[Senate Report 105-413]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



                                                       Calendar No. 719
105th Congress                                                   Report
                                 SENATE

 2d Session                                                     105-413
_______________________________________________________________________


 
       WENDELL H. FORD GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS REFORM ACT OF 1998

                                _______
                                

  October 16 (legislative day, October 2), 1998--Ordered to be printed

_______________________________________________________________________


 Mr. Warner, from the Committee on Rules and Administration, submitted 
                             the following

                              R E P O R T

                         [To accompany S. 2288]

    The Committee on Rules and Administration, to which was 
referred 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, having considered the 
same, reports favorably S. 2288 with an amendment in the nature 
of a substitute, and recommends that the bill, the ``Wendell H. 
Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998,'' do pass.

                               I. Purpose

    The purposes of the ``Wendell H. Ford Government 
Publications Reform Act of 1998'' (S. 2288) are to:
          (1) reform the oversight and management of the 
        production, dissemination, and permanent public access 
        to Federal Government publications;
          (2) guarantee permanent public access to publications 
        produced by or for the Federal Government, regardless 
        of their form or format;
          (3) facilitate the efficient and economical 
        production, dissemination, and permanent public access 
        to Government publications; and,
          (4) limit the Federal Government's internal printing 
        and publication production capacity and to promote the 
        procurement of printing and publication production from 
        competitively selected private sector commercial 
        sources to the maximum extent practicable consistent 
        with this Act.

                        II. Summary and Overview

                               BACKGROUND

    Since the earliest days of the Federal government, most 
aspects of government information policy and practice have been 
established by Congress. Statutory provision was made in the 
early years, for example, for the printing and distribution of 
both laws and treaties, the preservation of state papers, and 
the maintenance of official files in the new departments. Just 
before the nation erupted in civil war, a permanent printing 
organization--the Government Printing Office (GPO)--was 
statutorily mandated to produce all public printing.
    Statutory provisions governing public printing by the 
federal government, including production, dissemination, 
management, and oversight, are largely concentrated in the 
opening chapters of Title 44 of the United States Code. GPO is 
designated the principal agent for almost all federal 
government printing. Oversight responsibility for the GPO 
printing system is vested principally in the Joint Committee on 
Printing (JCP), which also is authorized to exercise 
discretionary remedial powers to improve public printing 
operations and the distribution of government publications. 
Much of the content of the public printing chapters of title 44 
derives from the Printing Act of 1895, the first comprehensive 
government printing law. This body of law has been amended and 
modified by Congress from time to time to accommodate changing 
technology and policy developments. During the past two 
decades, however, monumental challenges have arisen which have 
prompted a reconsideration of government printing policy and 
practice and the provisions of title 44 prescribing them. Among 
the challenges prompting this reconsideration are:
          Identified weaknesses, and the consequent inability, 
        of the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP) to force 
        agencies to produce and disseminate their publications 
        through the Government Printing Office (GPO);
          Open encouragement of the current Administration--
        through strategic decisions and through the National 
        Performance Review (NPR)--for agencies to use other 
        printing and dissemination facilities;
          Evolutions in technology; and,
          GPO's slow response to technological change and 
        seeming unresponsiveness to agency needs, demands, and 
        expectations.

                    THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING

    For over 150 years, oversight responsibility for the GPO 
printing and dissemination system has been vested principally 
in the JCP. Composed of the senior members of the House 
Committee on House Oversight and the Senate Committee on Rules 
and Administration, the JCP is empowered to ``use any measures 
it considers necessary to remedy neglect, delay, duplication, 
or waste in the public printing and binding and the 
distribution of Government publications.'' Although it is not a 
legislative committee, the JCP contributes to the management of 
the GPO printing and dissemination system through various 
administrative techniques, a major one being the promulgation 
and administration of government printing and binding 
regulations.
    In 1983, the Supreme Court's decision in INS v. Chadha 
found adoption of a simple resolution by one congressional 
chamber to veto executive action or policy unconstitutional 
because it was an exercise of legislative power which did not 
follow the constitutional prescribed lawmaking process: 
bicameral consideration and presentation of a bill or joint 
resolution to the President for his signature or veto. The 
legislative veto authority of Congress was invalidated, and 
with its invalidation, the Department of Justice and the Office 
of Management and Budget (OMB) began to question the 
longstanding assumption that Congress, through the JCP, had 
plenary authority to control public printing throughout the 
Federal government.
    At the heart of the controversy has been JCP's historic 
prerogative, virtually unchallenged until Chadha, to control 
all aspects of public printing through its statutory authority 
to ``use any measures it considers necessary to remedy neglect, 
delay, duplication, or waste in the public printing and binding 
and the distribution of Government publications.'' 1 
Thus, while the Public Printer was appointed by the President, 
for all practical purposes he was beholden to and controlled by 
the Congress through the JCP.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ 44 U.S.C. 103 (1994).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Through a series of challenges and interpretations since 
the Supreme Court's decision, the Senate Committee on Rules and 
Administration now recognizes that the role of Congress, 
through the JCP, in the control and management of government 
printing and publications dissemination is a serious impediment 
to the cooperative development between the Executive, Judicial 
and Legislative Branches of effective, efficient and 
appropriate public printing policies for the 21st century.

                      ADMINISTRATION ENCOURAGEMENT

    While previous Administrations may have been reticent about 
complying with title 44, United States Code, the Clinton 
Administration has been notably aggressive in its efforts to 
change government printing and dissemination practices. Through 
Justice Department opinions (discussed above) and subsequent 
guidance provided agencies by the Office of Management and 
Budget, and through the National Performance Review (NPR), 
efforts were made to do through administrative fiat what could 
not be done by law.
    The NPR made three specific recommendations, and at least a 
half dozen related recommendations, which, while government-
wide in their application, were particularly relevant to GPO 
and how it did business.
    The three specific recommendations were:
          Sup01: Authorize the Executive Branch to establish a 
        printing policy that will eliminate the current 
        printing monopoly;
          Sup02: Ensure public access to Federal information; 
        and,
          It03: Develop integrated electronic access to 
        government information and services.

Sup01

    The first recommendation was predicated in part on a 1990 
General Accounting Office (GAO) report which characterized 
GPO's centralized function as a monopoly.
    Despite the fact that GPO serves as a facility through 
which 80 percent of the printing and publication services it 
provides are procured through a highly competitive process from 
private-sector contractors, the NPR declared:

          The GPO is the mandatory source for obtaining 
        congressional and executive branch printing . . . GPO 
        charges overhead of 6 to 9 percent for each print order 
        it forwards to private sector printers. Agencies 
        complain that printing done in-house by GPO costs 50 
        percent more than printing done in the commercial 
        sector . . . Congress should take the necessary steps 
        to clearly give the executive branch the authority to 
        make its own printing policy.

    The recommendation called for a policy to be developed by 
the General Services Administration (GSA) with the cooperation 
of the Interagency Council on Printing and Publication Services 
which:
          Was to take full advantage of the rapid changes in 
        printing technology;
          Was to exclude desk top publishing and xerographic 
        processes from the definition of printing;
          Was to emphasize out-sourcing traditional printing;
           Was to give agencies authority to choose both their 
        procurement agent and the type of equipment they may 
        wish to use for their own in-plant production;
          Was to minimize reporting requirements; and,
          Was to ensure continued dissemination of printed 
        information to the Depository Library Program.
    Because of the nature of the definition and the emphasis on 
a particular type of technology--this recommendation would have 
greatly reduced the amount of information agencies would be 
required to make permanently accessible to the public through 
the Federal Depository Library Program.

Sup02

    The second major recommendation of the NPR proposed:
          That each agency in the executive branch be given the 
        responsibility for distributing their own printed 
        federal information to the depository libraries;
          That the GSA develop a plan to ensure that 
        distribution occurs;
          That a locator system for public access be developed; 
        and,
          That one-stop shopping facilities be established for 
        the sale of Federal documents.
    Under this scenario, the Superintendent of Documents would 
no longer be responsible for either assuring dissemination to 
the Federal Depository Libraries, nor would Superintendent 
Documents be the principal publications seller for the Federal 
Government. Ostensibly, what few remaining ``printed'' 
materials executive agencies would produce would be offered 
through a GSA sponsored facility.
    As to the locator system, no clear responsibility for its 
development was spelled out. It was to be everyone's and no 
one's.

It03:

    To develop integrated electronic access to government 
information and services, the NPR directed that:
          A Government Information Working Group should charter 
        an interagency team to coordinate, recommend, and 
        implement information technology initiatives to improve 
        customer service;
          An integrated, government-wide national, one-stop 
        800-number calling service be implemented;
          A program of an integrated one-stop government 
        service kiosks be implemented;
          An integrated, government-wide one-stop electronic 
        bulletin board system be implemented; and,
          Work be undertaken with private industry to advance 
        the implementation of technologies that provide citizen 
        access to government information and services.
    Because of Congressional leadership in this area, GPO 
ACCESS, the Federal government's main on-line source of access 
to hundreds of Federal government agency web sites, as well as 
the documents of the past several Congresses, the Federal 
Register, the Commerce and Business Daily, and other recent, 
key Federal government electronic and digital publications, 
exists today. The Government Information Locator System (GILS) 
is also operational. However, it is not--to date--as 
comprehensive, or user friendly as it was originally 
envisioned.

                               TECHNOLOGY

    Information technology is revolutionizing the way people 
everywhere do virtually everything. Nowhere, however, has the 
impact of information technology been seen and felt more 
dramatically than in the printing and dissemination of 
government information. Today, the government publications 
which used to take months to write, edit, layout, and print 
require only a fraction of the time and energy to create. Once 
created, these publications are almost instantly available to 
their intended publics via the Internet, or through high speed, 
high volume, print-on-demand systems.
    This technology is relatively easy to use. The quality and 
variety of material it can produce, and the speed and cost at 
which it can be produced compared to traditional processes make 
it a ready choice. Additionally, the arcane definitions of 
printing in title 44, United States Code, invites agencies to 
use the new technology whenever possible.
    The down-side for those who advocate permanent public 
access, however, is that, as quickly as much of this 
information is produced, it is destroyed. Web pages go up and 
come down daily. Publications produced and disseminated 
electronically are easily and readily changed, and sometimes 
discarded without any provision made for either public access 
or archiving.

                       GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

    Giving credibility to the Administration's campaign to free 
itself from the requirements of title 44, United States Code, 
is the widely held perception that GPO is not responsive to the 
needs, desires, and expectations of its customers, and that it 
is slow to adopt new technology. Numerous GAO reports on both 
the regulatory environment and the management of GPO over the 
decade before the NPR lent further credence to these 
perceptions.
    In May 1998, the GAO issued a voluminous management audit 
of the Government Printing Office which addressed six specific 
areas:
          Superintendent of Documents Sales Program--
        Appropriateness and adequacy of policies and procedures 
        involving publication inventory management;
          Printing Procurement Program--Adequacy and 
        effectiveness of organization, operation, staffing, 
        marketing, financing, procedures for contracting 
        printing services from private vendors, and the process 
        for determining charges for printing and other services 
        provided to Congress and executive branch agencies;
          In-plant production--Ways to improve efficiency and 
        cost effectiveness, praticularly organization, product 
        mix, management, staffing, processes for determining 
        charges for printing and other services provided to 
        Congress and the executive branch agencies;
          Personnel--Adequacy and appropriateness of personel 
        matters, including training, deployment, and 
        supervisory structure;
          Budgeting, accounting, and financial reporting 
        systems--Adequacy and completeness of methodology, 
        presentation, clarity, reliability, and ease of 
        interpretation; and,
          Financial and other management-related observations 
        and recommendations identified during the audit of 
        GPO's consolidated financial statement for the year 
        ending September 30, 1995--Status of GPO's actions 
        regarding the observations and recommendations.
    In sum, the auditors, Booz-Allen & Hamilton observed:

          In the course of our analysis, overarching issues 
        arose that, by their nature, affect the organization as 
        a whole. These issues deal with the future and overall 
        organization of GPO and the lack of strategic planning 
        with GPO.
          Although, from the customer perspective, there is 
        little support for eliminating GPO, there is strong 
        desire on the part of customers to improve the 
        efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. The 
        congressional focus group agreed unanimously that the 
        Congress needs a printing capability over which they 
        have control. Similarly, when we met with 
        representatives from the executive branch agencies, we 
        found universal support for GPO's printing procurement 
        services. Finally, disseminating government information 
        to the public is an inherent government responsibility, 
        and we found no evidence that people believe otherwise. 
        In response to these findings, we recommend that GPO 
        focus its energy on creating a future-oriented 
        organizational structure and on developing and adopting 
        new plans and business processes that focus more on 
        where GPO and its customers want it to be and less on 
        where it has been.

               THE LEGISLATIVE RESPONSE--Title 44 Reform

    In light of these conditions, and the concerns expressed to 
the Congress by a wide range of interests, the Senate Committee 
on Rules and Administration and the House Committee on House 
Oversight began a concerted effort in 1995 to identify a 
workable reform. In the Summer of 1995, the House Committee on 
House Oversight held hearings on GPO operations and the problem 
of ``fugitive documents''. These hearings were followed in 1996 
by a series of hearings by the Senate Committee on Rules and 
Administration. At the end of the 104th Congress, the chairman 
of the Joint Committee on Printing, Congressman Bill Thomas, 
introduced H.R. 4280, a broad proposal to reform title 44, 
United States Code.
    At the start of the 105th Congress, the Senate Committee on 
Rules and Administration, responding to the testimony received 
in 1996, and with a concurrent consensus of the membership of 
the Joint Committee on Printing, undertook an initiative to 
solve four key issues related to title 44, United States Code. 
These issues were:
          1. Resolve the conflict between the branches of the 
        Federal Government which hampers efficient production 
        and thwarts permanent access to the Federal 
        Government's publications;
          2. Facilitate production and public access to 
        Government publications by the establishment of 
        mechanisms that assure the efficient and economical 
        production of publications and an effective and 
        equitable system of dissemination;
          3. Guarantee the right of the public to access 
        publications produced by the Federal Government; and,
          4. Promote public availability of Government 
        information in the electronic age through a Federal 
        publications access program that provides no-fee 
        availability, regardless of format.
    The chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and 
Administration authorized that a working group comprised of 
Republicans and Democrats, representatives of House and Senate 
members, representatives of the Administration, and 
representatives of virtually every organization or body which 
might have an interest in this issue be established.
    Subsequently, the Committee held three more hearings during 
the spring of 1997, and on July 10, 1998, Senators Warner and 
Ford introduced S. 2288, the Wendell H. Ford Government 
Publications Reform Act of 1998. As introduced, the measure 
reflected the input of the library community on behalf of the 
Federal Depository Library Program, the union leadership and 
management of the Government Printing Office, the private 
sector information industry, the private sector printing 
industry, printing officers in the House of Representatives and 
the Senate, and several Executive branch agencies.

Separation of powers

    Title I of S. 2288 decisively and completely removes the 
constitutional obstacle that has been the source of the 
interbranch stalemate. The measure conforms the printing 
establishment to the constitutional principles of separation of 
powers. This is accomplished by abolishing the Joint Committee 
on Printing and eliminating all direct congressional controls 
over Executive and Judicial Branch printing.2 
Hereafter, Congress will exercise only traditional oversight 
over public printing through its authorizing and appropriating 
committees of jurisdiction.3
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ Section 101, 102, 105, and 506 (9), (10).
    \3\ Section 103(a), 105, 506 (1)-(8).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Second, the new Administrator of the GPO, and his two chief 
assistants, the Superintendent of Government Publications 
Production and Procurement Services and the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs, are all appointed by 
the President with the advice and consent of the 
Senate.4 The three officials serve at the pleasure 
of the President.5 The Administrator is vested with 
the authority to ``use any measures [he] considers necessary to 
carry out the duties and powers of the office and to remedy 
neglect, delay, duplication, or waste in the production, 
procurement, and dissemination of the Federal Government's 
publications, and to enhance and expand the dissemination of, 
and maintenance of permanent public access to, the Federal 
Government's publications, and to issue all regulations 
necessary to implement the purposes of legislation.'' 
6 Both Superintendents are subject to the direction 
of the Administrator in the performance of their 
duties.7 Thus, the President has plenary control of 
those officials who will administer the new GPO.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ New Sections 301(a), 502(a), and 1903(a) of title 44.
    \5\ It is well settled that, in the face of statutory silence, the 
power of removal is presumptively incident to the power of appointment 
and that a statutory term of office (the Superintendents each serve 
five year terms) merely sets the outer limits of the tenure of an 
incumbent. Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52, 161 (1926); Shurtleff 
v. United States, 189 U.S. 311, 318 (1903); Reagan v. United States, 
182 U.S. 419, 426-27 (1902); In re Hennen, 38 U.S. (13 Pet.) 230, 259 
(1839).
    \6\ New Section 301(b) of title 44.
    \7\ New Section 310(a)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Finally, the proposed legislation reestablishes the 
Government Printing Office as the ``Government Publications 
Office, an independent entity in the Federal Government, 
independent of executive agencies.'' 8 The intention 
here is to continue in the new GPO the historical recognition 
of its necessary independence from the executive agencies that 
it will regulate and the fact that it will service the printing 
and procurement requirements of agencies in all three branches. 
The reaffirmation of GPO's unique mission will, therefore, 
require continued funding under the annual Legislative Branch 
appropriations measure, placing GPO's annual budget under the 
requirements of 31 U.S.C. 9104. The maintenance of these 
historical vestiges of independence, in view of the overall 
structural nature of the new GPO, raises no substantial 
separation of powers concerns under current Supreme Court 
separation jurisprudence.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\ Section 201(b)(2).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Only where the object of the exercise of legislative power 
is clearly seen in the particular situation as an attempt at 
aggrandizement or encroachment have the courts felt constrained 
to intervene. See, e.g., Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976) 
(Congress may not appoint executive officials performing 
substantial functions under the law); Bowsher v. Synar, 478 
U.S. 714, 732 (1986)(Congress may not retain removal power over 
an officer performing executive functions); INS v. Chadha, 462 
U.S. 919 (1983) (Congress may not exercise legislative power 
without conforming to the constitutionally prescribed lawmaking 
power); Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority v. CAAN, 501 
U.S. 252 (1991) (Board of Review composed of Members of 
Congress could not exercise veto power over operational 
decisions of Airports Authority); Hechinger v. Metropolitan 
Washington Airports Authority Board of Review, 36 F. 3d 97 
(D.C. Cir. 1994), cert. denied, 115 S. Ct. 934 (1995) (Board of 
Review which could only recommend and delay, but not veto, the 
operational decisions of the Airports Authority held to be an 
unconstitutional direct exercise of congressional influence); 
Federal Election Commissioner v. NRA Political Victory Fund, 6 
F. 3d 821 (D.C.Cir. 1993), cert denied for want of 
jurisdiction, 115 S. Ct. 537 (1994) (congressional appointment 
of two of its agents as non-voting members of the Commission 
who could attend all business meetings of the agency held 
unconstitutional).
    Beyond such direct congressional intrusions on agency 
decision making, however, the Supreme Court has been generous 
in broadly defining the legislative authority to structure the 
administrative bureaucracy. It has upheld congressional actions 
lengthening and shortening terms of office and abolishing 
offices altogether, Crenshaw, v. United States, 134 U.S. 99, 
105-6 (1890); Lewis v. United States, 244 U.S. 1345 (1917); 
limiting the removal power of the President, Morrison v. Olson, 
487 U.S. 654 (1988); locating an independent agency performing 
executive functions in the judicial branch, Mistretta v. United 
States, 488 U.S. 361 (1989); allowing an agency to assume 
jurisdiction over state-law counterclaims, Commodity Futures 
Trading Commission v. Schor, 473 U.S. 833 (1986); empowering 
the Attorney General to determine what substances would be 
criminal and to prosecute violations, Touby v. United States, 
500 U.S. 160 (1991); and establishing the qualifications for 
holding office, Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52, 128, 129 
(1926).
    This case law has established that it is the nature of the 
appointment of the officer performing the executive functions 
and who has the power to remove that officer, rather than the 
location of the entity, that is critical to determining the 
constitutionality of a particular legislative scheme. The 
Committee's proposal, which vests the appointment and removal 
of the Administrator and the two Superintendents exclusively in 
the President, and which eliminates all direct congressional 
intrusions on GPO's decision making processes (other than 
normal congressional oversight and the passage of legislation), 
is well within the permissible limits of the separation 
doctrine. The Court's decision in Mistretta v. United States, 
supra, holding that the placement of an agency with executive 
powers and functions outside the Executive Branch did not raise 
significant constitutional questions, is perhaps most apposite 
to the legislation under consideration.
    In Mistretta, the Court rejected a separation of powers 
challenge to the United States Sentencing Commission. 
Petitioners argued that the Commission, an independent agency 
in the Judicial Branch vested with power to promulgate binding 
sentencing guidelines, violated the separation doctrine by its 
placement in the Judicial Branch, by requiring federal judges 
to serve on the Commission and to share their authority with 
nonjudges, by empowering the President to appoint Commission 
members, but limiting his power to remove them only for cause, 
and by vesting the Commission with binding rulemaking 
authority.
    At the outset of its opinion, the Court reiterated its 
understanding of Congress's broad authority to create and to 
fashion the responsibilities and functions of agencies. 
Brushing aside an argument that Congress could not locate an 
agency with no judicial powers in the Judicial Branch, the 
majority held:

          Our constitutional principles of separated powers are 
        not violated, however, by mere anomaly or innovation . 
        . . Congress' decision to create an independent 
        rulemaking body to promulgate sentencing guidelines and 
        to locate that body within the Judicial Branch is not 
        unconstitutional unless Congress has vested in the 
        Commission powers that are more appropriately performed 
        by the other Branches or that undermine the integrity 
        of the Judiciary. (488 U.S. at 385)

    The Court found none. Rulemaking, it held, is not a 
uniquely executive function.

