GPO] has seen vast 
changes in its 136 years of service to the Congress and was recently 
acknowledged for its ability to reach toward the future in the much 
respected trade publication In-Plant Graphics.
  I would like to share this article with my colleagues and the public, 
as I believe it aptly captures the breadth of the work conducted by the 
GPO and addresses the great resource the GPO is to the Government. The 
Government Printing Office and the employees who do the work stand 
ready and prepared to deal with the challenges they face ahead, but 
more importantly, the GPO stands ready to meet its mission of doing the 
Government's printing in a timely and cost-effective manner.

          GPO: Networked, Modernized, and Ready for the Future

  (As the king of all in-plants, the 136-year-old Government Printing 
   Office is a slimmer, more modern version of its former self--but 
                        challenges still remain)

                           (By Bob Neubauer)

       As darkness wraps itself tightly around the nation's 
     capital, the keyboard operators at the Government Printing 
     Office (GPO) glance anxiously from their computer terminals 
     toward the U.S. Capitol dome, visible through their windows.
       Atop the dome glows a light. When it's on, Congress is in 
     session. When Congress is in session, every detail of its 
     proceedings is being transcribed and delivered to the folks 
     in this room to be input into the Congressional Record 
     database.
       When the light goes out, it means the end is in sight, and 
     soon their frenzied keyboarding will be over for another day.
       Sometimes the light stays on for a long, long time. That's 
     the nature of life at the GPO. The 9-to-5 life is not part of 
     the deal. Long after the dome light goes dark and the Record 
     database has been compiled, prepress and press workers are 
     wide awake, hustling to convert this digital data to plates 
     and get the Record printed and delivered to Congress by 9 
     a.m.
       And with the average Record comprising more than 200 
     pages--about the same amount of type as four to six 
     metropolitan daily newspapers--this is a daunting task 
     indeed.
       The GPO has been handling congressional printing since 
     1860, after experiments with contract printing failed 
     miserably. Much has changed.
       Today, under the leadership of Public Printer Michael 
     DiMario, up to 80 percent of the GPO's work is procured from 
     the private sector, leaving only complex, time- and security-
     critical work like the Record to be printed at the GPO's 
     downtown Washington, D.C., headquarters.
       With three buildings containing almost 35 acres of floor 
     space, the GPO is a massive operation. It generates $800 
     million a year and employs 3,830 people. In addition to 
     printing for Congress, the GPO also handles most executive 
     branch printing.


                              A Heavy Load

       Some examples of the GPO's workload are:
       The Federal Register, a daily publication that contains 
     about 200 pages and has a press run of 23,000.
       The U.S. Budget, which is produced under tight security and 
     updated up until the last minute.
       Daily business calendars for the House of Representatives 
     and Senate. They are about 16 pages long at the beginning of 
     a session and more than 200 pages by the end.
       The President's annual economic report, a 400-page 
     publication.
       U.S. passports are also produced under tight security.
       But with more than 10,000 copies required by 9 a.m. every 
     morning that Congress is in session--even when sessions 
     stretch through the night to the following day--the 
     Congressional Record takes top priority among the jobs 
     printed by the GPO.
       The Record is also available online on the World Wide Web 
     (http://www.access.gpo.gov) within an hour from the time the 
     final page is sent to the pressroom. So far, users have 
     downloaded an average of 2 million documents per month from 
     58 databases, which include the Record, the Register and 
     other documents.
       ``We're able to make electronic products available to 
     everyone,'' remarks DiMario. In addition to offering Web, 
     modem and telnet availability of documents, he says, the GPO 
     runs the Federal Depository Library program, making 
     government publications available through a network of 1,400 
     libraries across the country.
       Most of the work that goes into the Record, acknowledges 
     Robert Schwenk, superintendent of the electronic 
     photocomposition division, involves generating the electronic 
     database. Tasks such as keyboarding, proofing, revising, 
     assembling and electronic composing make up about two thirds 
     of the cost of producing the Record.
       Printing is done on a trio of new Rockwell web presses that 
     were designed especially for the GPO. They can robotically 
     handle all bundles and automatically strap them. When the 
     webs aren't being used for the Record, the Register is 
     keeping them busy.
       There is always plenty of work to be done at the GPO to 
     keep the equipment in action, and priorities change 
     constantly throughout the day. Jobs are occasionally even 
     pulled off of presses so that more important ones can be 
     done.
       ``The work has to be done to meet, first and foremost, 
     legislative, congressional priorities,'' notes GPO Staff 
     Assistant Andrew Sherman--even if that means wasting part of 
     a job and throwing the schedule off.
       GPO employees, DiMario observes, have adapted well to this 
     environment and are a hard-working lot.
       ``They really do believe they're doing important work to 
     serve the public,'' he says. ``They're very proud of the 
     products they produce.''
       The GPO employs a vast assortment of digital and 
     traditional graphic arts technologies--an intriguing mix of 
     old and new. Hand binding and page-end marbling of some 
     books, along with hand-set type for gold stamping, contrast 
     sharply with the GPO's fiber-optic connections to Capitol 
     Hill, CD recorders and computers numbering into the 
     hundreds.
       The GPO receives Senate proceedings via fiber-optic 
     transmission from Capitol Hill for up to half of the Senate 
     portion of the Record. Drafts of new legislation are received 
     digitally from the House and Senate Legislative Counsel's 
     office. About 80 percent of the Register is transmitted to 
     the GPO by laser beam from the Office of the Federal 
     Register.
       ``We're a 20th-century agency moving into the 21st,'' 
     comments DiMario. The GPO is constantly exploring alternate 
     methods of document dissemination, like CD-ROM and multi-
     media, depending on the needs of customers.
       ``We're attempting to be the multimedia producer of 
     government publications, and we're restructuring the agency 
     along those lines,'' DiMario continues. ``That does not 
     diminish the value of in-plant production of paper products, 
     although we recognize that in time that need is going to go 
     down.''


