[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 31 (Thursday, March 3, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E407]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CONGRATULATIONS AND BEST WISHES TO THE GPO

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROBERT A. BRADY

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 3, 2011

  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, March 4, 2011, is the 150th 
anniversary of two important events in the history of our Nation. On 
this day in 1861, not far from this spot, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois 
took the oath of office as the 16th President of the United States. On 
that same day, the United States Government Printing Office opened for 
business, on the very site from which it operates today. From that day 
it has been the source of the legislative documents we need--the 
Congressional Record, hearing transcripts, committee reports, bills, 
calendars, and other congressional documents--in digital and printed 
form to carry out our work for the people we represent.
  The GPO traces its roots to the very beginning of our Republic. At 
the Constitutional Convention of 1787, held in my hometown, Delegate 
James Wilson of Pennsylvania declared, ``The people have a right to 
know what their agents are doing or have done, and it should not be in 
the option of the legislature to conceal their proceedings.'' Wilson's 
words helped lead to the adoption of the requirement in Article I, 
section 5 of the Constitution that ``Each House shall keep a Journal of 
its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same . . .''
  Following the example of Philadelphia's greatest citizen, Benjamin 
Franklin--the patron saint of printing in America, who had been an 
early provider of ``publick printing,'' the documents needed by 
government--the first Congresses took steps to ensure that their 
proceedings, records, and legislative documents were printed and made 
available to the public. By the mid-19th century, however, the high 
costs, ineffective service, and scandals that came to be associated 
with this system prompted Congress to create its own printer, the GPO. 
This effort was rewarded almost immediately with a reduction in costs, 
vastly improved service, and the elimination of scandal. Put to the 
test early in meeting the emergency demands imposed by the Civil War, 
the new GPO carried out its work coolly and professionally, counting 
among its early jobs the printing of the Emancipation Proclamation. In 
the 150 years that followed, this pattern--economy, efficiency, and 
prompt and effective service--continued to repeat itself as GPO, 
quietly and expertly, has carried out its mission of keeping America 
informed.
  As the new Public Printer, William J. Boarman, clearly points out, 
while GPO's past has been about printing, its present and future are 
being defined by digital information technologies. In fact, the GPO 
today is the product of more than a generation of investment in digital 
production and dissemination technologies, an investment that has 
yielded unprecedented improvements in productivity, capability, and 
savings for the taxpayers. Once an agency of more than 8,000 staff and 
employing just 2,200 today, fewer than at any time in the past century, 
the GPO now provides a range of products and activities that could only 
have been dreamed of 30 years ago: online databases of Federal 
documents with state-of-the-art search and retrieval capabilities 
available to the public without charge, Government publications 
available as e-Books, passports and smart cards with electronic chips 
carrying biometric data, print products on sustainable substrates using 
vegetable oil based inks, and a public presence not only on the Web but 
on Twitter, Facebook, and You Tube.
  The work of the GPO is so fundamental to our work that we frequently 
lose sight of all the services they actually provide. We like to say 
that all congressional information is on the Internet, but many of us 
don't seem to know that it's the GPO that puts that information online 
on its site, GPO Access, and now on the successor site, FDsys. GPO's 
legislative information databases are shared with the Library of 
Congress for the operation of the THOMAS information system and for the 
legislative information systems provided by the Library to the House 
and Senate. The GPO makes Senate conference reports available online in 
advance of a vote, and the agency is developing a system for making the 
Constitutional Authority Statements required for House legislation 
available online. The GPO is currently working with the Library of 
Congress to digitize historical documents, including the Statutes at 
Large and the Congressional Record, and in collaboration with the 
Library GPO will provide updated digital access to the Constitution 
Annotated. Since GPO first began computerizing its prepress functions 
in the 1970s, the agency's use of digital information technology has 
generated productivity improvements that have reduced the cost of 
congressional information products by approximately 66% in real 
economic terms. Since GPO first began providing free online access to 
Government documents in the early 1990s, similar reductions have been 
achieved in the cost of disseminating information to the public.
  And the GPO does more than just support Congress. Through GPO's 
efforts, the online Federal Register is being made available in XML to 
support bulk data downloads via data.gov and GPO developed the online 
Federal Register 2.0. GPO's advanced authentication systems, supported 
by Public Key Infrastructure, are an essential component for assuring 
the digital security of congressional and agency documents. GPO 
produces all U.S. passports for the State Department and secure 
credentials for a variety of agencies, including the Department of 
Homeland Security. Passports contain advanced electronic and print 
security systems consistent with international standards and 
agreements. GPO is the only Federal agency certified to graphically 
personalize/print HSPD-12 secure identification cards on a government-
to-government basis. In addition, GPO's partnership with the printing 
industry is responsible for producing 75% of the Government's needs and 
enormous savings to the taxpayer, while supporting tens of thousands of 
jobs in the small printing businesses throughout the Nation, and its 
partnership with more than 1,200 Federal depository libraries across 
the country regularly supplies the Federal information needs of 
millions of students, researchers, businesses, and others every year 
with both digital and print products.
  In a day when we are working hard to cut costs and improve services, 
the GPO provides a model of how an agency with a history of taking 
advantage of technological change has used that capability to generate 
lasting savings while expanding services to Congress, Federal agencies, 
and the public. The dedicated men and women of GPO have resorted 
continually to technology improvements to perform their work more 
efficiently, at one time using ink on paper to set the text for The 
Emancipation Proclamation, and today--as another President from 
Illinois leads the Nation--using e-Books, digital databases, and other 
new and emerging applications to achieve its founding mission of 
Keeping America Informed.
  Mr. Speaker, Benjamin Franklin and the Founding Fathers would be 
surprised and pleased by what the GPO is and does today. On behalf of 
all us in this House who daily rely and depend on the products and 
services the GPO provides, I say congratulations and best wishes to 
Public Printer Bill Boarman and the men and women of the United States 
Government Printing Office, and convey our thanks and deepest 
appreciation for all their hard work.

                          ____________________