[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 6 (Tuesday, January 18, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H207-H209]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    STOP THE OVERPRINTING (STOP) ACT

  Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 292) to amend title 44, United States Code, to eliminate the 
mandatory printing of bills and resolutions by the Government Printing 
Office for the use of the House of Representatives and Senate, as 
amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                                H.R. 292

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

     SECTION 1. ELIMINATION OF MANDATORY PRINTING OF BILLS AND 
                   RESOLUTIONS FOR USE OF OFFICES OF MEMBERS OF 
                   CONGRESS.

       (a) Elimination of Mandatory Printing.--
       (1) In general.--Chapter 7 of title 44, United States Code, 
     is amended by inserting after section 706 the following new 
     section:

     ``Sec. 706A. Prohibiting printing of bills and resolutions 
       for use of offices of Members of Congress

       ``(a) No Printing Permitted.--The Public Printer shall make 
     bills and resolutions available for the use of offices of 
     Members of Congress only in an electronic format which is 
     accessible through the Internet.
       ``(b) Member of Congress Defined.--In this section, a 
     `Member of Congress' means a Senator or a Representative in, 
     or Delegate or Resident Commissioner to, the Congress.''.
       (2) Conforming amendment.--Section 706 of such title is 
     amended--
       (A) by striking ``There shall be printed'' each place it 
     appears and inserting ``Subject to section 706A, there shall 
     be printed''; and
       (B) by striking ``Of concurrent and simple resolutions'' 
     and inserting ``Subject to section 706A, of concurrent and 
     simple resolutions''.
       (3) Clerical amendment.--The table of sections of chapter 7 
     of such title is amended by inserting after the item relating 
     to section 706 the following new item:

``706A. Prohibiting printing of bills and resolutions for use of 
              offices of Members of Congress''.

       (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this Act shall 
     take effect upon the expiration of the 3-month period which 
     begins on the date of the enactment of this Act.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Mississippi (Mr. Harper) and the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. 
Davis) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Mississippi.


                             General Leave

  Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Mississippi?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Lee).
  Mr. LEE of New York. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his 
assistance in bringing this bill to the floor.
  Mr. Speaker, our national debt just recently broke $14 trillion. It 
is well past time for Washington to get serious about cutting spending, 
and that effort starts right here in our own House.
  With this in mind, Speaker Boehner proposed a measure to cut every 
Member's budget by 5 percent. In a 410-13

[[Page H208]]

vote, the measure to save $35 million easily passed. It's called 
leading by example.
  Another simple way to continue this process is by passing legislation 
that I brought up in the last Congress and which became part of the 
YouCut initiative, which gives all taxpayers the ability to vote on 
what Federal spending they want Congress to cut.
  When a Member of Congress introduces or originally cosponsors a bill, 
we automatically receive multiple printed copies of the legislation, 
regardless if we have asked for them.
  When the health care bill was introduced, the Government Printing 
Office printed and delivered over 100,000 pieces of paper to the 
original cosponsors alone. That is just one single piece of legislation 
we're talking about. At the start of Congress, the Small Business 
Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act, which repeals the onerous 1099 
provision of the health care bill, won the support of 245 original 
cosponsors, all of whom will automatically receive multiple printed 
copies of the bill.
  For each bill introduced, there are between 300 and 475 copies 
printed. This overprinting of bills is wasteful and inefficient at a 
time when we need to be tightening our budgetary belts and looking for 
greater efficiencies. In the 111th Congress, nearly 14,000 bills were 
introduced. That is a lot of unnecessary and costly printing.
  That is why I introduced the Stop the OverPrinting Act--to save both 
time and money. This bill is a near mirror image of the legislation I 
introduced last year in H.R. 4640, keeping with the initial intent to 
strictly end the wasteful practice of printing copies of legislation 
for Members.
  However, note that this bill will not hinder the daily operation of 
the House, the archiving process, or affect the transparency that this 
Congress has made a priority. This legislation will lead to significant 
savings each and every year--money that can be used, frankly, for 
better uses.
  With technological advancements, we have become a paperless world. It 
is a waste of taxpayer dollars to automatically print and send multiple 
unsolicited copies of something that is readily available online. 
Should a Member's office truly need a printed copy, they will still be 
available in the document rooms and also in the committees.