          None of our cases indicate that rulemaking per se is 
        a function that may not be performed by an entity 
        within the Judicial Branch, either because rulemaking 
        is inherently nonjudicial or because it is a function 
        exclusively committed to the Executive Branch. (Id. at 
        386)

    Nor was the ``significantly political nature of the 
Commission's work,'' i.e., that the promulgation of the 
sentencing guidelines involves making policy judgments and 
choices, a significant infirmity.
    Our separation-of-powers analysis does not turn on the 
labeling of an activity as ``substantive'' as opposed to 
``procedural,'' or ``political'' as opposed to ``judicial . . 
.'' Rather our inquiry is focused on the ``unique aspects of 
the congressional plan at issue and its practical consequences 
in light of the larger concerns that underlie Article III.'' 
Using this pragmatic approach, the Court noted that, although 
the Commission is located in the Judicial Branch, its 
rulemaking powers are separate from those of the judiciary. The 
Commission is not a court and is not controlled by or 
accountable to, members of the judiciary. Moreover, the 
Commission is an independent agency accountable to Congress, 
which can revoke any or all of the guidelines at any time; its 
members are subject to the President's limited removal powers; 
and its rules are subject to the notice and comment 
requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act. Thus, the 
Court concluded, ``because Congress vested the power to 
promulgate sentencing guidelines in an independent agency, not 
a court, there can be no serious argument that Congress 
combined legislative and judicial power within the Judicial 
Branch.'' (Id. at 354)
    The Court summarized its holdings as follows:

          We conclude that in creating the Sentencing 
        Commission--an unusual hybrid in structure and 
        authority--Congress neither delegated excessive 
        legislative power nor upset the constitutionally 
        mandated balance of powers among the coordinate 
        Branches. The Constitution's structural protections do 
        not prohibit Congress from delegating to an expert body 
        located within the Judicial Branch the intricate task 
        of formulating sentencing guidelines consistent with 
        such significant statutory direction as it presents 
        here. Nor does our system of checked and balanced 
        authority prohibit Congress from calling upon the 
        accumulated wisdom and experience of the Judicial 
        Branch in creating policy on a matter uniquely within 
        the ken of judges. Accordingly, we hold that the Act is 
        not unconstitutional. (Id. at 412)

    Mistretta also lends substantial support to the 1978 Fourth 
Circuit decision in Eltra Corporation v. Ringer, 579 F.2d 294 
(4th Cir. 1978), which upheld the performance of executive 
functions by the Copyright Office, a component part of the 
Library of Congress which, of course, is located in the 
Legislative Branch. In that case the appeals court affirmed a 
lower ruling dismissing a mandamus action brought to compel the 
Register of Copyrights to register a proposed copyright as a 
``work of art.'' Among the contentions of the appellant was the 
claim that the Register of Copyrights is a legislative office 
and cannot perform executive functions since it is part of the 
Library of Congress which, through the Congressional Research 
Service (CRS), performs exclusively legislative functions as a 
support agency for the Congress. As a consequence of this 
activity, it was urged, the Library as a whole must be deemed 
legislative in character and its copyright functions cannot be 
lawfully exercised, citing the Supreme Court's then recent 
decision in Buckley v. Valeo, supra, as controlling authority. 
The appellant also argued that receipt of its annual 
appropriation in the Legislative Branch appropriations 
legislation was a determinative indication that it was a 
legislative branch agency incapable of exercising executive 
functions. The appeals court unequivocally rejected these 
arguments in an opinion in which it delineated the executive 
character of the Library despite the unique presence of CRS, 
the constitutional necessity of presidential appointment of the 
Librarian, the irrelevance of receiving funding under the 
Legislative Branch appropriations measure, and the 
appropriateness of the appointment of the Register by the 
Librarian.

          The registration of copyrights cannot be likened to 
        the gathering of information ``relevant to the 
        legislative process'' nor does the Register perform a 
        function ``which Congress might devolve to one of its 
        own committees.'' The operations of the Office of the 
        Register are administrative and the Register must 
        accordingly owe his appointment, as he does, to 
        appointment by one who is in turn appointed by the 
        President in accordance with the Appointments Clause. 
        It is irrelevant that the Office of the Librarian of 
        Congress is codified under the legislative branch or 
        that it receives its appropriation as a part of the 
        legislative appropriation. The Librarian performs 
        certain functions which may be regarded as legislative 
        (i.e. Congressional Research Service) and other 
        functions (such as the Copyright Office) which are 
        executive or administrative. Because of its hybrid 
        character, it could have been grouped code-wise under 
        either the legislative or executive department. But 
        such code-grouping cannot determine whether a given 
        function is executive or legislative. After all, the 
        Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, under which the 
        Federal Election Commission reviewed in Buckley was 
        appointed, is codified under the legislative heading 
        and its appropriations were made under the heading. 
        Neither the Supreme Court nor the parties in Buckley 
        regarded that fact as determinative of the character of 
        the Commission, whether legislative or executive. It is 
        not more permissible to argue, as the appellant did in 
        the article in the George Washington Law Review, that 
        the mere codification of the Library of Congress and 
        the Copyright Office under the legislative branch 
        placed the Copyright Office ``within the constitutional 
        confines of a legislative agency'' than it would be to 
        contend that the Federal Election Commission, despite 
        the 1974 amendment of the Act with reference to the 
        appointment of its members, is a legislative agency 
        unconstitutionally exercising executive administrative 
        authority.

    The Supreme Court has properly assumed over the decades 
since 1909 that the Copyright Office is an executive office, 
operating under the direction of an Officer of the United 
States and as such is operating under the direction of an 
Officer of the United States in conformity with the 
Appointments Clause. The challenges of the appellant to the 
constitutionality of the 1909 Act and to the Register's power 
thereunder, would, if properly before us, be without merit. 
(579 F.2d at 300-01 (footnotes omitted))
    The Committee's proposed restructuring of GPO is neither 
anomalous or innovative. It abandons Congress' unconstitutional 
direct control of GPO's executive decision making; allows the 
President unfettered removal power over his appointees who are 
to administer the agency; and maintains the agency's historic 
and prophylactic independence from the agencies it is directed 
to regulate. The scheme plainly is in accord with separation of 
powers principles.
    The authorities of the Joint Committee on Printing over 
Congressional printing are transferred to the House Committee 
on House Oversight and the Senate Committee on Rules and 
Administration (acting respectively for each house or jointly 
for both houses of Congress). The legislative oversight 
jurisdiction for the Government Publications Office remains 
with the House Committee on House Oversight and Senate 
Committee on Rules and Administration, and the appropriations 
authority for the Government Publications Office remains with 
the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittees.
    Title I also provides that the current Government Printing 
and Binding Regulations administered by the Joint Committee on 
Printing shall stay in effect and be administered by the 
Administrator of the Government Publications Office until final 
regulations are published by the Administrator under 
authorities provided in Title II of the Act. Additionally, all 
waivers and other provisions required of executive and judicial 
branch agencies by the Joint Committee on Printing before the 
date of enactment of the Act shall remain in effect until 120 
days following final promulgation of regulations authorized 
under Title II of the Act. The purposes of these provisions are 
to minimize disruption of printing and dissemination activities 
of government agencies during the implementation of this 
legislation, and to ensure that, at some point early in the 
life of the newly established Government Publications Office, 
there is a reconciliation of waiver and exemption records 
between the Government Publications Office and the government 
agencies.

Efficient and economical production and dissemination

    Titles II, III, and IV of the Act facilitate production of 
Government printing and public access to Government 
publications by establishing a mechanism that assures the 
efficient and economical production of Government printing and 
publications and an effective and equitable system of 
dissemination.
    Title II amends current chapter 3, title 44, United States 
Code, ``Government Printing Office'', by abolishing the 
Government Printing Office and transferring its authorities, 
responsibilities, and functions to the Government Publications 
Office, an independent entity in the Federal government, 
independent of executive agencies.
    As noted earlier:

          The intention here is to continue to the new GPO the 
        historical recognition of its necessary independence 
        from the executive agencies that it will regulate and 
        the fact that it will service the printing and 
        procurement requirements of agencies in all three 
        branches. The reaffirmation of GPO's unique mission 
        will, therefore, require continued funding under the 
        annual Legislative Branch appropriations measure and 
        placing GPO's annual budget under the requirements of 
        31 U.S.C. 9104. The maintenance of these historical 
        vestiges of independence, in view of the overall 
        structural nature of the new GPO, raises no substantial 
        separation of powers concerns under current Supreme 
        Court separation jurisprudence.

    Because the agency is ``an independent entity in the 
Federal government, independent of executive agencies'', the 
Committee believes the general management laws which govern the 
operations of other Federal agencies should apply selectively 
to the Government Publications Office. In large part, the 
Committee is concerned that no new constitutional separation of 
powers issues are raised by making the agency generally subject 
to requirements or practices imposed on the agencies and 
offices of any single branch. Nonetheless, the Act requires 
that the laws applicable to the Government Printing Office on 
the day before the effective date of this Act will be 
applicable to the Government Publications Office, and that the 
Administrator adopt policies, procedures, and regulations 
appropriate to the agency which incorporate provisions of the 
general management laws identified at Sec. 201(c)(2) of the Act 
and any future general management laws expressly made 
applicable by law.
    This agency will be headed by an Administrator, appointed 
by the President, with the advise and consent of the Senate, 
with two additional Presidential appointees, the Superintendent 
of Government Publications Access Programs and the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and 
Procurement Services, who will oversee the two key missions of 
the agency.
    The person serving as Public Printer on the day before 
enactment of this Act may serve as the Administrator on the 
effective date of this Act until the President appoints and 
theSenate confirms a successor Administrator. Additionally, all the 
assets and personnel of the Government Printing Office on the day 
before enactment of this Act shall be the assets and personnel of the 
Government Publications Office on the effective date of this Act.
    The Administrator is authorized to use any measures 
necessary to carry out the duties and powers of the office, and 
to remedy neglect, delay, duplication, or waste in the 
production or procurement of the Government's printing, 
binding, and blank-book work, the dissemination of the 
Government's publications, and maintenance of permanent public 
access to the Federal government's publications. Chief among 
the Administrator's authorities is the ability to issue 
regulations to carry out the purposes of the Act after notice 
and comment, and in consultation with the Office of Management 
and Budget, the Congress, and the Administrative Office of the 
U.S. Courts.
    In addition, the Administrator is authorized to appoint a 
deputy and a disbursing officer; employ personnel and 
establish, through collective bargaining, wages for the 
employees of the agency; administer the agency's revolving fund 
which will include the separate accounts of the programs 
supervised by the two Superintendents; make purchases--without 
reference to the Federal Property and Administrative Services 
Act of 1949, as amended--for the agency and the Federal 
government; pay for those purchases from the agency's revolving 
fund; and, establish whatever advisory committees determined 
appropriate.
    The Committee, being very sensitive to the desire of 
Federal agencies to have greater flexibility in how and where 
they procure their printing needs, but recognizing the 
importance of a centralized facility to ensure full and open 
competition for the purposes of procurement and enhanced and 
expanded dissemination for the purposes of public access to the 
Government's publications, has provided broad delegation 
authorities to the Administrator. The Committee intends that 
these delegation authorities will be used, fairly, liberally 
and uniformly to ensure the efficient operation of the GPO, and 
to enable agencies to take advantage of the best practices 
available to produce or procure their printing and publication 
needs. The Administrator is to promulgate regulations governing 
the delegation of authority, and these regulations will address 
the means by which the procurement of printing is executed, and 
the means by which agencies are to assure that their 
publications will be made accessible to the public through the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs.
    The print procurement delegation authority administered 
under this Act is patterned after a delegation model 
administered by the General Services Administration (GSA) 
through its Public Building Service Leasing Program. Under the 
GSA program, the procedures are streamlined and simplified. 
They provide agencies maximum flexibility, with minimum 
compliance requirements.
    Finally, in Title II, the Administrator has authority to:
          Requisition machinery, material, equipment, or 
        supplies for printing, binding, and blank-book work 
        determined by the head of an agency to be no longer 
        required or authorized for service;
          Manufacture inks and glues and other supplies needed 
        by GPO and sell those materials to other departments 
        and establishments in the Government;
          Detail GPO employees to any office of the Government, 
        but only for work pertaining to GPO;
          Designate personnel to serve as security personnel 
        for the agency;
          Transfer surplus property to other Federal entities 
        or non profit organizations; and,
          Sell publication production reproducibles to any 
        person at a price not to exceed the cost of their 
        creation to the Government.
    Some have expressed concern that the Administrator, using 
the authority to requisition machinery, material, equipment, or 
supplies for printing, binding, and blank-book work determined 
by the head of an agency to be no longer required or authorized 
for service, could arbitrarily commandeer an agency's 
equipment. Under 44 U.S.C. 312, on the day before the effective 
day of this Act, the Public Printer had the same authority. To 
the best knowledge of the Committee, this authority was never 
used to commandeer agencies' equipment. It is the Committee's 
expectation that the case will be the same with the enactment 
of this Act. The decision to ``surplus'' equipment is that of 
the head of an agency. Once notified by the head of an agency, 
the Administrator can then determine if the GPO has a use or 
need for the equipment, and make arrangements, including 
reimbursement to the agency, for GPO to acquire the equipment.
    Title III amends current chapters 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15, 
title 44, United States Code. In chapter 5, the general 
authorities of the Government Publications Office, as the only 
agency authorized by law to produce or procure the production 
of Government publications, regardless of form or format, for 
all other agencies and offices of the Federal government, 
except the Supreme Court, are outlined. As explained 
previously, by tying the production of Government publications 
to their dissemination, the Congress historically has assured 
itself that all of the Government's publications could be 
identified and obtained for the various public access programs 
managed by the Superintendent of Documents. Practices of 
agencies to avoid compliance with title 44, United States Code, 
over the past several years have resulted in large numbers of 
the Government's publications being no longer available through 
the Superintendent's programs, most notably the Federal 
Depository Library Program.
    Some have charged that the centralized printing procurement 
system authorized under current title 44, United States Code, 
and reaffirmed in S.2288, turns back the clock on a number of 
procurement reforms enacted over the past few years, most 
notably the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (108 Stat. 
3342 et seq.), The Information Technology Management Reform Act 
(40 U.S.C. 1401 et seq.), and the recommendations of the 
National Performance Review. This argument ignores several 
facts:
          1. Since the initial enactment of the Federal 
        Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 as 
        amended (41 U.S.C. 301 et seq.), the GPO has 
        specifically been statutorily exempt from the 
        provisions of this law. Not even the revisions made in 
        the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (108 Stat. 
        3342 et seq.) changed that fact.
          2. The GPO administers a body of procurement policies 
        and regulations which have been reviewed by Office of 
        Management and Budget staff and judged to be simpler, 
        and more fair than the Federal Acquisition Regulations 
        administered under the Federal Property and 
        Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended.
          3. The Information Technology Management Reform Act 
        (40 U.S.C. 1401 et seq.) addresses, as its name 
        implies, the procurement of information technology, not 
        printing. The Congress made no effort when it passed 
        this act to include the Government Printing Office or 
        its activities in the Act, and it is not within the 
        Committee's jurisdiction to amend 40 U.S.C. 1401 et 
        seq. to include the production or procurement of 
        printing or publications.
          4. The National Performance Review, while containing 
        several important recommendations to improve the 
        efficiency of the Federal government, was insensitive 
        to the historic requirements of the Congress regarding 
        the expectation that the American public should be 
        informed about the activities of its Federal 
        government, or the need to make that information 
        permanently accessible to the public. Recognition of 
        these policy objectives would be beneficial to the 
        successful implementation of pertinent National 
        Performance Review recommendations.
    Thus, one rationale for reaffirming a centralized 
publication production and procurement system is grounded in 
the longstanding, successful model prescribed in 44 U.S.C. 501. 
Another rationale for reaffirming a centralized publication 
production and procurement system is to facilitate the ability 
of the private sector printing industry to compete fully and 
fairly to fulfill the printing needs of the Federal government. 
Without a centralized procurement system, private sector 
printing companies would be forced to monitor the activities of 
the entire Federal government--agency by agency, office by 
office--in order to learn of, and compete for, the government's 
needs. Such a decentralized system would invite noncompetitive 
practices, and result in increased costs and reduced 
efficiency.
    As introduced, this legislation did not define the term 
``printing''. Instead, the term ``Government publication'' was 
used to reference the commodity which was being produced, 
procured, and disseminated. The rationale for not using the 
term ``printing'' was that ``printing'', as defined in 44 
U.S.C. 501, is an outmoded term which does not fully reflect 
the evolving technologies and names for the processes used to 
produce images on paper. At the July 29, 1998 Rules Committee 
hearing on S. 2288, however, several witnesses including those 
representing the Government Printing Office and the private 
sector printing industry, argued that only 50 percent of the 
Federal government's use of the processes which put large runs 
of images on paper resulted in the manufacture of Government 
publications. The other 50 percent resulted in the production 
of forms, stationery, and other image on paper items used to 
transact the Federal government's business. To satisfy these 
concerns, the term ``printing'' was added to S. 2288, using the 
basic definition which appears in 44 U.S.C. 501. Added to this 
definition is a requirement that the Administrator review the 
definition of printing to ensure its consistency with 
international and commercial standards, and make 
recommendations for change at least every five years.
    In addition to exempting the Supreme Court, certain types 
of work required by various other Federal courts, the Central 
Intelligence Agency, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, 
the National Reconnaissance Office, the Defense Intelligence 
Agency, the National Security Agency, and agencies procuring 
not more than $1,000 of noncontinuing, nonrepetitive printing 
of a class certified by GPO as work that cannot be provided 
more economically through GPO, S. 2288 exempts agencies which 
create publications only for dissemination through an 
electronic communications system or network, provided the 
requirements of chapter 19 are fulfilled. This is viewed by the 
Committee as a large incentive for agencies to utilize the new 
technologies to their maximum extent for the creation and 
dissemination of Government publications.
    Under delegation of authority from the Administrator, 
agencies also will have broad flexibility to procure printing 
for themselves, provided they comply with the dissemination 
requirements of chapter 19 (Sec. 402 of the Act).
    Section 501(d) prohibits agencies from entering into any 
partnership or alliance, or any contractual or cooperative 
agreement or similar contractual arrangement, public or 
private, for the production or procurement of printing, 
binding, and blank-book work or dissemination of a Government 
publication, regardless of form or format, that is not in 
compliance with the public access requirements of chapter 19 as 
amended by this Act.
    It is the intent of the Committee to ensure against evasion 
of the public access requirements of chapter 19 of the bill to 
the maximum extent feasible. In the past, a variety of agency 
schemes to avoid compliance with current law have come to the 
Committee's attention. The most egregious involved the 
privatization of the prestigious Journal of the National Cancer 
Institute (JNCI) through an arrangement called a ``Cooperative 
Research and Development Agreement'' (CRADA) between its 
longtime government publisher, the National Cancer 
Institute(NCI) and Oxford University Press (OUP). The arrangement, 
purportedly effected under the authority of the Federal Technology 
Transfer Act of 1986 (FTTA), 15 U.S.C. 3710a et seq. (1994), allows OUP 
to take over and ultimately own, the JNCI. NCI will maintain a symbolic 
editorial presence, but OUP will market the Journal. The stated purpose 
of the CRADA ``is to create a state-of-the-art multi-media, hyper-
linked, interactive journal.'' However, it is clear that in 
establishing a new type of contractual relationship between a federal 
laboratory and a non-federal party for research and development 
purposes under the FTTA, Congress did not intend that a CRADA was to be 
a substitute for a procurement contract and thereby evade federal 
procurement laws. (See 15 U.S.C. 3710a(d)(1))
    Its purpose is to improve and facilitate the transfer of 
commercially useful technologies from federal laboratories to 
the private sector in order to increase the nation's economic 
competitiveness. The FTTA defines a CRADA as an agreement 
between the laboratory and a non-federal party under which each 
agree to provide resources ``toward the conduct of specific 
research or development efforts which are consistent with the 
missions of the laboratory.'' Id. (See also Chem Service Inc v. 
Environmental Monitoring Systems, 12 F.3d 1256, 1265 
(``Congress did not intend CRADA's to be used to circumvent the 
nation's procurement laws'').
    The NCI-OUP CRADA is no more than a production contract. 
The ``research'' to be done by OUP is no more than developing a 
technology to disseminate research already done by others which 
has been submitted to (or developed by) NCI for publication in 
the Journal. OUP is a product marketer. The agreement makes 
clear that ``[f]rom the outset of the CRADA, OUP will assume 
production duties for the print journal as specified in this 
CRADA.'' In addition, submitter of research articles must 
assign copyright rights to OUP, and OUP can sell advertising 
and has control of the journal's pricing and subscription 
lists. The agreement had no provision for providing copies for 
distribution to Federal Depository Libraries until the Joint 
Committee on Printing learned of the arrangement and raised 
objections. Although OUP readily agreed to provide the 
necessary copies, the necessary diligence required raises 
danger signals with respect to such arrangements. (The CRADA 
also raises a serious question whether NCI has the authority to 
privatize the Journal. Neither the language or legislative 
history of 42 U.S.C. 284b or 285a-2 indicates a congressional 
intent to allow privatization of any or all of its information 
dissemination functions and responsibilities. Indeed the 
language of 42 U.S.C. 285a-2(a)(1) appears to commit to the 
Director of NCI the sole responsibility to maintain channels of 
communication and dissemination between the NCI and the public 
and the NCI and the scientific community. In such circumstances 
an agency cannot relinquish its statutory mission without 
further congressional authorization. Board of Trade of the City 
of Chicago v. S.E.C., 677 F2d 1137, 1142 note 8 (7th Cir. 
1982); Ft. Pierce Utilities Authority v. U.S., 609 F 2d 986, 
995 (D.C. cir. 1979), cert denied, 444 U.S. 842 (1979); Talley 
v. Mathews, 350 F. 2d 911, 919 and note 21 (4th Cir. 1977).
    The Committee's intent is to ensure that the Superintendent 
has the ability to review and approve only the public access 
features of such arrangements, and then only as far as the 
arrangements accommodate the public access requirements 
established by the legislation and the rules promulgated in 
support of those requirements.
    For purposes of clarity, the Smithsonian Institution is not 
an agency as defined by this Act, and their publications are 
not publications of the nature defined in this Act.
    Other important provisions of section 301 of the Act 
include:
          The appointment of a Superintendent of Government 
        Publications Production and Procurement Services by the 
        President within 180 days of the Act's enactment;
          The appointment of a Deputy Superintendent by the 
        Superintendent;
          Authorization for the promulgation of regulations 
        governing the production and procurement of printing, 
        binding, and blank-book work;
          Authorization for the promulgation of standards for 
        printing and writing papers used in all Government 
        printing, binding, and blank-book work;
          Preparation and submission by all agencies of annual 
        plans on the production or procurement of printing, 
        binding, and blank-book work; and,
          Preparation, submission, and implementation by all 
        agencies with internal printing capabilities of plans 
        to reduce that capability in increments over five years 
        to a level not greater than that required to provide 
        for the agencies' immediate internal administrative and 
        office support needs.
    Section 302 of the Act amends the provisions of title 44, 
United States Code, which authorize the production and 
procurement of printing and publication services for the 
Congress. The most notable provision of this section transfers 
the authorities of the Joint Committee on Printing over 
Congressional printing to the Senate Committee on Rules and 
Administration and the House Committee on House Oversight. Each 
committee will make determinations for its respective house, 
and will act jointly on those matters affecting both houses of 
Congress.
    The United States Congressional Serial Set is the historic 
bound compilation of the Senate and House documents, reports, 
presidential and other executive publications, treaty 
materials, and selected reports of nongovernmental 
organizations. The Set is composed of over 20,000 numbered 
bound volumes beginning with the 15th Congress in 1817.
    Because the Serial Set is used by the Congress, its staff, 
scholars, legal researchers, and others as the basis of 
research into the legislative history of the United States, it 
must bepreserved so that the public record is complete and 
accurate. Librarians, archivists, and historians have maintained that 
the only recognized and proven permanent medium available today that 
will guarantee that the Set will continue to be around 200 years from 
now is permanent acid free paper. The Committee supports the provision 
in electronic format of the underlying information represented in the 
individual publications contained in the Set, but believes that the 
compilation of that information is best preserved in bound volumes of 
acid free permanent paper until technology is developed that will 
assure that electronic versions will be available to our descendants 
some 200 years in the future just as our ancestors made sure that we 
would be able to study and learn from their work.
    Section 303 of the Act amends and revises chapter 9 of 
title 44, United States Code, affecting the production and 
distribution of the Congressional Record.
    Section 304 of the Act amends chapter 11 of title 44, 
United States Code to reflect the elimination of the JCP and 
the transfer of JCP's authorities over Congressional printing 
to the Congress.
    Over the years a number of executive branch publications 
were specifically authorized by law in chapter 13 of title 44, 
United States Code. Section 305 repeals all those 
authorizations with the exception of the authorities granted 
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The 
Committee sees no impact from this provision given the 
authority of agency heads to authorize the production of their 
agency's printing and publication production. NOAA specifically 
requested that this authority under chapter 13 be continued.
    In addition to publications specifically authorized by law, 
title 44, United States Code, also has been amended over time 
to exempt agencies from the provisions of 44 U.S.C. 501. The 
Congressional Research Service and others have, from time to 
time, attempted to compile a complete inventory of all agencies 
with legislated exemptions from 44 U.S.C. 501, but these 
efforts have not been totally successful. The existence of 
these waivers is believed by the Committee to be a contributing 
factor to the fugitive documents problem. Agencies having a 
waiver from the printing and print procurement provisions of 
title 44, United States Code, believe they have a waiver from 
all provisions of title 44, United States Code. This is not the 
case. Therefore, in the interest of reconciling the record and 
assuring agency compliance with the dissemination provisions of 
this Act, all legislated waivers from title 44, United States 
Code, are repealed, effective 120 days after enactment of this 
Act.

