[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 91 (Friday, July 10, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7942-S7955]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WARNER:
  S. 2288. 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; 
to the Committee on Rules and Administration.


          wendell h. ford government publications act of 1998

  Mr. WARNER. Now, Mr. President, it is my distinct pleasure and honor, 
together with the distinguished ranking member of the Rules Committee, 
which I am privileged to chair, to submit legislation to the Senate. In 
my capacity as chairman of the committee, I have taken it upon myself, 
after consultation with colleagues on the committee, to name this bill 
in honor of our distinguished ranking member, Senator Wendell Ford of 
Kentucky, who will be retiring from a very distinguished Senate career 
at the conclusion of this Congress.
  The bill is entitled the ``Wendell H. Ford Government Publications 
Reform Act of 1998.'' If I just might hold this bill up, it is quite 
voluminous. That size reflects the tireless effort of my distinguished 
colleague from Kentucky and many others--over a period in excess of a 
decade--including Senator Stevens, the distinguished chairman of the 
Appropriations Committee, who have worked on this concept. I sort of 
picked it up and continued to work with Senator Ford in the course of 
my privileged service as chairman.

  Senator Ford has served four terms in the U.S. Senate. During that 
time he has dedicated himself to many causes, but this has been one 
very dear to his heart. I think it is a magnificent way of paying a 
respectful tribute to this Senator.
  We want to ensure that our Government produces its publications in 
the most cost-effective manner possible and that to the best of its 
ability the Government makes these publications accessible to the 
American public. They pay for them. But over the course of a number of 
years, like so many institutions' procedures and practices, it has 
gotten sort of tangled up. This prodigious document, hopefully, will be 
accepted by the Senate and accepted by the House and will go a long way 
to put this system back on track.
  Over the past decade there has been a steady and precipitous 
migration of printing, publication service procurement, and publication 
dissemination away from the Government Printing Office, which was 
established for the very purpose of making these documents available.
  In part, this migration occurred because of evolutions in technology. 
In part, this migration occurred because of the identified weakness and 
constant inability of the Joint Committee on Printing to enforce the 
work of the agencies and the departments of the executive branch in 
telling them to procure and disseminate their publications through the 
GPO. In part, this migration occurred because of the open encouragement 
by the current administration--through decisions and through the 
National Performance Review known as the NPR--for agencies to use 
printing and dissemination facilities other than the Government 
Printing Office. And in part, this migration occurred because the GPO 
has been slow to change and be more responsive to the ever-changing 
agency and Congressional needs, demands, and expectations.
  When I make reference to agencies and departments of the Government, 
I am talking about all three branches of the Government. We are not 
singling out any one as being less participatory of the desired result 
in publication and cost effectiveness. We are all in it together. This 
straightens it out.
  Despite the best efforts of Senator Ford and a long line of other 
Senators, successive administrations just have not been able to grapple 
and change the process and these problems are with us today.
  When I became chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and 
Administration, Senator Ford urged that together we continue the work 
that he and others had started. Indeed, Senator Ford and I became 
partners in resolving these issues. We directed our staffs to work 
together, to analyze the problems and identify the key solutions to 
bringing successful reform to the Government's printing, publishing, 
and dissemination services.
  Senator Ford and I held a series of hearings during which we built a 
record to support the very bill that we introduce today. This bill 
primarily has four goals.
  First, it resolves the conflicts between the branches of Federal 
Government--executive, legislative, and judicial--and brings about cost 
savings in printing and production. It seems to me it eliminates the 
problems with public access. It is in here in great detail.
  Secondly, it guarantees the right of the public to access 
publications paid for by the taxpayers. We have to stress, they paid 
for this, so why shouldn't they have it? It requires that the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs--what a 
title; I will repeat that--the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs be notified when an agency creates a new 
publication whether on

[[Page S7954]]