                         the push to privatize

       Though the GPO's high-tech capabilities may be impressive, 
     certain government factions, caught up in the privatization 
     fervor, see them as extravagant and are gunning to close the 
     GPO, calling it wasteful. They believe that government 
     printing should be contracted out to the private sector, 
     supposedly saving the government millions.
       It's not that easy, Sherman cautions.
       ``We have expressed skepticism that a similar capability 
     exists in the private sector,'' he notes.
       First of all, the GPO already outsources up to 80 percent 
     of its printing. What is retained could not easily be handled 
     by an outside supplier. Producing the Record, for example--
     with page counts fluctuating from 10 to a record 1,912 pages, 
     and source material arriving in many different forms, 
     including handwritten notes--by 9 a.m. every day, would be 
     a challenge for even the largest printer.
       The GPO is staffed to handle those heavy workloads but has 
     enough other work, such as bills or hearings, to keep 
     employees busy when the Record is smaller. Could a private 
     printer keep a sizable staff on hand just to be prepared for 
     the busy times?
       If the Record were contracted out, the printer would also 
     be responsible for converting the data and making it 
     available on the Web each day. And with so much data coming 
     in from Congress via fiber-optic connections, private sector 
     printers would have to equip themselves with the same 
     technologies and be provided with access to Congress' 
     network.
       In fact, with so much sharing of information between the 
     Record and various bills, reports and other government 
     databases, private contractors would require access to 
     numerous currently secure government networks. The security 
     of other documents, such as the Budget of the United States 
     and the President's annual Economic Report, would also be put 
     to a test.

[[Page E1728]]

       Sherman points out that the GPO has already been busy 
     scrutinizing itself and cutting back on printing to save 
     money. Between 10,000 and 12,000 copies of the Record are now 
     being produced, compared with 18,000 a year ago. Many GPO 
     regional plants have been or are about to be closed. Since 
     February 1993 the GPO has slashed its work force by about 900 
     positions, saving $45 million annually.


                      Service still takes priority

       Though the GPO continues to be a target of well-meaning 
     legislators, Sherman stresses that the organization's main 
     interest is serving the public, not merely fighting for 
     survival.
       ``Our job is to help everyone perform the mission of 
     getting printing requirements performed as cost 
     effectively and in as timely a manner as possible--and 
     granting public access,'' he notes. ``If people have got 
     ways to do that mission better, we want to cooperate with 
     them.
       ``In some cases legislation is offered without a great deal 
     of research being put into what the possible consequences 
     will be,'' he continues. ``Our job is to point out those 
     consequences.''
       Sherman advises government in-plant managers who are facing 
     similar scrutiny to be open and cooperative with their 
     challengers. Make sure to be recognized as a knowledgeable 
     printing authority, not merely a scared manager fighting for 
     his or her job. Carefully analyze all proposals.
       ``If something looks good and looks like it's going to 
     work, than get behind it,'' he advises. On the other hand, if 
     the proposal is flawed, ``don't be afraid to characterize the 
     effects as you really see them.'' Still, he adds, be prepared 
     to make changes that may seem painful at first, but that may 
     prove smart later on.
       In addition to challenges from pro-privatization forces, 
     the GPO faces other possible roadblocks. A Justice Department 
     opinion released in May said that the GPO's printing of 
     executive branch documents is unconstitutional. Yet the 
     public printer, head of the GPO, is appointed by the 
     President, chief of the executive branch. And an April White 
     House memo directed executive departments and agencies to 
     ``make maximum use of the capabilities and expertise of the 
     Government Printing Office in handling your agency's printing 
     and duplicating procurements.'' The effects of the Justice 
     Department's opinion are still unclear.
       So for the time being, the work is still flowing in, 
     keeping the GPO's presses and other equipment in high gear.
       And as long as that light in the Capitol dome keeps shining 
     and Congress keeps meeting, Sherman and his coworkers intend 
     to throw themselves full-force into the task of getting the 
     government's printing done on time and as inexpensively as 
     possible.

                          ____________________