Public access to Government publications

    The right of the public to access publications produced by 
the Federal government is guaranteed by the provisions of Title 
IV of the Act. The purposes of this title are: To broaden, 
strengthen, and enhance public access to all Government 
publications regardless of form or format through Federal 
Publications Access Programs; and, to provide permanent public 
access to and ensure the authenticity of Government 
publications regardless of form or format.
    Under section 402 of the Act, the Office of the 
Superintendent of Documents, who serves at the pleasure of the 
Public Printer, is reestablished as the Office of the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs, 
headed by a Presidential appointee who serves for a term of 
five years, and is eligible for reappointment. The authorities 
of the Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs are delineated to include, but are not limited to:
          Using whatever measures are necessary to ensure the 
        timely dissemination of Government publications to the 
        public and to expand and improve the maintenance of 
        permanent public access to Government publications;
          Issuing regulations, in consultation with the 
        Administrator of the Government Publications Office, 
        the Office of Management and Budget, the Administrative 
        Office of the United States Courts, and the Congress to 
        carry out the duties and powers of the office;
          Managing the Federal Publications Access Library 
        Program, formerly known as the Federal Depository 
        Library Program;
          Operating and maintaining GPO Access, the on-line 
        service providing access to a broad range of Federal 
        databases, bulletin boards, agency websites, and the 
        Government Information Locator Service (GILS);
          Operating the Superintendent's sales program, 
        including the GPO bookstores; and
          Seeking and obtaining the guidance and counsel of 
        various affected interests to ensure, to the highest 
        degree possible, permanent public access to the 
        Government's publication.
    Like the Superintendent of Government Publications 
Production and Procurement Services and the Administrator, the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs has 
authority to appoint a deputy, and is required to prepare a 
business-like budget for the program under his supervision.
    Within this title there are two critical definitions. The 
first is the definition of the term, ``agency'' which means: 
``An executive department, government corporation, government-
controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive 
branch of Government, including the Executive Office of the 
President, any independent regulatory agency, and establishment 
orcomponent of the legislative branch as determined by the 
rules of the Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively, or 
judicial branch of the Government.''
    This definition, which is drawn from provisions of title 5, 
United States Code, is intended to ensure that all agencies and 
offices of the Federal government, in all three branches, are 
included in the coverage of this legislation. The exception to 
this general definition is the Smithsonian Institution which is 
not an agency under this definition.
    The second definition is the term, ``Government 
publication'', which means: Any information product or other 
discrete set of Government information, regardless of form or 
format, that is created or compiled by the Government, at 
Government expense in whole or in part, or as required by law, 
and an agency discloses, disseminates, or makes available to 
the public, and shall not include information that is required 
for official use only or is for strictly internal 
administrative, or operational purposes having no public 
interest or educational value, is classified for reasons of 
national security, or in the case of an agency within the 
judicial branch, orders, notices, or documents filed by 
litigants.''
    It is the intent of the Committee that the definition of 
``Government publication'' in chapter 19 shall be construed 
broadly to include publications in all formats from all three 
branches of Government. In order to ensure the public has 
access to information necessary to make informed decisions and 
to hold the Government accountable for its actions, the 
objective of S. 2288 is to capture in the Federal publications 
access programs the widest range of information products that 
agencies disclose, disseminate, or make available for 
dissemination to the public at large or as a whole, not to 
individual members of the public or to specific groups or 
sectors of the public.
    The phrase ``any information product or other discrete set 
of information'' is intended to include, but is not limited to, 
any book, document, report, newsletter, periodical, journal, 
bulletin, pamphlet, map, photo, poster, film, data base, audio 
file, video file, compilation, catalog, or other published work 
or information product, regardless of the form or format in 
which the work may be created, compiled, produced, distributed, 
disseminated, or accessed.
    It is not the intent of the Committee to include, for 
purposes of this definition, individual ``records'' covered 
under section 3301 of title 44 of the United States Code; 
``documentary material'' covered under section 2201 of title 44 
of the United States Code; administrative material, opinions, 
and orders placed in agency reading rooms and not otherwise 
more broadly disseminated; documents reproduced or released in 
response to individual requests filed under section 552 of 
title 5 of the United States Code (FOIA); or drafts of peer-
reviewed articles authored by government employees.
    In addition, it is not intended that information or 
publications created or compiled by an organization that is not 
an agency, or by an individual or group of individuals that are 
not employees of an agency, even if the information or 
publication was financed in whole or part by a federal grant or 
loan, unless the terms of the grant or loan specify that the 
information or publication is to be the property of the United 
States Government, be considered a ``Government publication'' 
under this definition.
    The definition of ``Government publication'' in S. 2288 
recognizes only three exceptions to the basic mandate 
established by this act that all publications regardless of 
form or format from all three branches of Government must be 
included under chapter 19 and made available to the public 
through the Federal publications access programs. These 
exceptions are:
          (1) those publications that are required for official 
        use only or are for strictly internal administrative or 
        operational purposes having no public interest or 
        educational value;
          (2) publications classified for reasons of national 
        security and,
          (3) orders, notices, or documents filed by litigants 
        in a proceeding before a judicial branch entity.
    The Committee intends that, with respect to the first 
exception, ``public interest or educational value'' is to be 
interpreted broadly, and the Committee urges that any question 
or uncertainty in this regard should be resolved in favor of 
public access. The Committee recognizes that many Government 
publications are not designed or published specifically for the 
general public or with a large or general audience in mind, yet 
these materials are extremely valuable and useful to members of 
the public and often provide important historical information 
that is of public interest or educational value to future 
generations. Historically, some of the more popular Government 
publications were initially produced by agencies for internal 
use only. These publications, produced at taxpayer expense, 
have been of immense interest to broad segments of the public.
    The Committee recognizes that Government publications today 
(and in the future) are produced and distributed in a growing 
diversity of tangible formats and media, including tangible 
electronic formats. Examples of tangible formats and media 
include, but are not limited to, paper, microfiche, microfilm, 
CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, magnetic diskette, audio cassette, 
videocassette, slides, or multi-media kits. In addition, the 
Committee recognizes that agencies increasingly are utilizing 
electronic information technologies to disseminate or make 
accessible Government publications through the Internet and 
other electronic communications systems or networks.
    Increasingly, agencies today use the World Wide Web, 
electronic bulletin boards, FTP, and other online means to 
disseminate Government publications electronically. It is the 
Committee's intent to establish unequivocally that electronic 
Government publications are included in the Federal 
publications access programs. Electronic Government 
publications may include, but are not limited to, publications 
originally created and disseminated electronically using 
desktop publishing technologies, publications converted to 
electronic format by scanning, publications stored on CD-ROMs 
or other electronic storage media, audio or video files 
madeavailable on the Internet, or publications created, maintained, or 
disseminated using future electronic methods or technologies. The 
definition of ``Government publication'' in section 1902 is intended to 
include all publications, regardless of their medium, form, or format.
    It is the intent of the Committee, under Section 301 of the 
Act to ensure that ``cooperative publications'' as currently 
defined in 44 U.S.C. 1903, also be made accessible through the 
Superintendent's access programs.
    Nonetheless, there are publications, created under 
cooperative agreements, primarily between the Smithsonian 
Institution, the National Archives, the National Gallery of 
Art, and the Library of Congress and private sector publishers 
for the production, sale, marketing or subsidiary rights of 
trade publications. Such publications include books, exhibition 
catalogs, calendars, and posters, which:
          Highlight certain collections, exhibits or special 
        events of those entities;
          Are not primarily prepared using appropriated 
        funding;
          Are intended to be self-sustaining; and,
          Are intended to be available for sale through 
        traditional outlets for books, calendars and similar 
        published items.
    These are not ``cooperative publications'' for the purposes 
of this definition.
    Further, the definition is modified to ensure that program 
libraries have access to agencies' fee-based Government 
information services at no charge. During its hearings the 
Committee discovered and was alerted to numerous cases where 
agencies had contracted or otherwise made cooperative 
arrangements with Government and non-Government publishers to 
create, produce, publish, or distribute publications developed 
and paid for, in whole or in part, with taxpayer funds. In 
addition, agencies increasingly are charging user fees to 
access online information services to defray costs or generate 
revenue.
    These publications generally were excluded from depository 
libraries, although some of these publications were distributed 
later to depositories after investigation and directive action 
by this Committee or the Joint Committee on Printing. It is the 
intent of the Committee that the definition in chapter 19 
include fee-based publications, publications made available by 
agencies through fee-based electronic networks or online 
services, Government publications contracted out to private 
sector publishers, and so-called cooperative publications that 
must be sold in order to be self-sustaining.
    The Committee intends that the definition of Government 
publications in section 1902 include electronic information 
systems such as the Electronic Data Gathering Analysis and 
Retrieval (EDGAR) system of the Securities and Exchange 
Commission (SEC). However, in the case of the EDGAR system, it 
is the intent of the Committee that the requirements of chapter 
19, providing for dissemination to the public of an agency's 
Government publications, is satisfied by the dissemination, at 
no charge to the Federal Publications Access Libraries, of 
identical information by the SEC through other electronic 
networks, provided such information is made available within a 
day of its posting on the EDGAR system. The Committee 
encourages the SEC to work with the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs to address the 
potential of making the EDGAR system available, on a marginal 
cost basis, to the Federal Publications Access Libraries in the 
future.

The judicial branch

    Public access to American jurisprudence is essential to our 
democratic society. The full participation of the judiciary, 
including the Federal courts, in this reform of Title 44 is 
crucial to ensuring that American citizens have access to the 
law of the land so that they can fully participate in their 
government. S. 2288 demonstrates the commitment of this 
Committee to provide the American public with access to 
judicial branch publications, including court opinions, through 
Federal publications access libraries.
    The Committee intends that agencies within the judicial 
branch comply with the chapter 19 requirements for 
participation in the Federal Information Access Program in a 
manner identical to the requirements for agencies within the 
executive and legislative branches. The Federal courts, with 
the exception of the Supreme Court, have neglected their 
dissemination responsibilities under current title 44, United 
States Code. With the exception of slip opinions of the Supreme 
Court and the official bound United States Reports, which are 
produced through the Government Printing Office and distributed 
to depository libraries, the opinions of the Federal courts 
have not been part of the depository library program.
    In 1939, the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP) and the 
Government Printing Office (GPO) granted waivers to the 
judiciary for the printing of opinions of the United States 
Courts of Appeals. These opinions had previously been published 
by the GPO. This waiver began the long-standing practice that 
exists today of permitting the Administrative Office of the 
United States Courts (AOUSC) to directly procure the printing 
of slip opinions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals. This 
decentralized procurement and printing model permits the Courts 
to determine how and to whom court opinions are to be 
disseminated. The waiver given to the courts in 1939 over time 
became an ad hoc waiver from the dissemination of court 
opinions through the depository library program that continues 
today.
    The lack of full compliance by the courts with the chapter 
19 dissemination requirements of title 44, United States Code, 
was never intended by the JCP in granting the printingwaiver. 
Consequently, while Section 501(a)(2)(D) of this legislation allows the 
Judiciary to continue to produce or procure, outside of the GPO, the 
printing, binding and blank-book work for appellate slip opinions and 
the Bankruptcy Noticing Center, the language very clearly states 
``provided that the requirements of chapter 19, title 44, United States 
Code, are fulfilled.''

Overcoming fugitive documents

    Two of the central purposes of S. 2288--enhancing timely, 
no-fee public dissemination of federal Government publications 
and ensuring permanent public access to those publications--are 
grounded on the bedrock of the Federal Depository Library 
Program. Yet, no matter how strong and efficient that program, 
these two central objectives cannot be attained if Government 
publications, regardless of form or format, do not get into the 
program in the first instance. Thus capturing the so-called 
``fugitive document'' is a critical element of this 
legislation.
    A number of witnesses at the Committee's hearing on Public 
Access to Government Information in the 21st Century emphasized 
the growing problem of fugitive documents. Those testifying 
about this problem included American Library Association 
President Betty J. Turock, Superintendent of Documents Wayne P. 
Kelley, and librarians Daniel P. O'Mahony and Christie D. 
Vernon. Ms. Vernon's stories about wasted time, bewilderment, 
and frustration in dealing with government information systems 
were particularly instructive.
    Each time a government publication escapes the depository 
library program, the public is deprived of the benefit of its 
tax dollars in creating the publication, as well as the benefit 
of convenient, timely, long-term access to the information 
contained in that publication. The cumulative loss to our 
society is incalculable.
    The need to ensure participation and compliance by agencies 
in all three branches of Government in getting publications 
into the program in the first place was addressed in Committee 
hearings last year by Francis J. Buckley, now Superintendent of 
Documents but at the time Director of the Shaker Heights Public 
Library, who testified for the American Library Association. 
Mr. Buckley made clear that ``a balance of incentives and 
enforcement is necessary to ensure agency participation and 
compliance so that information created at taxpayer expense 
remains in the public domain and permanently available to the 
public.'' (Title 44, United States Code--Proposals for 
Revision, Hearings before the Committee on Rules and 
Administration, U.S. Senate, 105th Cong., 1st Sess., S. Hrg. 
105-139 (1997).)
    In introducing S. 2288, Senator Ford put it even more 
bluntly:

        a principal issue to be addressed by reform legislation 
        is 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. (Cong. Rec. S7955 (daily ed. July 
        10, 1998).)

    S. 2288 attempts to effect a balance of incentives and 
enforcement.
    At the heart of chapter 19, intended to modernize the 
Federal Depository Library Program into an improved and 
enhanced Federal publications access program, stands the 
authority of the Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs to implement and enforce the provisions of this 
chapter. Carried over from 44 U.S.C. 1914 is the authority to 
``use whatever measures are necessary'' to implement chapter 
19. (Sections 1904(a), 1906(a)(1); 1906(a)(2)(B)(i).) This 
authority is further bolstered by the ability of the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs under 
section 1904(e)(1) to adopt regulations ``as are necessary to 
implement the requirements of this chapter.''
    Nonetheless, the Superintendent does not alone bear the 
responsibility for ensuring that Government publications reach 
the public through the Government publications access programs. 
Under sections 1905, 1906, 1906a, and 1906b, each agency head 
in the executive branch, the Administrative Office of the U.S. 
Courts, and the Congress through the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House 
Oversight of the House of Representatives are charged with 
taking necessary actions to facilitate compliance with the 
requirements of chapter 19 and movement into the access 
programs of the Government publications of each of the three 
branches of Government.
    The enforcement provisions of S. 2288 do not stop with the 
general directions and authorizations that the Superintendent 
and other responsible persons and entities, as a general 
proposition, implement the Federal publications access 
programs. See sections 1905(a), 1906a(a)(2), 1906b(a)(2). A 
comprehensive and workable three-part implementation scheme is 
embodied in the legislation. These three parts involve 
notification, certification, and rectification.
    Notification.--The first part of the enforcement scheme 
requires that each agency, under section 1905(b)(1), notify the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs of 
the agency's intent ``to produce or procure, substantially 
modify, or terminate the production of a Government 
publication, regardless of form or format . . .'' .
    This will allow the Superintendent to obtain access to 
electronic communications or to order publications that will be 
made available to the public through the Government 
publications access programs.
    Certification.--The second part of the enforcement scheme 
requires that each agency, pursuant to section 1905(b)(3)-(4), 
include in any contract for the production or procurement of a 
publication a certification ensuring that notice has been given 
to theSuperintendent of Government Publications Access Programs 
as required above. The contract must specify the number of copies 
required by the Superintendent for its program or terms and conditions 
of access for the program.
    Rectification.--The third part of the enforcement scheme is 
intended to rectify a violation of the requirements of chapter 
19 by an agency that results in a fugitive Government 
publication. Under section 1906(a)(2)-(4), the Superintendent 
may secure access to the Government publication and have it 
produced or reproduced or otherwise made available to the 
public through the Government publications access programs, and 
may obtain reimbursement for any costs associated with doing 
so. The reimbursement process is set in motion with a 
determination (under section 1906(a)(2)(A)) that an agency has 
not complied with the requirements of chapter 19. Once the 
Superintendent has taken steps necessary to bring the agency 
into compliance, a vouchered reimbursement from the Treasury to 
cover costs of bringing the agency into compliance (for 
example, costs of reprinting and distribution of a document, in 
the case of a printed publication) may follow.
    Taken together, these three parts of the enforcement 
scheme--coupled with the Superintendent's authority and the 
agency heads', Administrative Office of the U.S. Court's, and 
the Congress through relevant Committees' responsibilities--
will go a long way toward making sure that agencies do not and 
cannot, intentionally or inadvertently, subvert or circumvent 
the Government publications access programs established under 
S. 2288.
    Additionally, noncompliance with the requirements of 
chapter 19 will affect the agency's ability to obtain or 
sustain delegation of production or procurement authority under 
section 501. A determination of noncompliance by the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs under 
section 1906 shall, under section 1906(a)(5), be deemed a 
determination of noncompliance under section 501, as well. Thus 
noncompliance with chapter 19 may lead to the agency's being 
denied delegated authority to procure publications production 
or procurement services under section 501(b)(1).

Federal publications access libraries

    The Committee recognizes that Congress, as the branch of 
Government most directly accountable to the local electorate, 
has a special obligation to inform the American people of the 
actions, decisions, policies, and activities of the Federal 
Government. Since the earliest years of the nation, Congress 
has exercised this responsibility by designating certain 
libraries in each state and congressional district to receive 
Government publications so that these materials are available 
to the general public on an equitable and no fee basis.
    Through their local depository libraries, constituents have 
had ready access to materials that enable them to keep informed 
about the workings of the Federal Government.
    Linking the designation of program libraries to 
congressional districts has enabled the program to adjust 
systematically over time to growing or shifting populations and 
to the changing Government information needs of local 
communities.
    The Committee recognizes that the designation of such 
libraries is a serious commitment on the part of the designated 
library and the Federal Government to enter into a continuing 
and mutually beneficial partnership. Further, to ensure the 
broadest and most equitable access to Government publications 
by all citizens, the Committee recognizes the importance in 
having a diversity of library types participating in the 
Federal publications access library program (e.g., public, 
academic, land grant institution, state, law, court, Federal 
agency, and other libraries).
    Each library serves its own local clientele as well as the 
constituents in the library's congressional district or, in the 
case of regional libraries, the citizens of the entire state. 
All designated libraries cooperatively work with other 
libraries in the program to participate in a nationwide network 
to serve the public's Government information needs.
    The intent of section 1908 is to continue to embody in 
statute the process by which new libraries are designated as 
Federal publications access libraries. Sections 1908(a) through 
1908(c) of the act bring together the various provisions in the 
current law that provide for library designations. In addition, 
it is the intent of the Committee to provide flexibility for 
the program to respond to changing conditions and to meet the 
needs of undeserved areas. For purposes of section 1908(e), the 
Committee intends that an ``undeserved area'' means a service 
area within the Federal publications access library program 
where the Government information needs of the people are not 
sufficiently addressed by the program libraries already 
designated. An example of an ``undeserved area'' might be a 
geographically isolated area where there are no program 
libraries within a reasonable distance to centers of 
population. Section 1908(f) ensures that every library 
currently designated as a Federal Depository Library as of the 
effective date of the act shall become a Federal publications 
access library as of that date.
    While the Joint Committee on Printing historically has 
played the role of compliance officer on behalf of GPO, under 
the system established by this legislation, it is GPO which 
must assume that role, especially to ensure that agencies are 
providing access to their publications through the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs. In 
general terms, agencies are required to notify the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs when 
they create, change the format of, or intend to eliminate a 
publication so that the Superintendent may ride the printing 
order, orobtain an image file of the publication, for 
dissemination through the various access tools at the Superintendent's 
disposal.