                              {time}  1420

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 4 
minutes.
  Mr. LEE of New York. Too many people in Washington don't seem to care 
about the dollar amount unless it has a ``B'' or a ``T'' after it, and 
that is the type of mentality that needs to change here in Washington 
and was mandated in the November elections. We need to be looking for 
cost savings and turning over every possible rock. With our current 
deficit, there should be no such thing as spending cuts just being a 
drop in the bucket. Every dollar and every cent counts in the real 
world, and it should here, too.
  The money we spend here in Congress is not ours; it is the people's. 
House Republicans have been stressing this for some time, and together 
we proposed over $155 billion in savings for taxpayers throughout the 
111th Congress with the YouCut initiative alone. Through this program, 
Americans asked Congress to support spending cuts on a wide variety of 
issues, including the End the Stimulus Advertising Act, which would 
have eliminated the unneeded highway signs notifying the public of 
stimulus-funded projects. With no real purpose, tens of millions of 
dollars could have been saved. Also considered were proposals requiring 
Federal employees to pay back taxes, stopping the cycle of bailouts, 
and putting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac back on budget.
  The American people have spoken loudly that we must get our fiscal 
house in order. While previous efforts to curb wasteful spending were 
not successful, I am hoping that under our new leadership we will have 
far better results.
  I would like to thank the leadership for their support in working to 
implement laws that will reform flawed aspects of our government and 
save taxpayer dollars, be it a dollar, a million, or a billion. I am 
encouraged by the fact that the new majority is listening to the will 
of the people to eliminate inefficiency and waste. Passing the Stop the 
OverPrinting Act today is an important step in beginning this process.
  I urge all my colleagues to support this commonsense bill.
  Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I will support this bill in the form now before the 
House. It certainly bothers me to see multiple copies of bills in our 
office's recycling bins every day. Too many bill copies waste time, 
trees, and taxpayer dollars.
  The gentleman is right to examine this matter and try to effect a 
reduction if appropriate. This amended bill represents a vast 
improvement from the original version. Concerns were raised about the 
original bill's possible adverse effect on the Clerk's staff and others 
who labor in support positions inside the House and Senate, so I 
commend the gentleman for listening to concerns and making sensible 
changes.
  As we consider this bill, we must remember that our democracy doesn't 
work well without transparency in government. Nobody wants to disrupt 
the legislative process inadvertently or to make it harder for any 
Americans to read the bills.
  Although we can't forget that while many Americans still do not have 
adequate access to the Internet, all congressional offices certainly 
have the ability to obtain their own bill copies when they need to. So 
this bill rightly maintains public access to important documents while 
saving the people's money.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge an ``aye'' vote, and I yield back the balance of 
my time.
  Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 292, the STOP Act, which 
ends the automatic overprinting of bills and resolutions by the 
Government Printing Office for distribution to Members of the House of 
Representatives and Senate.
  I would also like to thank Ranking Member Brady and Chairman Lungren 
for their support on this matter.
  Mr. Speaker, let me emphasize that this bill is not a criticism of 
the GPO nor its hardworking employees. The GPO does--and does well--
what Congress directs it to do. We are simply looking for ways and 
opportunities to reduce the cost of government.
  Since its establishment in 1860, the GPO has been the printer of 
record for our Congressional Record, committee reports, the well-
respected Constitution Annotated, the Federal Register, and many other 
historic and necessary documents that this institution and our 
government need to do our collective work. But, Mr. Speaker, in this 
112th Congress, well into the 21st century, in an age of iPads, 
Kindles, BlackBerries, and iPhones, it is simply no longer necessary to 
require excess printing and the delivery to our offices of thousands 
and thousands of pages of bills and resolutions which simply end up in 
the trash.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 292 is another initial step in this majority's 
continued commitment to reducing unnecessary government spending, 
addressing our deficit and debt, and finding greater efficiencies 
within our governmental offices and agencies. With over 8,000 bills and 
resolutions introduced in the 111th Congress and multiple copies of 
each distributed to Members, eliminating this unnecessary printing and 
wasteful spending is a small, but productive, first step, and we will 
continue to look at other House operations for ways in which we might 
further reduce the cost of government. Mr. Speaker, this bill is a 
commonsense measure which prudently adjusts our modern-day mechanisms 
of government to the times in which we live.
  I might also add that there will be an environmental benefit as well. 
With reduced energy and paper needs, the GPO's demand for paper and our 
resources will be reduced by this act, helping us continue our 
commitment to be better stewards of our environment, our natural 
resources, and, of course, our House operations.
  As we promised in the Pledge to America and as we have promised here 
on the floor during these initial days of the 112th Congress and as we 
have tangibly verified by our transparency-enhanced Rules Package, our 
bipartisan

[[Page H209]]

vote to trim Congress' budget, and now through this bill, this 
Republican majority is committed to fiscal stewardship, to having a 
hawkish and relentless eye towards waste and inefficiency, and a 
continued commitment throughout this 112th Congress to reduce spending, 
create private sector jobs, and challenge ourselves not just in word 
and rhetoric but, more importantly, in action and meaningful 
legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill, introduced by my good colleague from New 
York, should garner overwhelming bipartisan support. I thank him for 
introducing it and for his commitment to a more responsible and 
efficient stewardship of taxpayer dollars. I urge all of my colleagues 
to support this matter.
  Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the STOP 
Act.
  First we reduced congressional budgets and now I stand in support of 
another bill that seeks to do what my constituents have asked me to do: 
Find ways reducing the federal deficit and saving taxpayer money. The 
STOP Act accomplishes this by helping the government operate more 
efficiently, stop wasteful spending and all the while helping the 
environment.
  I have often heard the lament from small business owners across my 
district we would all be better off if government were run more like a 
business. Today, for businesses in Quakertown, Bensalem, and in 
between, many transactions are now entirely paperless. With this bill, 
Congress is taking a step in that direction.
  Going hand-in-hand with efficiency, the STOP Act will also help end 
wasteful spending in government. Mr. Speaker, without the STOP Act, 
Congress will spend seven million dollars this year alone on printing 
costs. In the last Congress, there were nearly 14,000 different bills 
introduced. Some of those bills, like last year's healthcare law, ran 
thousands of pages in length. In an era when constituents in Bucks 
County and across Pennsylvania's eighth congressional district are 
being forced to find every savings in their household budget, so should 
Congress. The STOP Act will trim 35 million dollars from the 
operational budget of Congress over the next 10 years.
  The STOP Act will also end needless waste that harms our environment. 
All across America citizens are pitching in to do their part for the 
environment. Shoppers in Langhorne carry their own reusable bags to 
Geunardi's grocery store, families in Bristol install compact 
fluorescent light bulbs in their homes, and countless civic groups and 
businesses across our nation and across the eighth district of 
Pennsylvania adopt highways to keep our roads clean and our environment 
healthy. If citizens are asked and expected to do their part, Congress 
must do the same.
  The STOP Act is an important demonstration to Americans that this 
Congress is serious about ending government waste, ending government 
inefficiencies and ending needless overuse of environmental resources.
  Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Harper) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 292, as amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

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