[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 1, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E251]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





  HAPPY ANNIVERSARY AND CONGRATULATIONS TO THE GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING 
                                 OFFICE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROBERT A. BRADY

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 1, 2016

  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, March 4, 2016, marks the 
155th anniversary of the Government Publishing Office (GPO), the 
legislative-branch agency that Congress depends upon every day to 
produce the documents we need to discharge our constitutional 
responsibilities. Opening its doors for business as the Government 
Printing Office the same day that Abraham Lincoln was first inaugurated 
as President, the GPO since that time has worked around the clock in 
support of Congress, Federal agencies, and the right of the American 
people for access to information by and about our Government.
  Where once GPO produced this Government information solely through 
the printing process, in the past generation GPO has transformed itself 
into a digital publisher, reducing dramatically the cost of producing 
Government information while exponentially expanding its reach to the 
public. More than 8,000 staff labored at GPO when it provided print 
only, while today there are about 1,700. Yet because of technology 
changes embraced by GPO the productivity of the 1,700 vastly exceeds 
their predecessors'. That productivity has yielded huge savings for the 
taxpayers and vastly modernized the way we work on behalf of the 
citizens we represent.
  The technological changes the GPO has undergone have not gone 
unnoticed. In 2014, legislation was introduced in the Senate to 
recognize that the GPO is, by virtue of its digital progress, not just 
for printing anymore, and Congress and the President agreed that the 
time had come to change the GPO's name. Today, the GPO is the 
Government Publishing Office, a lean, technologically proficient, and 
thoroughly modern agency under the leadership of Director Davita Vance-
Cooks, a talented manager who understands how to lead and sustain the 
benefits of change.
  For the third year in a row Director Vance-Cooks has sent Congress a 
flat budget request. With her at the helm the GPO's employees have 
rated it one of the best places to work--a big change from how they 
felt ten years ago--and in their work they now turn out one success 
after another. Last year they installed high-efficiency equipment that 
has yielded a significant price reduction in the cost of producing our 
hearings. Last month, they unveiled a new, easy-to-use website that is 
drawing universal praise, including from you, Mr. Speaker.
  Moreover, together with the Library of Congress, GPO employees last 
week launched public access to bulk-data files of bill-status 
information, a move that is further expanding openness and transparency 
to the legislative process. For the future they are poised to support 
the State Department's introduction of the next generation e-Passport 
and in 2017 they will move to a new composition system to speed and 
further reduce the cost of producing documents for Congress and Federal 
agencies.
  Mr. Speaker, in remarks five years ago observing the GPO's 
sesquicentennial, I noted that Benjamin Franklin--America's patron 
saint of printing and Philadelphia's greatest citizen--would be 
surprised and pleased by what the GPO is and does. I can confidently 
say that he would feel the same today. On behalf of all of us in this 
House, congratulations and best wishes to GPO Director Davita Vance-
Cooks and the men and women of the Government Publishing Office. Many 
thanks for all their good work.

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