Permanent public access--the electronic era

    The Committee intends that S. 2288 promote public 
availability of Government information in the electronic age 
through a Federal publications access program that provides no-
fee availability, regardless of format. The first line of 
responsibility for implementation of the Federal publications 
access programs remains with the agencies, the courts, and the 
Congress. In faithfully carrying out their responsibilities, 
they will be enriching the lives and businesses and studies of 
the American public both now and in the future. Together, the 
implementation provisions of S. 2288 will ensure that much of 
the informational output of Government will be widely and 
permanently available to the people.
    The Committee finds that permanent public access to Federal 
Government publications regardless of form or format must be 
guaranteed. One of the key purposes of this act is to clarify 
the Government's ongoing responsibility to provide for the 
preservation and continuous and permanent access to Government 
publications regardless of form or format so that they remain 
available for current and future users.
    The Committee acknowledges that the responsibility for 
providing permanent public access for tangible Government 
publications currently is being carried out primarily by the 
Regional depository libraries in the Federal Depository Library 
Program. The comprehensive collections maintained by the 53 
Regional depositories across the country provide the public 
with reliable and ongoing access to Government publications 
distributed through the program.
    The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) 
provides permanent care for the record set of Government 
publications used by the Superintendent for cataloging, and 
NARA houses the publications cataloged by the Government 
Printing Office dating back to the beginning of the program. 
The Committee does not intend to modify the responsibilities of 
Federal agencies, and the authorities and responsibilities of 
NARA under chapters 21, 22, 29, 31, and 33 of title 44, United 
States Code. The duties vested in the Superintendent of 
Government Publication Access Programs in this bill are 
intended to ensure that Government publications, as defined in 
section 1902, are made permanently accessible to the public, 
and such duties do not replace the authorities of NARA.
    The Committee envisions that the Regional depository 
libraries and NARA will continue to provide permanent public 
access to tangible Government publications in the future.
    The Committee recognizes that continuous and permanent 
access to electronic Government publications must also be 
guaranteed. At its hearings, the Committee heard numerous 
examples of electronic publications and files that no longer 
are accessible to the public. These electronic publications 
were lost because agencies deleted the files from their Web 
site, agencies no longer maintain the files or the computer 
server upon which they resided, the format of the electronic 
files became obsolete, or other reasons that resulted in loss 
of access. It is the Committee's intent to guarantee continuous 
and permanent public access to Government publications in 
electronic formats so that current and future generations have 
access to this material regardless of changing technologies.
    The coordination of permanent public access to electronic 
Government publications is a logical extension of the 
Superintendent's responsibilities under the Federal Government 
publications access programs. The Committee recognizes that 
this is a complex undertaking that will require the cooperative 
efforts of many parties. The committee on permanent public 
access established under section 1907(d) of the act is intended 
to include representatives from the various stakeholders both 
inside and outside of the Federal Government responsible for or 
concerned with these issues. The charge of the committee for 
permanent public access is to investigate the technological and 
organizational factors relating to establishing a distributed 
system of permanent public access, to make recommendations to 
the Superintendent on the components of such a system, and to 
make recommendations to the Superintendent on the strategy for 
achieving such a system to provide permanent public access for 
the Government publications of all three branches of 
Government. Not later than 24 months after the effective date 
of this act, the committee on permanent public access should 
provide recommendations to the Superintendent for necessary 
statutory and regulatory changes to implement a system of 
permanent public access.
    The Committee notes that the Archivist of the United States 
has begun to address problems of providing permanent public 
access to electronic materials within his purview. The 
Committee intends that the Superintendent and the Archivist 
work cooperatively to achieve shared objectives through the 
committee on permanent public access.
    The Committee envisions that the system of permanent public 
access shall be a distributed system that provides for adequate 
redundancy at multiple sites. Relying on a single site to 
retain and provide access to all electronic government 
publications is dangerous; such sites, like physical 
collections of tangible publications, are vulnerable to natural 
and physical disasters, accidents, and other problems that can 
destroy facilities or interrupt access. A distributed system of 
permanent public access provides the opportunity for many 
libraries and other partners to cooperate with the 
Superintendent and agencies in providing permanent public 
access to electronic Government publications. The system shall 
require official and contractual agreements among participating 
entities to ensure that the regulations and standards of 
permanent publicaccess are consistent throughout the program. 
The Committee notes that the Government Printing Office already has 
developed model agreements for permanent public access partnerships 
that can be used as models for this program.

Superintendent of Government Publications--other authorities

    Other key provisions of S. 2288 include the Superintendent 
of Government Publications Access Program's authorization to 
sell Government publications, and to establish sales prices for 
those publications as well as the terms and conditions the 
resale of Government publications could be made to book 
dealers. This program is intended to be self-sustaining to the 
greatest extent possible. The Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs may also sell Government blank 
forms to the public.
    The Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs' account is to bear the cost of providing the National 
Archives one bound copy each of all documents, public reports, 
journals, public bills and resolutions of each house of the 
Congress, the United States Code, the United States Reports, 
and all other documents bearing Congressional numbers or 
printed upon order of a committee in either house of Congress 
or of a department, independent agency or establishment, 
commission, or officer of the Government. In addition, the 
Superintendent is to provide Government publications to the 
Secretary of the Senate, the Clerk of the House of 
Representatives, the Library of Congress, Congressional 
Research Service, and to the International Exchange Program 
operated by the Library of Congress. These entities will 
reimburse the Superintendent from funds appropriated for this 
purpose. Like all other provisions of S. 2288, these provisions 
take effect on January 1, 1999, except the provisions affecting 
the Library of Congress which will take effect on October 1, 
1999. The delayed effective date is required to enable the 
Library of Congress to obtain an appropriation for this 
purpose, the FY '99 appropriations cycle having already begun.
    Agency heads may return to the Superintendent extra copies 
of Government publications they no longer wish to maintain in 
their agency, and they may exchange surplus Government 
publications for Government publications they desire for their 
agency.

Administrative savings

    Finally, the Committee intends that all proceedings, 
including notices of proposed rulemaking, or any application 
for any license, permit, certificate, or financial assistance 
pending before the Government Printing Office at the time the 
Act takes effect shall continue following the effective date of 
the Act, and any arrangement or proceeding, including 
contractual arrangements between agencies and outside parties 
which may otherwise be affected by this Act, continue until 
they are discontinued or modified, at which time the agencies 
and parties are to conform their arrangement to the terms of 
the Act.

                     III. Need for the Legislation

                           A. Policy Origins

    The Constitution of the United States created a government 
accountable to the people with accountability among its three 
coequal branches as well. It was expected that Government 
leaders would keep the citizenry informed of developments, or 
at least maintain a record of their activities. In this regard, 
the Constitution, for example, specifies that each house of 
Congress ``shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from 
time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in 
their Judgment require Secrecy'' (Article I, Section 5, clause 
3). With regard to the subnational level of government, the 
Constitution states: ``Full Faith and Credit shall be given in 
each State to the Public Acts, Records, and judicial 
Proceedings of every other State'' (Article IV, Section 1, 
clause 1).
    Moreover, with its system of checks and balances, the 
Constitution anticipated that each branch would be 
knowledgeable of the activities and interests of the other two. 
In this regard, the Constitution specifically provides that, 
when the President vetoes a bill, ``he shall return it, with 
his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, 
who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal and 
proceed to reconsider it'' (Article I, Section 7, clause 2). 
Concerning interbranch accountability, the President is vested 
with the duty to ``take Care That the Laws be faithfully 
executed'' (Article I, Section 3, clause 4) and provision is 
made for the President to ``require the Opinion, in writing, of 
the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, 
upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective 
Offices'' (Article II, Section 2, clause 1). Further, the 
Constitution indicates that the President ``shall from time to 
time give to the Congress Information of the State of the 
Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he 
shall judge necessary and expedient'' (Article II, Section 3, 
clause 1).
    In turn, the Constitution's vesting of ``All legislative 
Powers'' in a Congress of the United States has been 
consistently interpreted by the Supreme Court as providing the 
basis for broad congressional oversight and investigation so 
that the House and the Senate may inform themselves and the 
public concerning the effectiveness and the honesty of 
Government agencies in performing their responsibilities. These 
powers have been held to ``encompass[] inquiries concerning the 
administration of existing laws as well as proposed or possible 
needed statutes'' and ``to expose corruption, inefficiency or 
waste,'' 1 as well as to preserve a historical 
record of presidential actions.2
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Watkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178, 187 (1957). See also 
McGrain v. Daugherty, 272 U.S. 135 (1927); Eastland v. United States 
Serviceman's Fund, 421 U.S. 491 (1975).
    \2\ Nixon v. Administrator of General Services, 433 U.S. 425 
(1977).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Since the earliest days of the Federal Government, most 
aspects of government information policy and practice have been 
established by Congress. Statutory provision was made in the 
early years, for example, for the printing and distribution of 
both laws and treaties,3 the preservation of state 
papers,4 and the maintenance of official files in 
the new departments.5 Just before the Nation erupted 
in civil war, a permanent printing organization--the Government 
Printing Office (GPO)--was statutorily mandated to produce all 
public printing.6 The Joint Committee on Printing, 
which had been established earlier in 1846,7 
exercised oversight over both GPO and public printing 
activities, as well as remedial powers over printing 
operations.8 Later, with the rise of the 
administrative state early in the twentieth century, Congress 
established arrangements for the publication of related rules, 
regulations, and legal instruments,9 and for their 
orderly creation.10 More recent developments include 
legislated procedures facilitating public access to unpublished 
department and agency records,11 as well as the 
inspection by individuals of files maintained on them by these 
executive branch entities.12
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ See 1 Stat. 68, 443, 519, 724; 2 Stat. 302; 3 Stat. 145, 439, 
576.
    \4\ See 1 Stat. 168.
    \5\ See 1 Stat. 28, 49, 65. These and other similar provisions were 
consolidated in the Revised Statutes of the United States (1878) at 
section 161, which is presently located in the United States Code at 5 
U.S.C. 301 (1994).
    \6\ See 12 Stat. 117.
    \7\ 9 Stat. 114.
    \8\ 44 U.S.C. 103.
    \9\ See 49 Stat. 500; 50 Stat. 304.
    \10\ See 60 Stat. 237.
    \11\ See 5 U.S.C. 552.
    \12\ See 5 U.S.C. 552a.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Several developments during the past 10 years have prompted 
congressional reconsideration of some of the longest enduring 
institutions and arrangements for producing and disseminating 
government information, including congressional literature. 
These new developments include the rise of the electronic 
information phenomenon, the erosion of the Public Printer's 
authority to supervise the public printing system, 
constitutional challenges, and, against a background of budget 
reduction and government downsizing, desires for greater 
efficiency and economy in the production and dissemination of 
government information products. Among the institutions and 
arrangements that came under reconsideration were GPO and the 
JCP, the required procurement of largely all executive branch 
and legislative branch printing and information products 
through GPO, and the depository library program.

                B. The Electronic Information Phenomenon

    The phenomenon of government information being collected, 
maintained, used, and disseminated in electronic formats has 
been a recent development presenting various new opportunities, 
challenges, and problems. A pioneering, comprehensive 
assessment of the electronic collection and dissemination of 
information by the Federal agencies, produced by a committee of 
the House of Representatives in the spring of 1986, offered a 
number of relevant and prescient findings.
          ``Increasing amounts of information--both private and 
        public--are being maintained in electronic data 
        bases,'' and this ``trend will both continue and 
        accelerate.''
          ``Electronic collection, maintenance, and 
        dissemination of information by Federal agencies can 
        undermine the practical limitations and legal 
        structures'' governing public access to, as well as 
        government collection, creation, and dissemination of, 
        such information.
          ``Electronic information systems offer the 
        opportunity to make more government information readily 
        available'' to the public and this same information 
        ``technology also permits government information to be 
        used in ways that are not possible when the information 
        is stored on paper records.''
          ``The development and installation of an electronic 
        information system requires advanced planning and may 
        require sizable capital expenditures.''
          ``The Federal Government must understand the 
        consequences of electronic information systems and must 
        recognize the need for new policies that will prevent 
        these systems from being used in unintended ways.''
          ``There is little communication among Federal 
        agencies about electronic information activities, and 
        there is little central administrative 
        guidance''.13
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\ U.S. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. 
Electronic Collection and Dissemination of Information by Federal 
Agencies: A Policy Overview. H. Rept. 99-560, 99th Congress, 2d 
session. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1986, pp. 10-11.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
          These 1986 findings revealed a relatively new 
        technology of growing use and application, one 
        conveying considerable discretionary capability to 
        Federal agencies concerning government information 
        management, while simultaneously outstripping the 
        existingpractical limitations and legal structures 
governing many aspects of the government information life cycle.
    An October 1988 Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) 
report gave further testimony to the impact of the electronic 
information phenomenon upon existing government information 
policy and practice. Among the ``problems and challenges'' 
identified in the OTA study were the following:
          a blurring or elimination of ``many distinctions 
        between reports, publications, databases, records, and 
        the like, in ways not anticipated by existing statutes 
        and policies;''
          electronic technology permitting ``information 
        dissemination on a decentralized basis that is cost-
        effective at low levels of demand, but in ways that may 
        challenge traditional roles, responsibilities, and 
        policies;''
          electronic technology ``eroding the institutional 
        roles of government-wide information dissemination 
        agencies;'' and
          electronic technology that ``has outpaced the major 
        government-wide statutes that apply to Federal 
        information dissemination.'' 14
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \14\  U.S. Office of Technology Assessment. Informing the Nation: 
Federal Information Dissemination in an Electronic Age. Washington: 
October 1988, p. 8.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Calling explicitly for a defining of ``GPO's role in the 
dissemination of electronic formats'' and ``GPO's role relative 
to the growth in agency desktop and high-end electronic 
publishing systems,'' the report concluded:

        the government needs to set in motion a comprehensive 
        planning process for creatively exploring the long-term 
        future (e.g., 10 to 20 years from now) when the 
        information infrastructure of the public and private 
        sectors could be quite different. At the same time, the 
        government needs to provide short-term direction to 
        existing agencies and institutions with respect to 
        electronic information dissemination.15
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \15\  Id., pp. 10, 11.

    A subsequent response to these recommendations was the 
passage of the Government Printing Office Electronic 
Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993.16 This 
statute directed the Superintendent of Documents to provide a 
system of online access to the Congressional Record and the 
Federal Register by June 1994. The Superintendent was given 
discretion to make available other appropriate publications, 
and responsibility for maintaining an electronic directory of 
Federal electronic information, as well as for operating an 
electronic storage facility for Federal electronic information. 
In addition to the online Congressional Record and Federal 
Register, GPO also created a legislation database containing 
all published versions of House and Senate bills introduced 
since the 103rd Congress. The GPO Electronic Information Access 
Enhancement Act provided free online access for all depository 
libraries and cost recovery based upon the marginal cost of 
dissemination for all other users. Subsequently, GPO made 
arrangements with 20 libraries around the country to offer 
``gateway'' access to the GPO databases via the Internet or 
through a local phone call. Anyone, therefore, could get access 
to the GPO electronic material by connecting to these 
libraries. Finally, in December 1995, GPO announced that it was 
making the GPO Access service directly available over the 
Internet and that it was dropping the subscription fee.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \16\  P.L. 103-40; 107 Stat. 112; 44 U.S.C. 4101-4104 (1994).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In the 104th Congress passage of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 (PRA) provided a statutory framework for electronic 
information policymaking in the Federal 
Government.17 The Act established agency and Office 
of Management and Budget responsibilities for the entire 
information life cycle and set in place principles for 
electronic dissemination of government information.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \17\  P.L. 104-13; 109 Stat. 163; 44 U.S.C. 3501-3520 (1996).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The rapid growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web 
(WWW), which facilitates easy access to remote databases, has 
greatly expanded dissemination of government information 
electronically. According to a June 1997 General Accounting 
Office study, ``42 federal organizations reported having a 
total of about 4,300 WWW sites . . .''18 Agencies 
increasingly provide information on their WWW sites to enhance 
public access to government information, increase efficiency 
and reduce costs, and improve service to the public. Congress 
also now supplies a significant amount of legislative 
information to the public via the Internet. The Government 
Printing Office's ACCESS system and the Library of Congress' 
THOMAS system both provide public access through their WWW 
sites to congressional documents, including, among other 
legislative information, bills, committee reports and hearings, 
and the Congressional Record. Both of these systems have been 
extremely popular with the public. The growth of Government WWW 
sites greatly expands the ability of the public to quickly 
acquire a broad range of government data and public information 
on a distributed basis directly from the originating agency.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \18\  U.S. General Accounting Office. Internet and Electronic Dial-
Up Bulletin Boards, GAO/GGD-97-86. Washington: June 1997, p. 2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    While the explosion of the Federal Government's use of the 
Internet for disseminating information creates enormous 
opportunities, it also poses potential problems. Of 
particularconcern is the possibility that citizens without access to 
computer and network technologies will become information ``have nots'' 
in our society. In addition, the Government faces the new and 
significant challenge of preserving electronic material for long term 
public access absent proven approaches for ensuring the durability of 
different formats and migrating data to new technologies as they 
emerge. As agencies replace traditional paper-based documents with new 
electronic publications, they may gain certain features, such as 
currency or the ability to search data, but also may lose others, such 
as readability or access by certain communities of users. The dynamics 
of electronic publishing also may shift some costs from the agency 
publishers to the end users. Ensuring public access to the growing 
amount of government information in electronic formats, both currently 
and in the long term, necessitates clear policy direction from Congress 
and a system that can adapt to the changing technological environment 
of government publications.

        C. Erosion of the Public Printer's Supervisory Authority

    Another development prompting congressional reconsideration 
of arrangements for producing and disseminating government 
information is the erosion of the Public Printer's authority to 
supervise the public printing system. As the General Accounting 
Office reported in April 1994, ``for all practical purposes, 
the framework of laws and regulations used to manage many 
aspects of government publishing has become outdated'' as a 
consequence of the emergence and use of various new electronic 
information technologies.19 GPO was deemed ill-
equipped to continue to assert monopoly control over agency 
printing-like operations. Moreover, ``some agencies want to 
publish their work independent of GPO involvement'' and can do 
so as a ``result of significant advances in publishing 
technologies.'' 20 Remedying the situation, however, 
is complicated by constitutional challenges to the roles 
heretofore played by GPO and the JCP.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \19\ U.S. General Accounting Office. Government Printing: Legal and 
Regulatory Framework Is Outdated for New Technological Environment. 
GAO/NSIAD-94-157. Washington: April 1994, p. 3.
    \20\ Id., p. 2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                      D. Constitutional Challenges

    A third development prompting congressional reconsideration 
of Government publication arrangements is rooted in the 1983 
Supreme Court invalidation of Congress's so-called legislative 
veto authority. That ruling inspired a well-orchestrated quest 
by the executive branch for more independence to set 
publication policy and to procure its own printing and 
information products that has proved increasingly more 
disruptive of interbranch relations.
    In the milestone Chadha decision of June 23, 1983, the 
Supreme Court found adoption of a simple resolution by one 
congressional chamber to veto executive action or policy 
unconstitutional because it was an exercise of legislative 
power which did not follow the constitutionally prescribed 
lawmaking process: bicameral consideration and presentation of 
a bill or joint resolution to the President for his signature 
or veto.21 The potential breadth of the Court's 
ruling was signaled by its definition of a legislative act. 
Whether an action is an exercise of legislative power will 
depend on its purpose and effect. It concluded that, where such 
action has ``the purpose and effect of altering legal rights, 
duties and relations of persons . . . outside the legislative 
branch,'' it must be effected through the constitutionally-
mandated lawmaking process.22 The wide reach of the 
Court's rationale was shortly confirmed by its summary 
affirmance of two appeals court rulings invalidating one- and 
two-house vetoes of agency rulemaking, and was shortly 
recognized by the Department of Justice as an effective vehicle 
to challenge the very foundation of Congress' control of 
Federal printing.23
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \21\ INS v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919 (1983).
    \22\ Id., at 952.
    \23\ Process Gas Consumers Group v. Consumer Energy Council of 
America, 463 U.S. 1216 (1983); and United States Senate v. Federal 
Trade Commission, 463 U.S. 1216 (1983).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Until Chadha, the historic prerogative of Congress to 
control public printing through the JCP was virtually 
unquestioned. The basic authority of the panel--to ``use any 
measures it considers necessary to remedy neglect, delay, 
duplication, or waste in the public printing and binding and 
the distribution of Government publications''--is sweeping and 
unqualified.24 Its exercise extends beyond oversight 
and veto to affirmative direction and control. The JCP's role 
has been likened to that of the board of directors of a 
corporation,25 and it assumed powers of commensurate 
scope without any serious challenge. This status was confirmed 
by a decision of the Court of Appeals for the District of 
Columbia Circuit announced shortly before Chadha.26 
Ten unions and four employees of GPO challenged the decision of 
the Public Printer to furlough the entire work force of GPO for 
six days. The Printer's decision was made in the face of a JCP 
directive that he delay implementation of his furlough plans 
until the JCP evaluated GPO's personnel requirements. The 
Printer had contended that, while the JCP had a final say over 
``wages, salaries, and compensation,'' that authority did not 
extend to matters involving personnel policy.27 The 
District Court rejected this contention as contrary to the 
intent of Congress to place GPO in a subordinate relation to 
the JCP, saying:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \24\ 44 U.S.C. 103.
    \25\ See Congressional Record, v. 65, June 4, 1924, p. 10556; U. S. 
Congress. Senate. Committee on Rules and Administration. Report with 
Recommendations of the Committee on Rules and Administration on the 
Joint Committee on Printing. S. Rept. 327, 95th Congress, 1st session. 
Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1977, p. 2; 41 Op. Atty. Gen. 282, 
286-287 (1957).
    \26\ Lewis v. Sawyer, 698 F.2d 1261 (D.C. Cir. 1983). Lewis was 
decided immediately after three D.C. Circuit rulings overturning a 
variety of legislative veto provisions.
    \27\  See 44 U.S.C. 305.

          In the exercise of its powers under [section 103 of] 
        Title 44, the Joint Committee adopted its resolution of 
        May 11, 1982, which commanded the Printer not to 
        furlough GPO workers. Although the statutory scheme 
        envisions a cooperative relationship between the 
        Printer and the Joint Committee, that scheme also 
        places final authority to resolve disputes in the hands 
        of the Joint Committee, as the agent of Congressional 
        oversight. Consequently, the Court finds, in the 
        context of this particular conflict between the Joint 
        Committee and the Printer, that the Joint Committee's 
        will must prevail. In the circumstances of this case, 
        the Joint Com mittee having gone on record against 
        furloughs, the Printer does not have authority to 
        furlough workers.28
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \28\ Lewis v. Sawyer, C.A. 82-1515, July 2, 1982, per Gasch, J., 
slip opinion, p. 8.