paper or electronically. That major advancement of dissemination in 
electronics has not been an easy one to deal with in this bill.
  Third, it promotes public availability of Government information in 
the electronic age through a Federal publications access program 
requiring no-fee availability, regardless of format, by requiring 
agencies to provide the same notification to the Superintendent for 
electronic publications that they are required to provide for printed 
publications, and by requiring the Superintendent to head a study which 
will recommend to Congress additional legislation which may be needed 
to further safeguard the public's access rights.
  Finally, the fourth goal is to facilitate the production and public 
access to Government publications by promoting the efficient and 
economic production of publications in an effective and equitable 
system of dissemination.
  It was James Madison who established as an essential element of 
America's democracy the principle of an informed citizenry. According 
to scholars, Madison's vision for the success of this Nation rested on 
the ability of an informed citizenry to participate in the democratic 
process and to hold Government accountable for its actions. Democracy 
requires the free flow of information. Access to the Government's 
publications is fundamental to our free society.
  Senator Ford and I and other members of the Committee on Rules and 
Administration, together with our staff, worked diligently and in a 
most nonpartisan manner to craft this legislation. The legislation is a 
culmination of nearly 18 months of discussion and negotiation. We 
consulted with the private sector, the printing industry, the 
information industry, representatives of the administration, the 
judicial branch, various legislative branch organizations, GPO, and, 
most importantly, the unions who really safeguard the future of 
employees throughout the printing system and other systems involved in 
this. My understanding is, and I think Senator Ford will have similar 
comments, that they recognize the need for change and have been a very 
constructive and helpful working partner in achieving this result. This 
bill, we feel, reflects a consensus among these interests and is to my 
mind one of the best examples of bipartisan cooperation in good public 
policy.
  At this time, of course, both Senator Ford and I want to recognize 
the invaluable services of Eric Peterson, staff director of the Joint 
Committee on Printing, Kennie Gill of Senator Ford's staff, Grayson 
Winterling and Ed Edens of my staff, and the many others who have 
worked on this during the past 18 months. We look forward to receiving 
the support of our colleagues in passing and enacting this important 
reform legislation in the concluding days of this Congress.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The very distinguished Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. FORD. I thank the Chair for the description.
  Mr. President, it is a great pleasure for me to join with my 
colleague, the distinguished chairman of the Rules Committee. He is my 
friend. He is a gentleman in the best tradition of Virginia. I 
appreciate the honor that he has proposed for me this morning. It will 
be the first piece of legislation in 24 years that carries my name. I 
hope it doesn't impede the progress, however. I am grateful to the 
Senator from Virginia, Mr. Warner, for his gracious remarks this 
morning. Hopefully, that tenor will continue through the consideration 
of this legislation by all of our colleagues, because our heart is 
right as it relates to the introduction of this legislation.
  I hope our minds have put together a piece of legislation that will 
be lasting. But there is one thing about this institution; once it 
settles in and you find some problems with it, you always have the 
opportunity to correct those problems. Most of the time, we do not 
``throw the baby out with the bath water''; we take the changes and do 
them in an appropriate way.
  So I join my colleague in introducing this legislation today to 
ensure one thing, Mr. President--that the American public continues to 
have access to the Government information. As my friend has said, it 
pays to produce. It is the people's access to Government, Government 
information, that forms the basis of our system of Government and 
ensures that democracy survives.
  A Kentuckian that was born in Virginia--we claim him in Kentucky, 
however--and a statesman, Henry Clay, said:

       Government is a trust, and the officers of the Government 
     are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created 
     for the benefit of the people.

  This legislation ensures that the decisions of the trustees of 
Government in all 3 branches will continue to be available for the 
benefit of the people who placed them there.
  Since 1813, Congress has assured that our decisions have been 
available to the public through the depository libraries. In 1857, 
depository libraries began disseminating other Federal information and, 
in 1895, the Superintendent of Public Documents was moved from the 
Department of the Interior to the Government Printing Office.
  Throughout our history, Mr. President, libraries have been the 
permanent repositories of the written history of our development as a 
Nation and the gateways to accessing the decision of its leaders. How 
important libraries are. You can be self-educated if you could read and 
go to the libraries and be able to secure information. Books that will 
do that. For almost 200 years, libraries have been the principal means 
by which citizens have come to learn of the decisions of their 
Government. Armed with that knowledge, the American public expresses 
its will through the democratic election process, which is the bedrock 
of our society.
  For over 100 years, GPO has printed or procured the printing of 
Government information and then automatically--and I underscore 
``automatically''--made that information available, at no charge to the 
American people, through the 1,400 depository libraries located across 
this great land. And that information is maintained permanently by the 
regional depository libraries in order to ensure that future 
generations have access to it.
  What I am trying to do here this afternoon is to say why this bill is 
so important. It has been so important to our past and it will be so 
important to our future. In turn, the depository libraries provide 
numerous access services, at no cost to the Federal Government, to the 
public who uses them to keep informed of their Government's decisions. 
In fact, the depository libraries, and numerous other public and 
private libraries that work in cooperation with the depositories, are 
the trustees of Government information for the people. For all of the 
criticisms of GPO, no one can dispute that a centralized printing and 
dissemination system for Government information has worked to keep the 
American people informed about their Government.
  Mr. President, it was Thomas Jefferson who said, ``To inform the 
minds of people, and to follow their will, is the chief duty of those 
placed at their head.'' That is the purpose of this legislation, the 
very root of the growth of this legislation. We, in a bipartisan 
manner, a friendly manner, desire to be sure that our citizens are 
informed, and that is the reason we are introducing this legislation 
today--to ensure that the American people are informed of the actions 
of their trustees so they can, in turn, inform us of their will.
  This constant exchange of Government information and the people's 
informed will is the cornerstone of our representative democracy, and 
without the free flow of information about the actions of their 
Government, the people's will cannot be ascertained, and democracy is 
jeopardized.
  While the centralized printing and dissemination system provided 
through GPO has served us well over the years, advances in technology, 
and recent Supreme Court rulings regarding separation of powers, have 
taxed the ability of a central agency to ensure that all Government 
information gets into the hands of the American public. So what did we 
do? We sat down, as we are supposed to do, to work out a way to 
continue to strengthen democracy and work the will of the American 
people's representatives. Some have responded that it is time to 
decentralize the dissemination of Government information and disjoin 
the procurement and dissemination functions. I could not disagree more 
strongly.
  Instead, it is time to reform the system and bring it into the 21st 
century

