[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 21, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E399]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM J. BOARMAN, 26TH PUBLIC PRINTER OF THE UNITED STATES

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 21, 2012

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, today I urge all Members to join in 
commending William J. ``Bill'' Boarman, who honorably and skillfully 
led the Government Printing Office, GPO, as the 26th Public Printer 
from January 3, 2011, to January 3, 2012.
  Bill slashed agency spending dramatically by eliminating nonessential 
hires, cutting needless travel, restricting use of overtime and 
reducing the GPO's annual spending plan for 2011 by 15 percent. He held 
the line on salary increases consistently with the President's 
government-wide pay freeze. Bill created a specialized task force to 
collect funds owed to GPO and within months collected over a third of 
the money due, some outstanding for seven years.
  To avoid potential lay-offs in the future, Bill authorized a buyout 
of up to 15 percent of his workforce, but excluding from eligibility 
employees in mission-critical positions. Together with his restrictions 
on new hires, the buyout plan achieved 94 percent of its goal and 
reduced the GPO's staffing to its lowest level in a century. This 
achievement will save GPO and taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in 
future years.
  Bill also worked with the two appropriations committees to provide 
GPO with funding 15 percent below the prior year but which nonetheless 
assures GPO's ability to perform its essential functions. To address 
questions about the work GPO performs for Congress, Bill provided 
persuasive testimony on the value of the printing services that the GPO 
performs while at the same time ordering the first-ever survey of 
Congress's printing requirements. This precedent-setting work, which 
was commended by the House Appropriations Committee, resulted in the 
largest single-year percentage reduction in the number of printed 
Congressional Records delivered to Congress since the GPO began to 
transition to online versions in 1994.
  As a result of these and other efforts, Bill's annual report to 
Congress reported that the GPO ended the year with a net income of $5.6 
million, a positive result validated by an external auditor. Yet Bill's 
leadership at the GPO was about more than cutting costs and improving 
financial returns. He made customer service GPO's primary strategic 
goal, a direction that earned the agency applause in a government-wide 
agency survey. He put GPO on Facebook and ordered the development and 
release of the GPO's first mobile Web application. While continuing the 
development of GPO's online Federal Digital System and the GPO's plan 
for a new automated composition system, he emphasized efficiency and 
agency control over the GPO's digital systems rather than ceding 
operations to contractors. He devised and won approval for a new annual 
investment and spending plan for the GPO that is 6 percent less than 
his previous year's plan, and which puts the GPO on a path finally to 
begin retiring several presses that are more than 30 years old.
  In other areas of the GPO, Bill's achievements were equally 
impressive. For example, he pushed forward with aggressive plans to 
make more GPO space available for lease to other agencies, and at the 
end of the year the GPO was in active negotiations with several 
organizations. As a former proofreader at the GPO, his return to the 
agency restored confidence and bolstered employee morale. Under his 
watch the GPO observed its 150th anniversary, opening an exhibit of its 
history to the public and issuing a new book on its past, Keeping 
America Informed. Last month Bill made GPO history by appointing a 
highly qualified senior manager, Ms. Davita Vance-Cooks, as Deputy 
Public Printer, the first woman ever to hold that post, and with Bill's 
departure, she is today the first woman ever to head the agency.
  Mr. Speaker, Bill Boarman's tenure as Public Printer set a new 
standard of achievement for his successors to emulate. In my judgment, 
the actions of a handful of Senators to block an up-or-down vote on the 
President's nomination of Bill Boarman deprived Congress, Federal 
agencies, and the American public of his faithful service during this 
time of difficult transition when most needed.
  Regardless what may come next, Bill Boarman can leave the Government 
Printing Office confident that GPO is better than when he found it, and 
that he has left it in good and capable hands. Please join me in 
offering the thanks of a grateful Nation to a dedicated public servant. 
We wish Bill only the best.

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