    On review, the appeals court summarily adopted the result 
and reasoning of the lower court. Judge Patricia Wald, however, 
filed a concurring opinion in which she made clear her view of 
the relationship between the JCP and GPO and the Federal 
printing establishment generally. Judge Wald initially noted 
that it was well established that GPO is a legislative branch 
agency,29 whose prime function is to support 
Congress in its legislative activities and its constitutional 
responsibility under Article 1, section 5, clause 3 that ``Each 
house shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to 
time publish the same . . .'' She then gave recognition to the 
long history of close congressional control of the public 
printing function, which had been maintained ``in part because 
the activity is vital to Congress' ability to operate.'' 
30 Judge Wald acknowledged that often that control 
had included assigning GPO publishing duties for the executive 
branch, or including GPO employees under some personnel 
statutes which also covered executive branch employees, thereby 
``enmesh[ing] the GPO to some degree with the executive.'' 
Judge Wald found that such executive connections do not alter 
the essential character of GPO as a legislative support agency, 
a conclusion supported by the control ``over a myriad of GPO 
operational decisions'' Congress has maintained through 
numerous statutes. Concluding, she wrote:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \29\ Citing the recent decision in Thompson v. Sawyer, 678 F. 2d 
257, 264 (D.C. Cir. 1982).
    \30\ 698 F.2d, at 1263.

          In sum, the GPO's purpose, performance, history, and 
        ongoing relationship with Congress do not suggest that 
        the JCP encroached on another branch and thereby 
        offended the constitutional separations of powers when 
        it ordered the Printer to halt his furlough plans. I do 
        not think that the GPO, by nature a legislative support 
        unit, vital to the flow of information within Congress 
        and from Congress to the nation, can be metamorphosed 
        into an executive agency by according GPO employees 
        civil service protections applicable to and run by 
        executive branch personnel.31
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \31\ Id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    By 1983, the statutory scheme of Title 44, United States 
Code, as interpreted and applied by the courts, the General 
Accounting Office, and the Attorney General, appeared to 
prescribe a predominant role for the JCP with respect to the 
central tasks of satisfying the printing needs of Congress and 
the other branches of government and making it possible for the 
broadest segment of the public to have direct access to 
government publications. To assure accomplishment of those 
tasks, Congress long ago had established the JCP to oversee the 
process and invested it with ample power to enforce compliance 
either directly pursuant to its authority under 44 U.S.C. 103, 
or indirectly through its general managing agent, the Public 
Printer. The JCP had three kinds of authority it could exercise 
over government printing: (1) statutory requirements that the 
Public Printer and Government agencies obtain JCP approval 
prior to taking action, (2) regulations promulgation, and (3) 
the managerial and remedial power of 44 U.S.C. 103. In view of 
this, the authority of the JCP over the Public Printer and the 
Federal printing establishment was virtually plenary.
    In the aftermath of the Supreme Court's Chadha decision, 
the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) began to question the longstanding assumption 
that Congress, through the Joint Committee on Printing, had 
plenary authority to control public printing throughout the 
Federal Government. For instance, the DOJ Office of Legal 
Counsel (OLC) advised the Department of Defense in a March 2, 
1984, legal opinion that Pentagon compliance with 44 U.S.C. 
501(2), requiring the prior approval of the JCP before printing 
could be undertaken, was no longer required because of the 
Chadha ruling. OLC also maintained that the veto condition was 
severable from the statute and, thus, the Department retained 
the power to conduct printing activities outside of GPO to the 
extent it was so ``permitted by its authorization and 
appropriations legislation and considerations of efficiency.'' 
OLC suggested that the agency continue to notify JCP of its 
proposed actions.32
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \32\ U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Legal Counsel. 
Memorandum from Theodore B. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General, for 
William H. Taft IV, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Department of Defense. 
``Effect of INS v. Chadha on 44 U.S.C. Sec. 501, `Public Printing and 
Documents'.'' Washington, March 2, 1984.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Next, OLC issued an April 11, 1984, opinion to OMB 
regarding the JCP's proposedrevision of its printing 
regulations, which had been published November 11, 1983.33 
It concluded that the proposed regulations were not authorized by any 
statute and the execution of the authority purportedly vested in the 
JCP by the regulations not only would violate the constitutionally 
mandated placement of executive authority in the 
President,34 but also would be inconsistent with the 
provisions of Article I of the Constitution, which, as interpreted by 
the Chadha Court, forbid the legislative imposition of binding 
directives on the executive branch without compliance with that 
article's prescribed lawmaking procedures.35
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \33\ See Congressional Record, v. 129, November 11, 1983, p. H9709 
(daily edition).
    \34\ Citing Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976) (officers of the 
United States may not be appointed by Congress).
    \35\ 8 Op. O.L.C. 53-65 (1984).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Several months later, the JCP published another version of 
its revised printing regulations, designating them ``proposed 
policies and guidelines.'' 36 OLC responded with the 
same conclusions it had offered previously: if the new 
proposals were truly guidelines, ``then executive departments 
are under no obligation to comply with them in formulating 
their decisions'' with respect to agency printing policy. If, 
however, they were intended to in any way bind executive branch 
officials, OLC found that there was no statutory authority to 
support ``the promulgation of mandatory guidelines or the 
compulsory subordination of executive management discretion to 
a committee of Congress.'' Moreover, said the opinion, even if 
such statutory authority was deemed to exist, ``they would 
represent a constitutionally impermissible legislative trespass 
under the rights, duties, and responsibilities of the Executive 
Branch [under the Buckley and Chadha decisions].'' 
37
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \36\ See Congressional Record, v. 130, June 26, 1984, p. H7075 
(daily edition).
    \37\ U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Legal Counsel. 
Memorandum from Theodore B. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General, for 
Michael J. Horowitz, Counsel to the Director, Office of Management and 
Budget. ``Government Printing, Binding, and Distribution Policies and 
Guidelines of the Joint Committee on Printing.'' Washington, August 21, 
1984.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Three years later, the Department of Defense, the General 
Services Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration published notice of their intention to 
implement, on July 1, 1987, a final rule supplanting the 
current Federal Acquisition Rule (FAR) dealing with the 
acquisition of printing and related supplies.38 The 
agencies explained that revision of the rule was made necessary 
by Chadha's implicit invalidation of JCP's approval requirement 
under 44 U.S.C. 501(2), referencing the DOJ March 2, 1984, 
opinion. The new rule, it was said, ``reflects the deletion of 
the [old rules'] approval procedure, substitution of a 
notification requirement, and revision of definitions to 
reflect the statute rather than JCP regulations.'' 
39
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \38\ See 48 C.F.R. 8.800-8.802 (1986).
    \39\ Federal Register, v. 54, March 20, 1987, p. 9037.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The proposed revision of the FAR, however, would have gone 
beyond simply conforming the regulatory scheme to the 
constitutional strictures announced by the Chadha Court. The 
new FAR not only would have eliminated the JCP's supervisory 
role and veto power, it also would have divested GPO of any 
role in printing decisionmaking, allowing the individual agency 
with printing capability, or the funds to contract out for 
printing, to decide where and how printing shall be 
accomplished.
    Congress responded by placing an appropriations limitation 
in the FY1988 legislative branch appropriation measure, 
proscribing any executive agency procurement of commercial 
printing, with certain limited exceptions, unless authorized by 
GPO.40 The conference report on the legislation made 
clear the congressional intent to override the FAR:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \40\ P.L. 100-202, sec. 309; 101 Stat. 1329.

          The conference agreement includes a provision which 
        requires executive branch agencies who wish to procure 
        printing services from commercial sources to do so 
        through the Government Printing Office. Exceptions are 
        provided for a number of printing practices and 
        activities that for reasons of necessity, practicality, 
        efficiency, or statutory authority have been, and 
        should continue to be, performed other than through the 
        Government Printing Office. The overall intent is to 
        maintain the status that existed prior to the 
        implementation of the recent change in the Federal 
        Acquisition Regulation * * *. This provision revises a 
        provision inserted by the Senate.41
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \41\ U.S. Congress. House. Committee of conference. Making Further 
Continuing Appropriations for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 
1988. H. Rept. 100-498, 100th Congress, 1st session. Washington: U.S. 
Govt. Print Off., 1987, p. 1001.

The proposed FAR was subsequently withdrawn.
    Congress imposed the same limiting language in legislative 
branch appropriations acts for FY1989, FY1990, and FY1991. The 
FY1991 version, however, made the provision 
permanent.42 In the legislation for FY1993, Congress 
repealed the FY1991 provision and, in its stead, enacted one 
that swept more broadly.43 The General Services 
Administration (GSA) attempted to challenge the 
constitutionality of this version by seeking an opinion to that 
effect from the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel. Acting Assistant 
Attorney Walter Dellinger found the limitation to be 
constitutionally valid, saying: ``It does not give the GPO the 
authority to refuse to print any materials, but merely requires 
that printing be procured `by or through' the GPO.'' 
44
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \42\ See P.L. 101-520, sec. 206; 104 Stat. 2274.
    \43\ See P.L. 102-392, sec. 207; 106 Stat 1719-1720. Previous 
versions were narrower in that they applied only to printing ``from 
commercial sources''. The new version applied to virtually all spending 
by all executive agencies for any printing.
    \44\ U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Legal Counsel. 
Memorandum from Walter Dellinger, Assistant Attorney General, for Emily 
C. Hewitt, General Counsel, General Services Administration. ``General 
Services Administration Printing Operations.'' Washington, September 
13, 1993.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In 1994, Congress again altered the limitation by requiring 
that executive branch agencies receive a certification from the 
Public Printer before procuring the production of certain 
documents outside of GPO, and by expanding the types of 
materials that are to be produced by GPO.45 This 
modification prompted President Clinton to comment in his July 
22, 1994, signing statement that the provision ``raises serious 
constitutional concerns'' and to declare that he would 
``interpret the amendments to the public printing provisions in 
a manner that minimizes the potential constitutional 
deficiencies in the Act''.46
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \45\ P.L. 103-283, sec. 207; 108 Stat. 1423, 1440.
    \46\ Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, v. 30, July 29, 
1994, pp. 1541- 1542.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Later, as revealed in a September 19, 1994, memorandum from 
OMB Acting Director Alice Rivlin to department and agency 
heads, an accommodation between the two branches was reached 
concerning public printing. She announced: ``The leadership of 
the Congressional committees of jurisdiction has agreed to work 
with the Administration to produce a legislative approach to 
solving this problem'' of comprehensive reform of Federal 
Government printing. As a consequence, she directed the 
executive departments and agencies ``to maintain the status quo 
regarding present printing and duplicating arrangements during 
Fiscal Year 1995 to allow this initiative to go forward.'' 
47 However, the accommodation proved to be temporary 
when, several weeks later, the President's political party lost 
majority control of both Houses of Congress and congressional 
reconsideration of public printing arrangements came under new 
leadership.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \47\ Memorandum reprinted in Congressional Record, v. 140, 
September 29, 1994, pp. E1997-E1998 (daily edition).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Nonetheless, executive branch resolve in challenging 
congressional efforts at controlling Federal printing practices 
may have been buttressed by several judicial rulings since 
Chadha which have substantially narrowed the ways in which 
Congress may directly control executive agency decisionmaking. 
In one such case, Bowsher v. Synar, the Supreme Court ruled 
that, ``because Congress has retained removal authority over 
the Comptroller General, he may not be entrusted with executive 
powers''.48 In another, the Court held that a board 
of review, which was composed of Members of Congress and could 
exercise veto power over the operational decisions of the 
Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority, was 
unconstitutional.49 More recently, the Court of 
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, reviewing the 
subsequent congressional effort to repair the defects found by 
the Supreme Court, held that scheme--creating a board of review 
which could only recommend, but not veto, the operational 
decisions of the Airport Authority--to be unconstitutional as 
well. The appeals court found the review board to be an agent 
of Congress, allowing for a direct exercise of congressional 
influence, which was deemed sufficient to thereby taint the 
scheme.50 In this latter regard, the appeals court 
was following its recent holding in Federal Election Commission 
v. NRA Political Victory Fund, in which it invalidated an 
arrangement whereby Congress appoints two of its agents as non-
voting ex officio members of the Federal Election 
Commission.51
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \48\ Bowsher v. Synar, 478 U.S. 714, at 732 (1986).
    \49\ Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority v. Citizens for the 
Abatement of Aircraft Noise, Inc., 501 U.S. 252 (1991).
    \50\ Hechinger v. Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority Board 
of Review, 36 F.3d 97 (D.C. Cir. 1994), cert. denied, 115 S. Ct. 934 
(January 23, 1995).
    \51\ Federal Election Commission v. NRA Political Victory Fund, 6 
F.3d 821 (D.C.Cir. 1993), cert. dismissed for want of jurisdiction, 115 
S.Ct. 537 (1994).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    These emerging legal authorities buttressing Chadha, 
coupled with Congress's effort to expand the definition of 
``printing'' subject to GPO control to include ``duplicating'' 
in the FY1995 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act and the 
collapse of the Rivlin accommodation after the fall 1994 
congressional elections, prompted the Justice Department to 
issue its most direct legal challenge to congressional control 
of executive branch printing. In a May 31, 1996, opinion, the 
Office of Legal Counsel found that the current extent of 
congressional control over the printing operations of GPO, and, 
in particular, the printing needs of the executive branch, was 
an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers 
doctrine. OLC also assured all executive branch officers and 
employees who act in conformity with its opinion that they 
would not be subject to liability or sanction even if their 
actions were contrary to the views and rulings of the 
Comptroller General.52 The OLC opinion is the 
clearest indication that the heretofore challenges by the 
executive to congressional attempts to maintain direct control 
of executive branch printing are not likely to abate. Indeed, 
OLC's invitation to ignore the contrary views of the 
Comptroller General, which would ordinarily deter certifying 
and disbursing officers from acting contrary to his 
advice,53 marks an unprecedented deterioration of 
interbranch comity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \52\ U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Legal Counsel. 
Memorandum from Walter Dellinger, Assistant Attorney General, for Emily 
C. Hewitt, General Counsel, General Services Administration. 
``Government Printing Office Involvement in Executive Branch 
Printing.'' Washington, May 31, 1996.
    \53\ See 31 U.S.C. 3522-3530 (1994).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

              E. Reinventing, Downsizing, and Economizing

    Shortly after his inauguration, President Clinton announced 
on March 3, 1993, that he was initiating a National Performance 
Review (NPR) to be conducted over the next six months by a task 
force headed by Vice President Albert Gore, Jr. ``Our goal,'' 
said the President, ``is to make the entire Federal Government 
both less expensive and more efficient, and to change the 
culture of our national bureaucracy away from complacency and 
entitlement toward initiative and empowerment. We intend to 
redesign, to reinvent, to reinvigorate the entire National 
Government.'' 54
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \54\ Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, v. 29, March 8, 
1993, p. 350.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The final report of the NPR was delivered to the President 
on September 7, 1993. It criticized Federal Government hiring, 
purchasing, decisionmaking structure, program duplication, and 
administrative procedures. To rectify the situation, over 380 
major recommendations were offered. Among these was a proposal 
to eliminate the Government Printing Office's monopoly over the 
procurement of government printing. GAO had criticized GPO's 
monopoly status in 1990.55 The report also called 
for Congress to end the oversight role of the Joint Committee 
on Printing for all executive branch printing.56
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \55\ U.S. General Accounting Office. Government Printing Office: 
Monopoly-Like Status Contributes to Inefficiency and Ineffectiveness. 
GAO/GGD-90-107. Washington: September 1990.
    \56\ Office of the Vice President. From Red Tape to Results: 
Creating a Government that Works Better & Costs Less. Report of the 
National Performance Review, pp. 6-7.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    An April 11, 1996, memorandum from White House Chief of 
Staff Leon E. Panetta reflected the willingness of the Clinton 
Administration to continue to pursue new printing policy that 
would address various pending problems to the satisfaction of 
both Congress and the administration. The memorandum, addressed 
to all heads of executive departments andagencies, reminded 
these officials ``to make maximum use of the capabilities and expertise 
of the Government Printing Office in handling your agency's printing 
and duplicating procurements during the next 12 months, in accordance 
with the following:
          Agencies should continue to procure printing and high 
        volume duplicating through the Government Printing 
        Office.
          Existing agency in-house printing and duplicating 
        operations and cross-servicing arrangements may 
        continue to operate normally.
          Plans to downsize internal printing and duplicating 
        capacity shall continue to be carried out.'' 
        57
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \57\ The White House. Memorandum from Leon E. Panetta, Chief of 
Staff, for heads of executive departments and agencies. ``Procurement 
of Printing and Duplicating through the Government Printing Office.'' 
Washington, April 11, 1996.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Approximately one month later, as indicated above, a May 
31, 1996, Department of Justice memorandum provided a sharp 
reminder that the constitutional problems plaguing public 
printing policy and practice not only had not disappeared, but 
were becoming somewhat more acute. Prepared by Assistant 
Attorney General Walter Dellinger, Office of Legal Counsel, the 
memorandum revisited the provisions in the Legislative Branch 
Appropriations Act of 1995 expanding the definition of printing 
and requiring the agencies to receive a certification from the 
Public Printer before procuring the production of certain 
official documents from sources other than GPO. These were the 
same provisions to which President Clinton had taken exception 
when signing the legislation into law. The Dellinger memorandum 
found ``that the GPO is subject to congressional control, and 
conclude that the GPO's extensive control over executive branch 
printing is unconstitutional under the doctrine of separation 
of powers.'' Moreover, the memorandum concluded ``that 
executive branch departments and agencies are not obligated to 
procure printing by or through the GPO'' and ``we perceive 
little or no risk of liability or sanction to contracting 
officers who act consistently with this opinion'' as the 
Department of Justice would decline to prosecute 
them.58
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \58\ U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Legal Counsel. 
Memorandum from Walter Dellinger, Assistant Attorney General, for Emily 
C. Hewitt, General Counsel, General Services Administration. 
``Government Printing Office Involvement in Executive Branch 
Printing.'' Washington, May 31, 1996, pp. 1, 18.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                          IV. Committee Action

    In 1996, during the second session of the 104th Congress, 
the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration began 
examining the issues surrounding public access to Government 
Information in the 21st Century. This initiative was taken in 
light of a series of actions in the House of Representatives, 
and the activities of the Administration in light of the 
recommendations of the National Performance Review.
    To address these concerns, the Committee convened a series 
of four hearings, on June 18, 1996, June 19, 1996, July 16, 
1996, and July 24, 1996 with the objectives to:
          1. Ensure continued public access to Government 
        information;
          2. Encourage technological advances for even broader 
        public access without creating a society of information 
        ``haves'' and ``have-nots''; and,
          3. Bring title 44, United States Code, into the 21st 
        century with a minimum cost to the taxpayers.
    At the June 18, 1996, hearing, the Committee received 
testimony from Wayne P. Kelley, Superintendent of Documents, 
U.S. Government Printing Office; Daniel P. O'Mahony, Government 
Documents Coordinator, Brown University Library, Providence, 
Rhode Island; Betty J. Turock, President, American Library 
Association, Washington, D.C.; and, Christie D. Vernon, Saint 
Leo College, Yorktown, Virginia.
    During the hearing on June 19, 1996, the Committee received 
testimony from William A. Wulf, Professor of Computer Science, 
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia; Dennis F. 
Galletta, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Robert L. 
Smith, Jr., Interactive Services Association, Silver Spring, 
Maryland; and, Hon. Jeanne Hurley Simon, Chairperson, U.S. 
National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, 
Washington, D.C.
    At the July 16, 1996, hearing, the Committee received 
testimony from Eric Massant, Director, Government and Industry 
Affairs, LEXIS-NEXIS and Congressional Information Service, 
Inc.; William A. Gindlesperger, President, ABC/BIDS Plus, 
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; Robert G. Claitor, President, 
Claitor's Law Books and Publishing Division, Inc. Baton Rouge, 
Louisiana; and Benjamin Y. Cooper, Vice President, Government 
Affairs, Printing Industries of America, Alexandria, Virginia.
    On July 24, 1996, the Committee received testimony from 
Hon. Royce C. Lamberth, United States District Court Judge from 
the District of Columbia; and, Hon. Sally Katzen, 
Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, 
Office of Management and Budget, Washington, D.C.
    Shortly after the convening of the 105th Congress, the 
chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration 
initiated an effort to develop a public printing reform bill. 
While addressing the various technological, managerial, and 
constitutional challenges, opportunities, and problems 
confronting the public printing system, the resulting reform 
proposal was to be designed to garner broad support within 
Congress as well as the approval of the Clinton Administration. 
Consequently, in April 1997, a legislative working group was 
formed, consisting of staff from the Senate Committee on Rules 
and Administration, the Joint Committee on Printing, and the 
Office of Management and Budget. This group met regularly 
during the spring, summer, and fall months.
    Some members of the working group also held discussions 
with representatives of various organizations having a direct 
interest in public printing policy and practice. These 
deliberations provided an opportunity for exchanging ideas, 
recommendations, and rationales for reform. As a draft bill 
began to take shape, various agency representatives were 
consulted to obtain their reactions to the reform measure, as 
were House and Senate officials who would be affected by the 
new arrangements.
    The Committee on Rules and Administration also held a 
series of hearings during the 105th Congress to review 
legislative recommendations on certain revisions to Title 44 of 
the United States Code. At a April 24, 1997, hearing, the 
Committee heard testimony from Michael F. DiMario, Public 
Printer, and George E. Lord, chairman, Joint Council of Unions, 
both of the Government Printing Office; Royce C. Lamberth, 
United States District Judge for the District of Columbia; and 
William J. Boarman, Communications Workers of America.
    At a May 8, 1997, hearing, the Committee received testimony 
from Sally Katzen, Administrator, Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget; Richard L. 
Shiffrin, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal 
Counsel, Department of Justice; Francis J. Buckley, Shaker 
Heights Public Library, Shaker Heights, Ohio, on behalf of 
library organizations; Ben Cooper, vice president, Office of 
Government Affairs, Printing Industries of America, Inc.; and 
Ronald G. Dunn, president, Information Industry Association.
    Those testifying at the Committee's May 22, 1997, hearing 
included Henry J. Gioia, Senior Management Analyst, Office of 
the Director of Administration and Management, Office of the 
Secretary of Defense; Gary R. Bachula, Deputy Under Secretary 
for Technology Administration, Department of Commerce; John W. 
Carlin, Archivist of the United States; and Joan K. Lippincott, 
interim Executive Director, Coalition for Networked 
Information.
    Following over a year of discussion and negotiation between 
committee staff and representatives of the Inter-Association 
Working Group on Government Information Policy on behalf of the 
library community, the Office of Management and Budget, the 
Institute for Federal Printing and Publishing, the Information 
Industry Association, the Printing Industry of America, and ABC 
Advisors, S. 2288, the Wendell H. Ford Government Publication 
Reform Act of 1998 was introduced by Senators Warner and Ford 
on July 10, 1998.
    Subsequently, the Committee held two hearings on the bill.
    At a July 29, 1998, hearing, the Committee received 
testimony from Barbara J. Ford, Executive Director, University 
Library Services, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, 
Virginia, on behalf of the American Library Association; Daniel 
P. O'Mahony, Coordinator of Government Documents and Social 
Sciences Data Services, Brown University, Providence, Rhode 
Island, on behalf of the Inter-Association Working Group on 
Government Information Policy; Robert L. Oakley, Director of 
the Law Library and Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law 
Center, Washington, D.C., on behalf of the American Association 
of Law Libraries; Ben Cooper, vice president, Office of 
Government Affairs, Printing Industries of America, Inc.; and 
Daniel Duncan, vice president, Information Industry 
Association; Patrice McDermott, Information Policy Analyst, OMB 
Watch; Michael F. DiMario, Public Printer, and George E. Lord, 
chairman, Joint Council of Unions, both of the Government 
Printing Office; and, William J. Boarman, vice president, 
Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO. Submitting 
testimony, but not appearing were Donald R. Arbuckle, Acting 
Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, 
Office of Management and Budget; and William Treanor, Deputy 
Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, Department 
of Justice; L. Nye Stevens, Director, Federal Management and 
Workforce Issues, General Government Division, U.S. General 
Accounting Office; and Joyce C. Doria, vice president, Booz-
Allen & Hamilton, Inc.
    At a September 16, 1998 hearing, the Committee received 
testimony from J. Michael Farren, vice president, External 
Affairs, Xerox Corporation, on behalf of the Information 
Technology Industry Council; Leonard Pomata, president, Litton/
PRC, on behalf of the Professional Services Council; and 
William Gindlesperger, president, ABC Advisors, Inc.
    The Committee convened to mark up and report out S. 2288 on 
September 28, 1998. The Committee, by voice vote, reported 
favorably S. 2288 with an amendment in the nature of a 
substitute, and recommended that the bill, the ``Wendell H. 
Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998,'' pass.