[[Page S7955]]

so that both Government and the American people, through the depository 
library system, can be served for another 100 years through enhanced 
information dissemination and access.
  Title 44 and the Government Printing Office have not undergone a 
major revision in over 30 years. During this time, the Rules Committee 
has held numerous hearings, as my distinguished friend has said, on 
Government printing policies and public access to Government 
information. In the past 2 years, the committee has heard from the 
general public, those in the library community, and at GPO, and from 
officials in the executive and judicial branches, about the challenges 
and also the opportunities facing agencies who must comply with title 
44.
  Mr. President, at the beginning of the 105th Congress--this 
Congress--I outlined what I believed were the 3 principal issues that 
had to be addressed by any reform legislation.
  First, elimination of the constitutional barriers to compliance with 
title 44 created by the administrative oversight functions of the Joint 
Committee on Printing; secondly, the expansion of title 44 to recognize 
the changes in technology, particularly the explosion of electronic 
publishing and the Internet as a means of disseminating Government 
information to the people; third, 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. I use that 
word lovingly.
  The legislation Senator Warner and I are introducing today is 
designed to address these 3 issues in a manner that will ensure, in my 
opinion, the continued free flow of information to the public while at 
the same time recognizing the efficiencies and enhanced opportunity for 
dissemination that technology creates. The legislation reaffirms 
congressional intent, and 100 years of experience, that a centralized 
publishing production and procurement agency best ensures that the 
American public gets the greatest efficiencies for its tax dollar and 
the broadest access to Government information. The proposed legislation 
restructures the Government Printing Office to provide increased 
accountability and efficiencies, while affording the Congress the 
maximum oversight of the agency's policies and regulations.
  This legislation removes the disincentives to compliance with title 
44 by eliminating the constitutional problems created by the Joint 
Committee on Printing. The bill would eliminate the Joint Committee on 
Printing and download those authorities to the agency, with enhanced 
legislative oversight--let me underscore that--enhanced legislative 
oversight and authority over congressional printing by the Senate 
Committee on Rules and Administration and the Committee on House 
Oversight.
  Most importantly, the proposed legislation recognizes the changes in 
technology and updates title 44 to ensure that as government 
information moves from printed material to electronically disseminated 
publications, the American public will continue to be able to access 
that information, at no charge, through the depository libraries. The 
role of the depository libraries is ``key'' to the success of 
government's transition from printed material to new technologies. 
America's libraries provide the safety net that guarantees that this 
Nation does not become a country of information ``haves'' and ``have 
nots.''
  Finally, the bill creates enforcement mechanisms that will ensure 
that agencies comply with title 44 so that the American people continue 
to have access to the decisions of their government, regardless of 
whether those decisions are printed, posted on the Internet, or 
transmitted through some yet undiscovered technology.
  I congratulate my colleague, the distinguished Chairman, and his 
capable staff for their dedication and diligence in crafting this 
legislation. No committee is blessed with better staff. We do fuss and 
fume every once in a while, but we always come out at the right place.

  I want to publicly acknowledge the substantial contribution that the 
library community has made to this effort, particularly the American 
Library Association and the Inter-Association Working Group on 
Government Information Policy, chaired by Mr. Dan P. O'Mahony of Brown 
University.
  I look forward to hearings on this measure in the Rules Committee and 
encourage my colleagues to cosponsor this measure and pass it into law. 
We cannot afford to delay; the very survival of democracy rests on our 
actions.
  I want to also say that those who represent the employees, the 
unions, at the Government Printing Office have been thoroughly involved 
in this decision and just this morning assured me of their enthusiastic 
support of this legislation, because they understand that if they don't 
comply with the needs of the advancement of technology and the desires 
and hopes of the 21st century, they will not last.
  Mr. President, I look forward to hearings on this measure in the 
Rules Committee. I encourage my colleagues to cosponsor this measure 
and to very quickly pass it into law, because I feel we cannot delay. 
We cannot afford to delay. The very survival of democracy rests on our 
actions here today.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. WARNER addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, those of us who are privileged to hear the 
remarks of our distinguished colleague from Kentucky might well clearly 
tell in the tenor of his voice and the forcefulness of his remarks the 
sincerity with which he believes in this very important goal.
  It is my fervent hope that the Senate will act quickly on this 
measure.
  He closed with the comment with regard to unions, which have a very 
important role in the past, today, and, indeed, in the future in the 
publication of our documents. It is the credibility which Mr. Ford 
brings to this institution that enables us to cross that last bridge 
and gain their support.
  The bottom line is that the men and women who work in this system, 
union members and all, want to have a more cost-effective, a more 
productive system, one that is compatible with the rapid movement of 
technology all across our land.
  Mr. President, I thank my colleague. I hope that the Senate will turn 
to this legislation at the earliest possible opportunity. The Committee 
on Rules and Administration will have a hearing and will promptly issue 
a report. At that point, it is my expectation that the distinguished 
majority leader, in consultation with the Democratic leader, will make 
the appropriate decisions at the time.
  I yield the floor.
                                 ______