                     V. Section-by-Section Analysis

                         SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE

Findings

    Subsection (a) of this legislation specifies certain 
findings by Congress concerning the public career of Senator 
Wendell H. Ford of Kentucky, concluding with the finding that 
it is altogether fitting and proper that this legislation, the 
most comprehensive and far reaching proposal to ensure 
permanent public access to the Government's publications, 
regardless of form or format, to come before the Congress of 
the United States during the tenure of Senator Ford, be named 
in his honor.

Short Title

    Subsection (b) of this section entitles this legislation 
the ``Wendell H. Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 
1998.''

                      SECTION 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS

    The table of contents of this legislation is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Table of contents.
Sec. 3. Findings and purposes.
Sec. 4. Definitions.

    TITLE I--TRANSFER OF FUNCTIONS OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING

Sec. 101. Purpose.
Sec. 102. Repeal of provisions establishing the Joint Committee on 
          Printing.
Sec. 103. Legislative oversight functions.
Sec. 104. Repeal of waivers.
Sec. 105. References.
Sec. 106. Effective date.

                TITLE II--GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS OFFICE

Sec. 201. Government Publications Office.

 TITLE III--GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS OFFICE; PUBLICATIONS PRODUCTION AND 
                     PRODUCTION PROCUREMENT SERVICES

Sec. 301. Government Publications Office; publications production and 
          production procurement services.
Sec. 302. Production of publications and procurement of publication 
          services by Congress and legislative agencies.
Sec. 303. Congressional Record.
Sec. 304. Production of publications and procurement of publication 
          services; legislative oversight.
Sec. 305. Particular Government publications.
Sec. 306. Costs of producing regulatory publications.
Sec. 307. Publications of the Supreme Court.
Sec. 308. Repeal of provisions exempting statutory publication 
          production and production procurement requirements.
Sec. 309. Additional technical and conforming amendments relating to 
          congressional publications.

       TITLE IV--OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS ACCESS PROGRAMS

Sec. 401. Short title.
Sec. 402. Federal Publications Access Programs.
Sec. 403. Distribution and sale of Government publications by 
          Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs.
Sec. 404. Technical and conforming amendments relating to the 
          Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs.

             TITLE V--ADMINISTRATIVE AND SAVINGS PROVISIONS

Sec. 501. Continuation of employment terms and conditions.
Sec. 502. Proceedings not affected.
Sec. 503. Suits not affected.
Sec. 504. Nonabatement of actions.
Sec. 505. Separability.
Sec. 506. Transfer of certain functions of the Joint Committee on 
          Printing.
Sec. 507. Additional technical and conforming amendments.
Sec. 508. Implementation actions.
Sec. 509. Effective date.

                    SECTION 3. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES

Findings

    Subsection (a) specifies nine findings underlying the 
preparation and introduction of this legislation. These 
findings are as follows:
          (1) in a democracy, public access to Government 
        publications is fundamental to fostering an informed 
        citizenry in order to promote meaningful participation 
        in the democratic process;
          (2) easy and equitable access to Federal Government 
        publications contributes to economic development in 
        many sectors of the Nation's economy;
          (3) permanent public access to Federal Government 
        publications through a diversity of sources, including 
        a system of Federal publications access libraries, 
        should be guaranteed;
          (4) the Federal Government should seek the most 
        effective and efficient means of producing, 
        disseminating, and providing permanent public access to 
        its publications, and these means should not be placed 
        at risk due to jurisdictional disputes between the 
        branches of the Federal Government;
          (5) duplicative in-house agency publications 
        production is costly and inefficient and should be 
        phased out and replaced with--
                  (A) procurement through the Government 
                Publications Office, consistent with this Act; 
                or
                  (B) as appropriate, from competitively 
                selected private sector commercial sources;
          (6) recent practices by Federal agencies of 
        privatizing Government publications have resulted in a 
        significant loss of publications that should have been 
        made available to the public through the Federal 
        publications access program;
          (7) technological developments provide opportunities 
        for increasing efficiencies in the production and 
        dissemination of Government publications, but also pose 
        challenges for ensuring broad-based, permanent public 
        access to Government publications in new forms and 
        format;
          (8) the establishment of a mechanism for 
        contemporaneous monitoring and evaluation of such 
        developments is essential in order to maintain a 
        continuous flow of timely, useful, and permanently 
        accessible Government publications to the public; and
          (9) the dissemination and permanent public access of 
        Government publications must be guaranteed through a 
        mechanism with sufficient independence and authority to 
        ensure agency compliance with their obligation to 
        provide material for the Federal publications access 
        program.

Purposes

    Subsection (b) specifies three purposes of this 
legislation:
          (1) reform the oversight and management of the 
        production, dissemination, and permanent public access 
        to the Federal Government's publications;
          (2) guarantee permanent public access to publications 
        produced by the Federal Government, regardless of form 
        or format;
          (3) facilitate the efficient and economical 
        production, dissemination, and permanent public access 
        to Government publications; and,
          (4) limit the Federal government's internal 
        publication production capacity and to promote the 
        procurement of publication production from 
        competitively selected private sector commercial 
        sources to the maximum extent practicable consistent 
        with this Act.

                         SECTION 4. DEFINITIONS

    1. The term ``Government publication'' has the meaning 
specified under section 1902(3) of title 44, United States 
Code, as amended by this legislation. As defined in that 
section, ``Government publication'' means any information 
product or other discrete set of Government information, 
regardless of form or format, that is created or compiled (1) 
by the Government, (2) at Government expense, in whole or in 
part, or (3) as required by law, and an agency discloses, 
disseminates, or makes available to the public. The term does 
not include information that (1) is required for official use 
only, (2) is for strictly internal administrative or 
operational purposes having no public interest or educational 
value, or (3) is classified for reasons of national security.
    2. The term ``agency'' has the meaning given such term 
under section 1902(1) of title 44, United States Code, as 
amended by this legislation. As defined in that section, 
``agency'' means (1) an executive department, government 
corporation, government-controlled corporation, or other 
establishment in the executive branch of the Government, 
including the Executive Office of the President and any 
independent regulatory agency, and (2) an establishment or 
component of the legislative branch as determined by the rules 
of the Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively. 
It also embraces (3) an establishment or component of the 
judicial branch of the Government, including courts, unless 
they are otherwise excepted.
    3. The term ``House of Representatives'' is defined to 
include delegates of the U.S. Territories and the District of 
Columbia and the Resident Commissioner.

   Title I--Transfer of Functions of the Joint Committee on Printing

                           SEC. 101. PURPOSE

    Section 101 indicates that the purpose of this title is to 
provide for the orderly transfer of functions of the Joint 
Committee on Printing, as appropriate, to the Committee on 
Rules and Administration of the Senate, the Committee on House 
Oversight of the House ofRepresentatives, and the Government 
Publications Office, and within that agency, as appropriate, to the 
Administrator, the Superintendent of Government Publications Production 
and Procurement Services, and the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs.

  SEC. 102. REPEAL OF PROVISIONS ESTABLISHING THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON 
                                PRINTING

    Section 102 repeals chapter 1 of title 44, United States 
Code, and amends the table of chapters for title 44 by striking 
the item relating to chapter 1.

                          SEC. 103. REGULATION

    Section 103 generally directs that, unless otherwise 
provided by this Act, the Administrator of the Government 
Publications Office shall continue to keep in effect, as 
appropriate, the Government Printing and Binding Regulations 
No. 26, effective February 1990, as contained in Senate 
Publication, S. Pub. 101-9, until the Administrator publishes 
final regulations in accordance with section 301 of title 44, 
United States Code, as amended by this Act.

                      SEC. 104. REPEAL OF WAIVERS

    Section 104 specifies that all waivers granted and other 
provisions required of executive and judicial branch agencies 
and independent establishments by the Joint Committee on 
Printing under the Government Printing and Binding Regulations 
before the date of enactment of this Act shall be void 120 days 
after the promulgation of final regulations pursuant to section 
308, Title 44, United States Code, as amended by this Act.

                          SEC. 105. REFERENCES

    Section 105 specifies that a reference in any Federal law, 
Executive order, rule, regulation, or delegation of authority, 
or any document of or relating to the Joint Committee on 
Printing shall be deemed to refer, as appropriate, to the 
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, the 
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives, 
or the Government Publications Office.

                        SEC. 106. EFFECTIVE DATE

    Section 106 specifies that title I of this Act shall take 
effect on January 1, 1999.

                Title II--Government Publications Office

Sec. 201(a). Government Publications Office.

    Section 201(a) generally amends Chapter 3, title 44, United 
States Code, to read as follows:

               ``CHAPTER 3--GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS OFFICE

``Sec.
``301. Administrator; Government Publications Office: appointment; 
          duties; and pay.
``302. Government Publications Office; Deputy Administrator: 
          appointment; duties; and pay.
``303. Government Publications Office; employee pay.
``304. Government Publications Office; night work.
``305. Disbursing officer, deputy disbursing officer, certifying 
          officers and employees.
``306. Revolving Fund for operation of Government Publications Office.
``307. Payments for printing, binding, blank paper, supplies, and 
          publications production services.
``308. Procurement authority.
``309. Machinery, material, equipment, or supplies from other Government 
          agencies.
``310. Inks, glues, and other supplies furnished to other Government 
          agencies: payment.
``311. Branches of Government Publications Office: limitations.
``312. Detail of employees of Government Publications Office to other 
          Government establishments.
``313. Government Publications Office security.
``314. Transfer of surplus property.
``315. Sales of reproducibles.
``316. Use of Federal advisory committees.''.
            Sec. 301. Administrator; Government Publications Office: 
                    appointment; duties; and pay
    This section authorizes the President to appoint, with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, the Administrator of the 
Government Publications Office, who is authorized to take 
charge of and manage the Government Publications Office. The 
Administrator may use any measures the Administrator considers 
necessary to carry out the duties and powers of the office, and 
to remedy neglect, delay, duplication, or waste in the 
production or procurement of printing, binding, and blank-book 
work, as defined in section 501 of this Title, and 
dissemination of theFederal Government's publications, and to 
enhance and expand the dissemination of, and maintenance of permanent 
public access to, the Federal Government's publications. After notice 
and comment, and in consultation with the Office of Management and 
Budget, the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, the 
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Committee 
on House Oversight of the House of Representatives, the Administrator 
may issue regulations consistent with this title to carry out the 
purposes of this title. All such regulations are to be promulgated in 
accordance with the requirements of section 553 and section 556 of 
title 5, United States Code, and the requirements of chapter 7, title 
5, United States Code. Furthermore, all such regulations are to be 
promulgated in accordance with chapter 8 of title 5, United States 
Code, and, notwithstanding section 804(2), all such regulations 
promulgated shall be treated as a ``major rule.'' The section sets the 
annual rate of pay for the Administrator at a rate equal to the rate 
payable for a position at level III of the Executive Schedule under 
section 5314 of title 5.
            Sec. 302. Government Publications Office; Deputy 
                    Administrator: appointment; duties; and pay
    The Administrator is authorized by this section to appoint 
a suitable person to be the Deputy Administrator of the 
Government Publications Office. The Deputy Administrator shall 
perform all duties and responsibilities assigned by the 
Administrator, and the duties and responsibilities of the 
Administrator in the event of either a vacancy in the office of 
the Administrator or the incapacity of the Administrator. In 
the event of a vacancy or incapacity, the Deputy Administrator 
serves until a successor Administrator is appointed, but for no 
longer than 1 year after a vacancy or incapacity occurs. The 
section sets the annual rate of pay for the Deputy 
Administrator at a rate equal to the rate payable for a 
position at level IV of the Executive Schedule under section 
5314 of title 5.
            Sec. 303. Government Publications Office; employee pay
    The section authorizes the Administrator to employ persons 
necessary for the work of the Government Publications Office at 
rates of wages and salaries, including compensation for night 
and overtime work, that the Administrator considers for the 
interest of the Government and just to the persons employed, 
except as otherwise provided by this section. The Administrator 
may not employ more persons than the necessities of public work 
require. The rate of wages, including compensation for night 
and overtime work, for more than 10 employees of the same 
occupation, are to be determined by a conference between the 
Administrator and a committee selected by the trades affected.
    Wages affecting the employees of the Government 
Publications Office are to be negotiated between the 
Administrator and bargaining representatives of the employees 
of the Government Publications Office. If the Administrator and 
the bargaining representatives of the employees fail to agree 
to wages, salaries, and compensation, the dispute is to be 
referred to an arbitrator chosen from a panel of 3 arbitrators. 
The Administrator and the bargaining representatives of the 
employees are authorized to enter into an agreement governing 
the selection of arbitrators for the panel and the procedures 
applicable to the panel. The Government Publications Office and 
the bargaining representatives of the employees each pay 50 
percent of the costs of the proceedings of the panel, including 
transcripts expenses. The section specifies that a decision by 
the arbitrator shall be final and binding on all parties. The 
wages, salaries, and compensation so determined are not subject 
to change more than once a year. The Administrator is 
authorized to grant an employee paid on an annual basis 
compensatory time off from work duty instead of overtime pay 
for overtime work.
            Sec. 304. Government Publications Office; night work
    This section authorizes the Administrator to cause the work 
of the Government Publications to be performed at night, as 
well as through the day, when the exigencies of the public 
service require such action.
            Sec. 305. Disbursing officer; deputy disbursing officer; 
                    certifying officers and employees
    The Administrator is authorized by this section to appoint, 
from time to time, a disbursing officer of the Government 
Publications Office, who shall be under the direction of the 
Administrator. The disbursing officer is responsible for 
disbursing moneys of the Government Publications Office only 
upon, and in strict accordance with, vouchers certified by the 
Administrator or by an officer or employee of the Government 
Publications Office authorized in writing by the Administrator 
to certify such vouchers. The disbursing officer is also 
responsible for examining vouchers, as may be necessary, to 
ascertain whether they are in proper form, certified, and 
approved. While the disbursing officer is to be held 
accountable for these responsibilities, he or she is not to be 
held accountable or responsible for any illegal, improper, or 
incorrect payment resulting from any false, inaccurate, or 
misleading certificate, the responsibility for which, under 
subsection (c) of this section, is imposed upon a certifying 
officer or employee of the Government Publications Office. Upon 
the death, resignation, or separation from office of the 
disbursing officer, his or her accounts may be continued, and 
payments and collection may be made in his or her name, by any 
individual designated as a deputy disbursing officer by the 
Administrator, for a period of time not to extend beyond the 
last day of the second month following the month in which the 
death, resignation, or separation occurred. Accounts and 
payments are to be allowed, audited, and settled; checks signed 
in the name of the former disbursing officer by a deputy 
disbursing officer are to be honored in the same manner as if 
the former disbursing officer had continued in office. The 
section specifies that a former disbursing officer of the 
Government Publications Office or his or her estate may not be 
subject to any legal liability or penalty for the official 
accounts or defaults of the deputy disbursing officer acting in 
the name or in the place of the former disbursing officer. Each 
deputy disbursing officer is responsible for accounts entrusted 
to him or her under paragraph (1) of this subsection, and the 
deputy disbursing officer is liable for any default occurring 
during his service under this paragraph.
    The section authorizes the Administrator to designate in 
writing officers and employees of the Government Publications 
Office to certify vouchers for payment from appropriations and 
funds. These designated officers and employees are to be 
responsible for the existence and correctness of the facts 
recited in the certificate or other voucher or its supporting 
papers, and for the legality of the proposed payment under the 
appropriation or fund involved. They are also responsible and 
accountable for the correctness of the computations of 
certified vouchers, and accountable for, and required to make 
restitution to, the United States for the amount of any 
illegal, improper, or incorrect payment resulting from any 
false, inaccurate, or misleading certificate made by him or 
her, as well as for any payment prohibited by law or which did 
not represent a legal obligation under the appropriation or 
fund involved. However, the Administrator may, at his or her 
discretion, relieve such certifying officer or employee of 
liability for any payment otherwise proper whenever the 
Comptroller finds that the certification was based on the 
official records and that such certifying officer or employee 
did not know, and by reasonable diligence and inquiry could not 
have ascertained, the actual facts; or when the obligation was 
incurred in good faith, the payment was not contrary to any 
statutory provision specifically prohibiting payments of the 
character involved, and the United States has received value 
for such payment. The Administrator is directed to relieve such 
certifying officer or employee of liability for an overpayment 
for transportation services made to any common carrier covered 
by section 3726 of title 31, whenever he or she finds that the 
overpayment occurred solely because the administrative 
examination made prior to payment of the transportation bill 
did not include a verification of transportation rates, freight 
classifications, or land grant deductions. The section provides 
that the liability of such certifying officers or employees 
shall be enforced in the same manner and to the same extent as 
provided by law with respect to the enforcement of the 
liability of disbursing and other accountable officers. Such 
certifying officers and employees have the right to apply for 
and obtain a decision by the Comptroller General on any 
question of law involved in a payment on any vouchers presented 
to them for certification.
            Sec. 306. Revolving Fund for operation of Government 
                    Publications Office
    Section 306 specifies that the revolving fund established 
July 1, 1953, is available without fiscal year limitation for 
the operation and maintenance of the Government Publications 
Office, including the rental of buildings, attendance at 
meetings, maintenance and operation of the emergency room, 
employee training, uniforms or uniform allowances, repairs and 
minor alterations to buildings, and any costs associated with 
audits performed in accordance with this Act. Also included are 
all expenses incurred by the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs for the production of, or 
procurement for the production of, Government publications 
found to be in violation of requirements of chapter 19, as 
authorized by that chapter; and all receipts received through a 
transfer by the Secretary of the Treasury in accordance with 
chapter 19 and credited to the accounts of the Superintendent 
of Government Publications Access Programs.
    The section indicates that the Revolving Fund is to be 
reimbursed for the cost of all services and supplies furnished 
the Government Publications Office and credited with all 
receipts, including sales of printing, print procurement and 
related publications production services, waste, condemned and 
surplus property, payments received for losses or damage to 
property, and receipts received through a transfer by the 
Secretary of the Treasury in accordance with chapter 19.
    The Administrator is directed to maintain within the 
Revolving Fund separate accounts for activities of the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and 
Procurement Services and the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs. All expenses and reimbursements 
of costs of the respective Superintendents are to be accounted 
for within the Revolving Fund. The Administrator is to ensure 
to the greatest extent possible, net receipts of the respective 
Superintendent's programs are used for the benefit and 
enhancement of those programs, respectively. An adequate system 
of accounts for the Revolving Fund are to be maintained on the 
accrual method, and financial reports are to be prepared on the 
basis of accepted accounting standards. The Administrator is 
directed to prepare and submit an annual business-type budget 
for this fund which is to include the programs and activities 
of the Superintendent of Government Publications Production and 
Procurement Services and the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs. This budget program is to be 
considered and enacted as prescribed by section 9104 of title 
31, United States Code. Notwithstanding paragraph (1), for the 
purposes of section 8147 of title 5, United States Code, the 
Government Publications Office (and each of its components) is 
not considered to be an agency which is required by statute to 
submit an annual budget pursuant to or as provided by chapter 
91 of title 31.
    The Administrator is directed to prepare annual financial 
statements meeting the requirements of section 3515(b) of title 
31. These financial statements are to be audited each year, in 
accordance with applicable, generally accepted Government 
auditing standards, by an independent external auditor selected 
by the Administrator, with the concurrence of the Inspector 
General of the Government Publications Office, or by the 
Inspector General of the Government Publications Office. For 
purposes of the audits, the Inspector General is to have such 
access to the records, files, personnel, and facilities of the 
Government Publications Office as the Inspector General 
considers appropriate. The Inspector General shall furnish 
reports of the audits to Congress and the Administrator.
    The costs associated with the performance of an audit 
conducted in accordance with this section shall be paid from 
receipts in the Revolving Fund credited to the accounts of the 
Administrator.
            Sec. 307. Payments for printing, binding, blank paper, 
                    supplies, and publications production services
    This section provides that an agency of the Federal 
Government ordering printing, binding, blank paper, supplies, 
or other publications production services from the Government 
Publications Office is to pay promptly by the most efficient 
means available, including electronic funds transfer, to the 
Administrator or the Administrator's designee, upon his written 
request, either in advance or upon completion of the work, all 
or part of the estimated or actual cost, as the case may be. 
Bills rendered by the Administrator, or the Administrator's 
designee, are not subject to audit or certification in advance 
of payment. Adjustments on the basis of the actual cost of 
delivered work paid for in advance is to be made monthly or 
quarterly and as may be agreed by the Administrator and the 
agency concerned. The Administrator is to present a bill or 
advice of payment to an agency for which the Government 
Publications Office has performed work no later than 90 days 
after work has been completed. The agency is to pay the 
Government Publications Office with funds obligated during the 
fiscal year in which the order was placed.
    For congressional orders which are in process 90 days 
before Congress adjourns, the Administrator is to consult with 
the appropriate office to determine whether the work will be 
completed before Congress adjourns. The Administrator is to 
bill for the cost of work completed for all jobs that are still 
in process on the date that Congress adjourns within 45 days 
after adjournment. The succeeding Congress must submit 
requisitions to the Government Publications Office to authorize 
completion of any job ordered by the prior Congress.
            Sec. 308. Production and Procurement authority
    Section 308 specifies that purchases may be made by the 
Administrator without reference to the Federal Property and 
Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended (40 U.S.C. 481 
et seq.) concerning purchases for the Federal Government.
    The section also indicates that publications production and 
procurement regulations administered by the Government 
Publications Office are to govern the production and 
procurement of printing, binding, and blank-book work, as 
defined in section 501 of this Title, by the Government 
Publications Office or by an agency under a delegation of 
authority granted by the Administrator.
    Any agency that intends to procure printing, binding, and 
blank-book work, as defined in section 501, title 44, United 
States Code, as amended, through the Government Publications 
Office or for that agency under a delegation of authority 
granted by the Administrator, is to cause a notice to be posted 
on a centralized notification system maintained by the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and 
Procurement Services that is electronically accessible.
    The Administrator is authorized to prescribe such 
regulations, policies, and directives, in accordance with 
section 301(c) of title 44, United States Code, as amended by 
this Act not inconsistent with the provisions of this section, 
to carry out this section relating to the Government 
Publications Office.
    The Administrator is authorized to delegate and authorize 
successive redelegation of any production or procurement 
authority vested in the Administrator to any official in the 
Government Publications Office, or any official in any agency 
seeking authority for the procurement of services, if the 
Administrator determines that the Government Publications 
Office is not able or suitably equipped to execute such 
procurement authority or as may be more economically or in the 
better interest of Government executed elsewhere. Such 
delegation or redelegation of production or procurement 
authority is to be in accordance with this chapter and chapter 
19. No delegation, or redelegation, of authority under this 
section is to be granted by the Administrator until final 
regulations providing for the requirements of any such 
delegation, or redelegation, of authority are issued. Such 
final regulations are to require that--
          An agency may not contract for the production or 
        procurement of printing, binding, and blank-book work, 
        as defined in section 501, title 44, United States 
        Code, as amended with another agency or a private 
        sector commercial source unless that entity has been 
        certified by the Administrator as having met the 
        requirements of this title, including the notice 
        requirement of chapters 5 and 19, and remains certified 
        during the course of the procurement contract;
          The Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
        Programs be a signatory to the procurement contract, or 
        that the Superintendent otherwise certifies that a 
        memorandum of understanding has been agreed to by the 
        procuring agency establishing the requirements to be 
        met for the Federal publications access program; and
          The requirements of subsection (b) shall be met.
    All delegations of authority for the production or 
procurement of printing, binding, and blank-book work, as 
defined in section 501, title 44, United States Code, as 
amended, shall be done in conformance to this chapter and 
chapters 5 and 19, United States Code, as amended.
    Except as provided in subsections (f) and (g), and except 
in the case of procurement procedures otherwise expressly 
authorized by statute, the Administrator, in conducting a 
procurement for property or services, and an agency acting 
under a delegation of authority granted by the Administrator is 
to obtain full and open competition through the use of 
competitive procedures, in accordance with the requirements of 
this section, and is to use the competitive procedure or a 
combination of competitive procedures that is best suited under 
the circumstances of the procurement. In determining the 
competitive procedures appropriate under the circumstances, the 
Administrator and an agency acting under a delegation of 
authority granted by the Administrator is to solicit sealed 
bids if time permits their solicitation, submission, and 
evaluation; the award will be made on the basis of price and 
other price-related factors; it is not necessary to conduct 
discussions with the responding sources about their bids; and 
there is a reasonable expectation of receiving more than 1 
sealed bid. The Administrator is to request competitive 
proposals if sealed bids are inappropriate under subparagraph 
(A).
    In addition to the authority otherwise provided by law, the 
Administrator, and an agency acting under a delegation of 
authority granted by the Administrator, may use procedures 
other than competitive procedures only if the property or 
services needed by the Government are available from only 1 
responsible source and no other type of property or services 
will satisfy the needs of the Government; the Government's need 
for the property or services is of such an unusual and 
compelling urgency that the Government would be seriously 
injured unless the Administrator is permitted to limit the 
number of sources from which the Government Publications Office 
solicits bids or proposals; a statute expressly authorizes a 
specified source; or the Administrator determines that it is 
necessary in the public interest to use procedures other than 
competitive procedures in the particular procurement concerned.
    In order to promote efficiency and economy in contracting, 
and to avoid unnecessary burdens for the Government and 
contractors, the regulations issued, in accordance with this 
section, are to provide for special, simplified procedures for 
small purchases of property and services by the Government 
Publications Office or any agency acting under a delegation of 
authority granted by the Administrator. For the purposes of 
this section, a small purchase is understood to be a purchase 
or contract for an amount which does not exceed the small 
purchase threshold. The section indicates that a proposed 
purchase or contract for an amount greater than the small 
purchase threshold may not be divided into several purchases or 
contracts for lesser amounts in order to use the small purchase 
procedures required under paragraph (1). In using small 
purchase procedures, the Administrator and any agency acting 
under a delegation of authority granted by the Administrator is 
to promote competition to the maximum extent practicable. For 
subsection (g), the term ``small purchase threshold'' has the 
meaning given such term by regulations issued by the 
Administrator under subsection (c).
            Sec. 309. Machinery, material, equipment, or supplies from 
                    other Government agencies
    Section 309 specifies that agencies having machinery, 
material, equipment, or supplies for printing, binding, and 
blank-book work, including lithography, photolithography, 
xerography, and other processes of reproduction, no longer 
required or authorized for service, as determined by the agency 
head, are to provide a description of such material, equipment, 
or supplies to the Administrator. The Administrator may 
requisition such articles as are serviceable in the Government 
Publications Office, and such articles are to be promptly 
delivered to the Government Publications Office.
            Sec. 310. Inks, glues, and other supplies furnished to 
                    other Government agencies: payment
    Section 310 specifies that inks, glues, and other supplies 
manufactured by the Government Publications Office, in 
connection with its work, may be furnished to departments and 
other establishments of the Government upon requisition, and 
payment is to be made from appropriations available.
            Sec. 311. Branches of Government Publications Office: 
                    limitations
    Section 310 specifies that appropriated funds may not be 
used for maintaining more than 1 branch of the Government 
Publications Office in any 1 building occupied by an executive 
department of the Government, and a branch of the Government 
Publications Office may not be established unless specifically 
authorized by law.
            Sec. 312. Detail of employees of Government Publications 
                    Office to other Government establishments
    Section 312 provides that an employee of the Government 
Publications Office may not be detailed to duties not 
pertaining to the work of the Government Publications Office in 
any office in the Legislative, Executive or Judicial branches 
of Government unless expressly authorized by law.
            Sec. 313. Government Publications Office security
    Section 313 authorizes the Administrator, or a delegate 
appointed by the Administrator, to designate employees of the 
Government Publications Office to serve as special policemen to 
protect persons and property on the premises and in adjacent 
areas occupied by or under the control of the Government 
Publications Office. Under regulations to be prescribed by the 
Administrator, employees designated as special policemen are 
authorized to bear and use arms in the performance of their 
duties, make arrest for violations of laws of the United 
States, the several States, and the District of Columbia, and 
to enforce the regulations of the Administrator, including the 
removal from Government Publications Office premises of 
individuals who violate such regulations. The jurisdiction of 
special policemen on the premises occupied by or under the 
control of the Government Publications Office and adjacent 
areas shall be concurrent with the jurisdiction of the 
respective law enforcement agencies where the premises are 
located.
            Sec. 314. Transfer of surplus property
    This section provides that, notwithstanding title II of the 
Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (40 
U.S.C. 481 et seq.), the Administrator may transfer or donate 
surplus and condemned Government Publications Office machinery, 
material, equipment, and supplies, and surplus Government 
publications to other Federal entities; any organization 
described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986 and exempt from tax under section 501(a) of such Code; or 
State or local governments.
            Sec. 315. Sales of reproducibles
    This section authorizes the Administrator to sell to 
persons who may apply, publication production reproducibles, 
regardless of form or format, from which a Government 
publication is produced at a price not to exceed the cost to 
the Government, as determined by the Administrator.
            Sec. 316. Use of Federal advisory committees
    Section 316 authorizes the Administrator to establish such 
advisory committees as the Administrator determines 
appropriate. All meetings of such advisory committee(s) are 
required to be open to the public, except when the 
Administrator determines that the meeting or any portion of the 
meeting, shall be closed to the public, consistent with the 
provisions of section 552b(c) of title 5 and only after a 2/3 
vote of the advisory committee(s). All meetings of any advisory 
committee established by the Administrator are to be preceded 
by timely public notice in the Federal Register of the time, 
place, and subject of the meeting. Minutes of each meeting are 
to be kept and shall contain a record of the people present and 
a description of the discussion that occurred. The minutes and 
records of all such meetings and other documents that were made 
available to or prepared for an advisory committee established 
by the Administrator are to be made publicly accessible, unless 
the Administrator determines that a record or any portion of 
such record, shall not be publicly disclosed, consistent with 
the provisions of section 552 of title 5 and only after a 2/3 
vote of the advisory committee.

Sec. 201(b)(1). Government Printing Office; Abolished

    Section 201(b) reestablishes the Government Printing Office 
as the Government Publications Office, as an independent entity 
in the Federal government, independent of executive agencies.

SEC. 201(c). Report to Congress

    Section 201(c) provides that acts applicable to the 
Government Printing Office on the day before the effective date 
of this Act are to apply to the Government Publications Office. 
Any other acts that are generally applicable to executive 
branch agencies are not applicable to the Government 
Publications Office unless expressly made applicable by law. 
The Administrator of the Government Publications Office is 
directed to adopt such policies, procedures, and regulations as 
are necessary to incorporate and thereby make the Government 
Publications Office subject to the requirements of the Privacy 
Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), the Government Performance and 
Results Act of 1992 (107 Stat. 285), the Government Management 
and Reform Act of 1994 (108 Stat. 3410), the Government in the 
Sunshine Act of 1976 (5 U.S.C. 552b), the Chief Financial 
Officers Act of 1990 (104 Stat. 2838), the Direct Deposit Act 
(31 U.S.C. 3332), the Federal Managers Financial Integrity Act 
of 1982 (31 U.S.C. 3512), the Prompt Payment Act (31 U.S.C. 
3901), the Contract Disputes Act (41 U.S.C. 601 et seq.), and 5 
U.S.C. 7351.

Sec. 201(d). Transfer

    Section 201(d) transfers all duties, authorities, 
responsibilities, and functions of the Public Printer of the 
Government Printing Office on the day before the effective date 
of this title to the Administrator of the Government 
Publications Office for performance on and after such date.

Sec. 201(e). References

    Section 201(e) provides that references in any other 
Federal law, Executive order, rule, regulation, or delegation 
of authority, or any document of or relating to (1) the 
Government Printing Office is to be deemed a reference to the 
Government Publications Office, (2) the Public Printer is to be 
deemed a reference to the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services or the 
Administrator, as appropriate, (3) the Office of the Public 
Printer is to be deemed a reference to the Office of the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and 
Procurement Services, or the Office of the Administrator, as 
appropriate, (4) the Superintendent of Production Services is 
to be deemed a reference to the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services, and (5) the 
Superintendent of Access Programs is to be deemed a reference 
to the Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs.

Sec. 201(f). Transition

    Section 201(f) indicates that the individual serving as the 
Public Printer on the effective date of this title may serve as 
the Administrator of the Government Publications Office until 
the President appoints, with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, a successor Administrator. The individual serving as 
the Administrator pursuant to subparagraph (A) is to perform 
all of the duties and responsibilities of the Administrator 
until the President appoints a successor Administrator in 
accordance with section 301 of title 44, United States Code, as 
amended by this Act.
    Assets and real property under the control of, in use by, 
or assigned to the Public Printer on the day before the 
effective date of this Act is placed under the control of the 
Administrator on the effective date of this Act for the use of 
the Administrator and the Acting Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs for purposes of implementing this 
Act.
    Personnel under the supervision of or assigned to the 
Public Printer on the day before the effective date of this Act 
are placed under the supervision of the Administrator, pursuant 
to subsection (g) of title IV, on the effective date of this 
Act for purposes of implementing this Act.

Sec. 201(g). Technical and conforming amendment

    This subsection amends the table of chapters for title 44, 
United States Code, by striking the item relating to chapter 3 
and inserting the following:

``3. Government Publications Office...............................301.''

Title III--Government Publications Office; Publications Production and 
                    Production Procurement Services

Sec. 301(a). Government Publications Office; Publications Production 
        and Production and Procurement Services

    This subsection amends Chapter 5 of title 44, United States 
Code, to read as follows:

``CHAPTER 5--GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS OFFICE; PUBLICATIONS PRODUCTION AND 
                          PROCUREMENT SERVICES

``Sec.
``501. Government Publications produced by or procured through the 
          Government Publications Office.
``502. Government Publications Office; Superintendent of Government 
          Publications Production and Procurement Services: appointment; 
          duties; and pay.
``503. Printing in veterans' hospitals.
``504. Regulations for procurement of Government publications production 
          services.
``505. Time for printing documents or reports which include 
          illustrations or maps.
``506. Orders for printing and publications production services to be 
          acted upon within 1 year.
``507. Standards for papers used in Government publications.
``508. Annual plans for Government publications.''.
            Sec. 501. Government Publications produced by or procured 
                    through the Government Publications Office
    Section 501 authorizes the Government Publications Office 
to produce or procure the production of Government 
publications, regardless of form or format, including 
Government publications created for or transmitted through an 
electronic communications system or network, as requisitioned 
by Congress, Federal agencies and the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs. Notwithstanding any 
other provision of law, and subject to subsection (b), the 
Government Publications Office, with slight exception, is to be 
the only authorized agency of the Federal Government to provide 
printing, binding and blank-book work for Congress, the 
Executive Office of the President, the Judiciary (other than 
the Supreme Court of the United States) and every Executive 
department and independent establishment of the Government, 
publications production and procurement services. Exceptions to 
this requirement include publications created only for 
dissemination through an electronic communications system or 
network, provided that the requirements of chapter 19 are 
satisfied; individual production orders by the executive branch 
costing not more than $1,000, if the work is not of a 
continuing or repetitive nature, and as certified by the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and 
Procurement Services if the work is included in a class of work 
which cannot be provided more economically through the 
Government Publications Office, if the requirements of chapter 
19 are satisfied; the production or procurement of printing, 
binding, and blank-book work for the Central Intelligence 
Agency, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, the National 
Reconnaissance Office, the Defense Intelligence Agency, or the 
National Security Agency; and the production or procurement of 
printing, binding, and blank-book work, provided the 
requirements of chapter 19 are fulfilled, for slip opinions of 
the United States Circuit Courts of Appeals and the Bankruptcy 
Noticing Center. Provision is made that no appropriated funds 
may be obligated or expended by an executive branch entity for 
the procurement of any printing related to the production of 
Government publications (including printed forms) unless such 
procurement is made by or through the Government Publications 
Office. As used in the section, ``printing'' includes the 
processes of composition, platemaking, presswork, duplicating, 
silk screen processes, binding, microform, and the end items of 
such processes. The Administrator is directed to review the 
subsection to ensure that the definition of ``printing'' is 
consistent with international and commercial standards, and to 
review, as well, at intervals of not greater than five years, 
the definition of ``printing'' to recommend revisions to 
reflect current technology.
    The section also provides that, under a delegation of 
authority from the Administrator in accordance with section 
308, an agency of the executive or judicial branch may produce 
or procure printing, binding, and blank-book work, as defined 
in section 501, title 44, United States Code, as amended, for 
that agency if the agency certifies to the Administrator that 
the agency is in full compliance with the requirements of this 
chapter, chapter 19, and the publications production and 
procurement services regulations administered by the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and 
Procurement Services.
    The Administrator is to promptly notify the Superintendent 
of Government Publications Production and Procurement Services 
and the Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs of any decision to delegate authority under this 
section. However, a delegation of authority to an agency under 
this section is not to be granted unless and until the 
Departmentof the Treasury has established a designated budget 
account for the agency in accordance with section 1906(a). In 
determining a delegation of authority under this section, the 
Administrator is to take into account any prior determinations of 
noncompliance issued against an agency under section 1906.
    The section specifies that no agency is to produce or 
procure printing, binding, and blank-book work, as defined in 
section 501, title 44 United States Code, as amended, for 
another agency, except for those publications created only for 
dissemination through an electronic communications system or 
network, unless expressly authorized by law enacted after the 
effective date of this Act.
    The section further specifies that, notwithstanding any 
other provision of law, no agency may participate in a 
partnership or alliance, public or private, to produce 
Government publications, or enter into a contract or 
cooperative agreement or similar contractual arrangement for 
the production or procurement of printing, binding, and blank-
book work, as defined in section 501, title 44, United States 
Code, as amended, or dissemination of a Government publication, 
regardless of form or format, unless such action complies with 
chapter 19 and is approved in advance by the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs.
            Sec. 502. Government Publications Office; Superintendent of 
                    Government Publications Production and Procurement 
                    Services: appointment; duties; and pay
    Section 502 specifies that the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services, who may also 
be referred to as the Superintendent of Production Services, is 
to be appointed by the President, with the advice and consent 
of the Senate, for a term of 5 years. This appointment is to be 
made without regard to political affiliation, and solely on the 
basis of professional qualifications to perform the duties and 
responsibilities of the office. Allowance is made for an 
individual to be appointed to more than 1 term in this 
position.
    The section also provides that the Superintendent of 
Production Services, under the direction of the Administrator, 
is to take all steps considered necessary to carry out the 
duties and powers of the office and to remedy neglect, delay, 
duplication, or waste in the production or procurement of 
printing, binding, and blank-book work, as defined in section 
501, title 44, United States Code, as amended. To the greatest 
extent feasible, the Superintendent is to operate the 
production and procurement services program on a self-
sustaining basis. Furthermore, the Superintendent of Production 
Services must promptly notify the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs of any contract for the production 
or procurement of production services of any Government 
publication so that the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs may meet the requirements of 
chapter 19.
    The Administrator is to transfer to the authority of the 
Superintendent of Production Services such personnel within the 
Government Publications Office as the Administrator shall 
determine are required by the Superintendent to perform the 
duties of this chapter.
    The Superintendent of Government Publications Production 
and Procurement Services is to be paid, according to this 
section, an annual rate of pay equal to the rate payable for a 
position at level IV of the Executive Schedule under section 
5315 of title 5, United States Code.
    Provision is also made for a Deputy Superintendent of 
Government Publications Production and Procurement Services, 
who is to be appointed by the Superintendent of Production 
Services. The Deputy Superintendent of Government Publications 
Production and Procurement Services is authorized to perform 
all duties and responsibilities assigned by the Superintendent 
of Production Services and the duties and responsibilities of 
the Superintendent of Production Services in the event of a 
vacancy in the office of the Superintendent or the incapacity 
of the Superintendent. In the event of a vacancy, the Deputy 
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and 
Procurement Services is to serve until a successor 
Superintendent of Production Services is appointed and 
qualifies, but for no longer than 1 year after a vacancy 
occurs.
    Compensation for the Deputy Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services is provided by 
the section at an annual rate of pay equal to the rate payable 
for a position on the Senior Executive Service under section 
5316 of title 5, United States Code.
    Lastly, notwithstanding subparagraph (A), for purposes of 
section 8147 of title 5, United States Code, the activities of 
the Superintendent of Production Services are not considered 
activities that are required by statute to submit an annual 
budget pursuant to or as provided by chapter 91 of title 31.
            Sec. 503. Printing in veterans' hospitals
    Section 503 provides that, notwithstanding section 501, the 
Secretary of Veterans Affairs may use the equipment described 
in subsection (b) for printing and binding that the Secretary 
finds advisable for the use of the Department of Veterans 
Affairs. The equipment described in subsection (b) is the 
printing and binding equipment that the various hospitals and 
homes of the Department of Veterans Affairs use for 
occupational therapy.
            Sec. 504. Regulations for procurement of Government 
                    publications production services
    This section indicates that the Administrator is to 
promulgate and the Superintendent of Government Publications 
Production and Procurement Services is to administer 
regulations governing the production and procurement of 
printing, binding and blank-book work, as defined in section 
501, title 44, United States Code, as amended, through the 
Government PublicationsOffice in accordance with chapters 3 and 
19. All such regulations must be promulgated in accordance with the 
requirements of section 553 and section 556 of title 5, United States 
Code, and the requirements of chapter 7, title 5, United States Code. 
The section further specifies that all such regulations must be 
promulgated in accordance with chapter 8 of title 5, United States 
Code, and notwithstanding section 804(2), all such regulations 
promulgated are to be treated as a ``major rule.''
            Sec. 505. Time for printing documents or reports which 
                    include illustrations or maps
    Section 505 provides that a document or report to be 
illustrated or accompanied by maps may not be printed by the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and 
Procurement Services until the illustrations or maps designed 
for it are ready for publication.
            Sec. 506. Orders for printing and publications production 
                    services to be acted upon within 1 year
    Section 506 specifies that an order for production or 
procurement of printing, binding, or blank-book work, as 
defined in section 501, title 44, United States Code, as 
amended, may not be acted upon by the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Production and Procurement Services 
after the expiration of 1 year, unless the entire copy and 
illustrations for the work have been furnished within that 
period.
            Sec. 507. Standards for papers used in Government 
                    publications
    Section 507 provides that the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services is to 
establish appropriate standards for printing and writing papers 
to be used in all Government printing, binding, and blank-book 
work, as defined in section 501, title 44, United States Code, 
as amended, and may procure such papers under procedures 
established pursuant to section 308. These standards are to 
detail the Government's minimum needs for each type and grade 
of paper in such a way as to allow the use of as many existing 
commercially available papers as practical, and to provide 
maximum economy to the public. These standards, denominated the 
``Government Paper Specification Standards,'' are to be 
published periodically.
            Sec. 508. Annual plans for Government publications
    Section 508 indicates that, on the date that the head of 
each agency submits an appropriation request under section 1108 
of title 31 for the preparation of the budget, the agency head 
must also submit a plan on the production or procurement of 
printing, binding, and blank-book work, as defined in section 
501, title 44, United States Code, as amended, and the 
dissemination and accessibility of Government publications of 
the agency.
    Plans required under this section are to be submitted in 
different ways by each branch of the Government. Agencies of 
the executive branch and independent establishments are to 
submit such plans and reports to the Director of the Office of 
Management and Budget, the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate, the Committee on House Oversight 
of the House of Representatives, and the Administrator of the 
Government Publications Office. Agencies of the legislative 
branch are to submit their plans and reports to the Committee 
on Rules and Administration of the Senate, the Committee on 
House Oversight of the House of Representatives, and the 
Administrator of the Government Publications Office. Agencies 
of the judicial branch, except the Supreme Court, are to submit 
their plans and reports to the Director of the Administrative 
Office of the United States Courts, the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate, the Committee on House Oversight 
of the House of Representatives, and the Administrator of the 
Government Publications Office.
    A plan prepared pursuant to this section is not considered 
to be in lieu of any requirements under chapter 35, title 44, 
United States Code, as amended.

Sec. 301(b). Transition

    This subsection provides that the individual serving as 
Administrator pursuant to subsection (f) of title II of this 
Act is to perform all duties and responsibilities of the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and 
Procurement Services as provided in chapter 5, title 44, United 
States Code, as amended by this Act, until a Superintendent of 
Production Services is appointed by the President, with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, under section 502. The 
subsection further specifies that the President must make this 
appointment not later than 180 days after the effective date of 
this Act.

Sec. 301(c). Report and 5-year plan

    This subsection specifies that, not later than 180 days 
after the effective date of this title, each agency must submit 
a report that contains a plan, to be implemented during the 5-
year period following such effective date, that reduces the 
publications production capacity, if any, of the agency; sets 
annual dates, during such 5-year period, by which incremental 
reductions of such capacity will be accomplished; and provides 
for publications production performed by the agency to be 
performed by non-Federal entities pursuant to contracts in 
compliance with this act, and with appropriate protections to 
ensure compliance with the requirements of chapter 19 of title 
44, United States Code, regarding dissemination and permanent 
accessibility of Government publications. On October 1 of each 
of the 5 fiscal years following the submission date of such 
reports, each agency must also submit a report on its 
compliance with its plan. Reports under this subsection are to 
be submitted in accordance with section 508 of title 44, United 
States Code, as amended by this section.

Sec. 301(d). Technical and conforming amendment

    This subsection amends the table of chapters for title 44, 
United States Code, by striking the item relating to chapter 5 
and inserting the following:

``5. Government Publications Office; Publications Production and 
              Procurement Services................................501''.

Sec. 302(a). Production of publications and procurement of publications 
        services by Congress and legislative agencies

    This subsection amends chapter 7 of title 44, United States 
Code, to read as follows:

  ``CHAPTER 7--PRODUCTION AND PROCUREMENT OF PUBLICATIONS SERVICES BY 
                    CONGRESS AND LEGISLATIVE AGENCIES

``Sec.
``701. `Usual number' of bills, resolutions, documents, and reports; 
          distribution of the House of Representatives and the Senate 
          documents and reports; reports on private bills; number of 
          copies printed; distribution.
``702. Style, form, and manner of publication.
``703. Printing extra copies.
``704. Reprinting bills, laws, and reports from committees.
``705. Duplicate orders to print.
``706. Bills and resolutions: style and form.
``707. Bills and resolutions: binding sets for Congress.
``708. Public and private laws and treaties.
``709. Copies of Acts furnished to the Superintendent of Government 
          Publications Production and Procurement Services.
``710. Printing Acts, joint resolutions, and treaties.
``711. Journals of the Houses of Congress.
``712. Printing documents for Congress in 2 or more editions.
``713. Printing of documents not provided by law.
``714. Appropriation chargeable for printing of document or report by 
          order of Congress.
``715. Lapse of authority to print.
``716. Classification and numbering of publications ordered printed by 
          Congress; designation of publications of departments; printing 
          of committee hearings.
``717. Senate and House Manuals.
``718. Congressional Directory.
``719. Congressional Directory: sale.
``720. Memorial addresses: preparation; distribution.
``721. Statement of appropriations: `usual number'.
``722. Printing for committees of Congress.
``723. Committee reports: indexing and binding.
``724. United States Statutes at Large: distribution.
``725. United States Statutes at Large: references in margins.
``726. Distribution of documents to Members of Congress.
``727. Allotments of public documents printed after expiration of terms 
          of Members of Congress: rights of reelected and retiring 
          Members to documents.
``728. Documents and reports ordered by Members of Congress: franks and 
          envelopes for Members of Congress.
``729. Stationery and blank books for Congress.
``730. Binding for Members of Congress.
``731. Binding at expense of Members of Congress.
``732. Binding for Senate library and House of Representatives library.
``733. Distribution of Senate and House documents to Members.
``734. Publications stored at Capitol.
``735. Congressional printing and binding appropriations; 
          authorization.''.
            Sec. 701. ``Usual number'' of bills, resolutions, 
                    documents, and reports; distribution of the House 
                    of Representatives and the Senate documents and 
                    reports; reports on private bills; number of copies 
                    printed; distribution
    This section indicates when either House of Congress orders 
the printing of a bill, resolution, document, or report, the 
``usual number'' of copies for binding and distribution among 
those entitled to receive them shall be ordered. A greater 
number of copies than the ``usual number'' may not be printed 
unless ordered by either House, or as provided by this section. 
When a special number of a document or report is ordered 
printed, the usual number shall also be printed, unless already 
ordered.
    At the beginning of each Congress, the ``usual number'' is 
to be jointly established by the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House 
Oversight of the House of Representatives, but in no case shall 
the ``usual number'' be less than 1. Furthermore, the ``usual 
number'' must be sufficient to provide copies for binding and 
distribution as follows:
          Copies of the bills, resolutions, documents, and 
        reports of the House of Representatives, unbound--to 
        the Senate document room for distribution to each 
        Senator, committees, and for other purposes; to the 
        office of the Secretary of the Senate; to the Clerk of 
        the House of Representatives for distribution to each 
        Member of the House of Representatives,committees, and 
for other purposes; and to fulfill standing orders and such other 
requirements authorized by law; and
          Copies of the bills, resolutions, documents, and 
        reports of the Senate, unbound--to the Senate document 
        room for distribution to each Senator, committees, and 
        for other purposes; to the office of the Secretary of 
        the Senate; to the Clerk of the House of 
        Representatives for distribution to each Member of the 
        House of Representatives, committees, and for other 
        purposes; and to fulfill standing orders and such other 
        requirements authorized by law.
    Of the number printed, the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services is directed to 
bind a sufficient number of copies for distributions as 
follows:
          Bills, resolutions, documents, and reports of the 
        House of Representatives, bound--to the Senate library; 
        to the library of the House of Representatives; and to 
        fulfill standing orders and such other requirements 
        authorized by law, except those designated Federal 
        publications access libraries which may prefer to have 
        documents in unbound form, and have so notified the 
        Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
        Programs in writing prior to the convening of each 
        Congress; and
          Bills, resolutions, documents, and reports of the 
        Senate, bound--to the Senate library; to the library of 
        the House of Representatives; and to fulfill standing 
        orders and such other requirements authorized by law, 
        except those designated Federal publications access 
        libraries entitled to documents that may prefer to have 
        documents in unbound form, and have so notified the 
        Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
        Programs in writing prior to the convening of each 
        Congress.
    Of Senate reports on private bills and concurrent or simple 
resolutions, a sufficient number of copies are to be printed 
for distribution to the Senate document room for distribution 
to each Senator, committees, and for other purposes; to the 
office of the Secretary of the Senate; to the Clerk of the 
House of Representatives for distribution to each Member of the 
House of Representatives, committees, and for other purposes; 
and to fulfill standing orders and such other requirements 
authorized by law.
    Of House of Representatives reports on private bills and 
concurrent or simple resolutions, a sufficient number of copies 
are to be printed for distribution to the Senate document room 
for distribution to each Senator, committees, and for other 
purposes; to the office of the Secretary of the Senate; to the 
Clerk of the House of Representatives for distribution to each 
Member of the House of Representatives, committees, and for 
other purposes; and to fulfill standing orders and such other 
requirements authorized by law.
    Until the ``usual number'' is established for a Congress 
under this section, the ``usual number'' of publications, as 
established in the immediately preceding Congress, shall remain 
in effect.
    This section does not prevent the binding of all Senate and 
House of Representatives reports in the reserve volumes bound 
for and delivered to the Senate and House of Representatives 
libraries, nor abridge the right of the Vice President, 
Senators, Representatives, Resident Commissioner, Delegates, 
Secretary of the Senate, and Clerk of the House of 
Representatives to have case bound in a durable material, 1 
copy of every public document to which he or she may be 
entitled. Copies of each report on bills for payment or 
adjudication of claims against the Government shall be kept on 
file in the Senate document room.
    Bills and resolutions are to be produced in bill form and 
are to be printed when referred to a committee, when reported 
back, when ordered by either House, and when ordered by the 
Secretary of the Senate under the direction of the Committee on 
Rules and Administration of the Senate or by the Clerk of the 
House under the direction of the Committee on House Oversight 
of the House of Representatives.
    Reports of committees are to be produced by requisition on 
the order of the originating committee, and the Superintendent 
of Government Publications Production and Procurement Services 
is to provide to the committee a voucher for the cost of the 
order. Preparation or presentation of the voucher is not to 
delay the printing of the usual number of the report.
            Sec. 702. Style, form, and manner of publication
    This section provides that, at the beginning of each 
Congress, the Committee on Rules and Administration of the 
Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives are to determine the style, form, and manner of 
printing for any publication authorized by simple resolution 
under this title for their respective Houses. Similarly, at the 
beginning of each Congress, the style, form, and manner of 
printing for any publication authorized by joint or concurrent 
resolution under this title is to be determined jointly by 
these same committees. Finally, at the beginning of each 
Congress, the style, form, and manner of printing for the 
Congressional Record, all bills, and other congressional 
publications, not otherwise provided for in this section, is to 
be determined by these same committees, acting jointly.
    The section further provides that, until the style, form, 
and manner of printing publications is established for a 
Congress under this section, the style, form, and manner of 
printing publications as established in the immediate previous 
Congress shall remain in effect.
            Sec. 703. Printing extra copies
    Section 703 specifies that orders for printing copies in 
addition to the ``usual number'' otherwise provided for by this 
section shall be by simple, concurrent, or joint resolution. 
However, either House may print no more than 300 extra copies 
by simple resolution. If the number exceeds that amount, the 
printing is to be ordered by concurrent resolution, unless the 
resolution is self-appropriating, when it shall be by joint 
resolution. Resolutions, when presented to either House, are to 
be referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration of the 
Senate orthe Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives, which, in making their report, are to require of the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Production and Procurement 
Services the estimate of cost. Extra copies may not be printed before 
the committee has reported. The Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services shall provide the 
committees a voucher for the total cost of the order.
            Sec. 704. Reprinting bills, laws, and reports from 
                    committees
    Section 704 provides that, when the supply is exhausted, 
the Secretary of the Senate, under the direction of the Senate 
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, and the 
Clerk of the House of Representatives, under the direction of 
the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives may order the reprinting of not more than 300 
copies of a pending bill, resolution, or public law, or a 
report from a committee or congressional commission on pending 
legislation not accompanied by testimony or exhibits or other 
appendices.
            Sec. 705. Duplicate orders to print
    Section 705 indicates that, if the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Production and Procurement Services 
receives duplicate Senate and House of Representatives orders 
for printing, the Superintendent of Production Services shall 
consult with the Committee on Rules and Administration of the 
Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives to determine the appropriate order for 
printing.
            Sec. 706. Bills and resolutions: style and form
    This section provides that, subject to sections 205 and 206 
of title I, the Committee on Rules and Administration of the 
Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives may authorize the printing of a bill or 
resolution, with index and ancillaries, in the style and form 
such committees consider most suitable in the interest of 
economy and efficiency, and to so continue until final 
enactment in both Houses of Congress. The committees may also 
curtail the number of copies of bills or resolutions, including 
the slip form of a public Act or public resolution, consistent 
with section 701.
            Sec. 707. Bills and resolutions: binding sets for Congress
    Section 707 specifies that three sets of Senate and House 
of Representatives bills and joint and concurrent resolutions 
of each Congress, 1 for the Senate and 2 for the House of 
Representatives, are to be bound by the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Production and Procurement Services and 
kept by the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House 
of Representatives for reference.
            Sec. 708. Public and private laws and treaties
    Section 708 provides that the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services is to print in 
slip form copies of public laws, private laws, and treaties, to 
be paid from funds appropriated for congressional printing and 
binding. The Committee on Rules and Administration of the 
Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives have control of the number and distribution of 
such copies.
            Sec. 709. Copies of Acts furnished to the Superintendent of 
                    Government Publications Production and Procurement 
                    Services
    This section provides that the Archivist of the United 
States must furnish to the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services a copy of 
every Act and joint resolution, as soon as possible after its 
approval by the President, or after it has become a law under 
the Constitution without his approval.
            Sec. 710. Printing Acts, joint resolutions, and treaties
    Section 710 directs the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services, on receiving 
from the Archivist of the United States a copy of an Act or 
joint resolution, or from the Secretary of State, a copy of a 
treaty, to print an accurate copy and transmit it in duplicate 
to the Archivist of the United States or to the Secretary of 
State, as the case may be, for revision. On the return of 1 of 
the revised duplicates, the Superintendent of Production 
Services shall make the marked corrections and print the number 
specified by section 707.
            Sec. 711. Journals of the Houses of Congress
    Section 711 authorizes the printing of such copies of the 
Journals of the Senate and House of Representatives as 
determined by the Committee on Rules and Administration of the 
Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives at the beginning of each Congress for 
distribution to the Senate document room for distribution to 
Senators; the Senate library; the office of the Secretary of 
the Senate; the Clerk of the House of Representatives for 
distribution to Members and for other purposes; the library of 
the House of Representatives; and fulfill standing orders and 
such other requirements authorized by law.
            Sec. 712. Printing documents for Congress in 2 or more 
                    editions
    Section 712 directs the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House 
Oversight of the House of Representatives, acting jointly, to 
establish rules by which public documents and reports printed 
for Congress, or either House, may be printed in 2 or more 
editions, to meet public requirements.
            Sec. 713. Printing of documents not provided by law
    Section 713 provides that either House may order the 
printing of a document not already provided for by law, when 
accompanied by an estimate from the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Production and Procurement Services as 
to the probable cost. An agency of the executive or judicial 
branch of the Government submitting reports or documents in 
response to inquiries from Congress shall include an estimate 
of the probable cost of printing the documents in the ``usual 
number.''
            Sec. 714. Appropriation chargeable for printing of document 
                    or report by order of Congress
    This section indicates that the cost of printing of a 
document or report printed by order of Congress, which, under 
section 1107, cannot be properly charged to another 
appropriation or allotment of appropriation already made, upon 
order of Congress, is to be charged to the allotment of 
appropriation for printing and binding for Congress.
            Sec. 715. Lapse of authority to print
    Section 715 specifies that the authority to print a 
document or report, or a publication authorized by law to be 
printed, for distribution by Congress, lapses within 2 years 
after the date of the original order, except orders for 
subsequent editions, approved by Congress.
            Sec. 716. Classification and numbering of publications 
                    ordered printed by Congress; designation of 
                    publications of departments; printing of committee 
                    hearings
    This section specifies that publications ordered by 
Congress, or either House, regardless of form or format, shall 
be in 4 series: (1) reports made by the committees of the 
Senate, to be known as Senate reports; (2) reports made by the 
committees of the House of Representatives, to be known as 
House reports; (3) documents other than reports of committees, 
the orders for printing which originate in the Senate, to be 
known as Senate documents; and (4) documents other than 
committee reports, the orders for printing which originate in 
the House of Representatives, to be known as House documents. 
The Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the 
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives 
are jointly responsible for compilation and distribution of the 
bound United States congressional serial set, which is to be 
numbered consecutively from the first Congress onward and to 
include the reports and documents of the Senate and the House 
of Representatives. The publications in each series are to be 
consecutively numbered, the numbers in each series continuing 
in unbroken sequence throughout the entire term of a Congress, 
but these provisions do not apply to the documents published 
for the use of the Senate in executive session. These serial 
sets are to be made available as provided under chapter 19 for 
distribution and permanent public access by the Superintendent 
of Government Publications Access Programs.
    Copies of annual or serial publications originating in or 
prepared by an executive department, bureau, office, 
commission, or board which are intended for distribution to 
designated Federal publications access libraries may not be 
numbered in the document or report series of either House of 
Congress, but are to be designated by title, bound, and made 
available as provided under chapter 19, and the departmental 
edition, if any, shall be printed concurrently.
    The Superintendent of Government Publications Production 
and Procurement Services shall supply the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs with sufficient copies 
of publications distributed in unbound form, to be bound and 
distributed to the designated Federal publications access 
libraries for their permanent files. Every publication of 
sufficient size on any 1 subject is to be bound separately and 
receive the title suggested by the subject of the volume, and 
the others are to be distributed in unbound form as soon as 
printed. The library edition, as well as all other bound sets 
of congressional numbered documents and reports, shall be 
arranged in volumes and bound in the manner directed by the 
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the 
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives, 
acting jointly.
    Transcripts of hearings of committees may be printed as 
congressional documents only when specifically ordered by 
Congress or by either House.
            Sec. 717. Senate and House Manuals
    Section 717 indicates that each House may order printed as 
many copies as that House desires of the Senate Manual and of 
the Rules and Manual of the House of Representatives.
            Sec. 718. Congressional Directory
    Section 718 authorizes the preparation, under the direction 
of the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and 
the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives, a Congressional Directory, which is to be 
printed and distributed as early as practicable during the 
first session of each Congress. The two committees, acting 
jointly, have control of the content, quantity, and 
distribution of the Congressional Directory, and shall 
determine the manner in which 1 copy of it is to be bound for 
distribution to each Member of the Senate and the House of 
Representatives. The Directory also is to be maintained in 
electronic format and accessible to the public through the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs on-
line service. This electronic version of the Directory is to be 
updated at least quarterly, with the date of revision noted.
            Sec. 719. Congressional Directory: sale
    This section provides that the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs may offer copies of the current 
Congressional Directory for sale at a price sufficient to 
reimburse the costs of printing, consistent with section 1708. 
Revenue derived from these salesare to be deposited to the 
account of the Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs in the Revolving Fund of the Government Publications Office to 
offset the cost of the Publications sales program.
            Sec. 720. Memorial addresses: preparation; distribution
    Section 720 authorizes, after the final adjournment of each 
Congress, the compiling and binding in cloth in 1 volume of the 
exercises at the general memorial services held in either House 
during each session relative to the death of a Member of 
Congress or Senator, a former Member of Congress who served as 
Speaker, together with all relevant memorial addresses and 
eulogies published in the Congressional Record during the same 
session of Congress. To such compilation may be added any other 
matter the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate 
considers relevant to a Senator or any other matter the 
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives 
considers relevant to a Member of Congress or former Member of 
Congress who served as Speaker. The printing and distribution 
of such compilations include 50 copies delivered to the family 
of the deceased, 100 copies for the successor in office of a 
deceased Senator, Representative, Resident Commissioner or 
Delegate, and 2 copies each to the libraries of the Senate and 
the House of Representatives, respectively.
            Sec. 721. Statement of appropriations: ``usual number''
    Section 721 specifies that, of the statements of 
appropriations required to be prepared under the Act of October 
19, 1888 (2 U.S.C. 105), there shall be printed, after the 
close of each regular session of Congress, the ``usual 
number,'' as provided by section 701.
            Sec. 722. Printing for committees of Congress
    Section 722 provides that a committee of Congress may not 
procure the printing of more than 300 copies of a hearing 
transcript, or other document germane thereto, for its use, 
except by simple, concurrent, or joint resolution, as provided 
by section 702.
            Sec. 723. Committee reports: indexing and binding
    Section 723 directs the Secretary of the Senate and the 
Clerk of the House of Representatives to procure and file, for 
the use of their respective Houses, copies of all reports made 
by committees, and, at the close of each session of Congress to 
have the reports indexed and bound, with 1 copy deposited in 
the library of each House and 1 copy deposited with the 
committee from which the report emanates.
            Sec. 724. United States Statutes at Large: distribution
    Section 724 directs the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services, after the 
final adjournment of each regular session of Congress, to print 
and bind copies of the United States Statutes at Large. This 
undertaking is to be charged to the congressional allotment for 
printing and binding. The Committee on Rules and Administration 
of the Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House 
of Representatives are responsible for controlling the number 
and distribution of the copies. Senators and Representatives 
will receive a copy of such documents if they make a request in 
writing in advance of publication.
    Similarly, the Superintendent of Production Services also 
is directed by the section to print and, after the end of each 
calendar year, bind, and deliver to the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs a number of copies of 
the United States Treaties and Other International Agreements 
not exceeding the number of copies of the United States 
Statutes at Large required for distribution in the manner 
provided by chapter 19 of this title.
            Sec. 725. United States Statutes at Large: references in 
                    margins
    Section 725 specifies that the Archivist of the United 
States is to include in the references in margins of the United 
States Statutes at Large the number of the bill or joint 
resolution under which each Act was approved and became a law. 
Designations to be used include S. for Senate bill, H.R. for 
House bill, S.J. Res. for Senate joint resolution and H.J. Res. 
for House joint resolution, as the case may be. The reference 
in the margins is to be placed within brackets immediately 
under the date of the approval of the Act at the beginning of 
each Act as printed, beginning with volume 32 of the United 
States Statutes at Large.
            Sec. 726. Distribution of documents to Members of Congress
    This section indicates that, unless provided elsewhere in 
law, the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate 
and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives are to determine the quantity and distribution 
of documents to the Members, committees, and offices of their 
respective Houses.
            Sec. 727. Allotments of public documents printed after 
                    expiration of terms of Members of Congress: rights 
                    of reelected and retiring Members to documents
    Section 727 provides that the congressional allotment of 
Government publications, other than the Congressional Record, 
printed after the expiration of the term of office of the Vice 
President of the United States, or Senator, Representative, or 
Resident Commissioner, is be delivered to his or her successor 
in office, unless such individual takes the documents prior to 
the 30th day of June next following the date of expiration. 
Reelected and retiring Members may distribute public documents 
to their credit, or the credit of their respective districts 
during their successive terms, until their rights to frank 
documents ends. Unless provided elsewhere in law, the 
disposition of Government publications allotted and distributed 
to Members during their terms of office shall be governed by 
rules established by the Committee on Rules andAdministration 
of the Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives for their respective Houses.
            Sec. 728. Documents and reports ordered by Members of 
                    Congress: franks and envelopes for Members of 
                    Congress
    This section provides that the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services, on order of a 
Member of Congress and prepayment of the cost, may reprint 
documents and reports of committees together with the evidence 
papers submitted, or any part ordered printed by Congress. The 
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the 
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives 
are to establish for their respective Houses rules governing 
the style, content, quantity, printing, distribution, and 
method of payment to the Superintendent of Production Services 
for franks printed on sheets and perforated, or singly, and 
envelopes used for mailing public documents. Franks may also 
contain information relating to missing children as provided in 
section 3220 of title 39. Moneys accruing under this section 
are to be deposited by the Superintendent of Government 
Production Services to the Government Publications Office 
Revolving Fund as provided in section 502.
            Sec. 729. Stationery and blank books for Congress
    Section 729 authorizes the Superintendent of Production 
Services, upon requisition of the Secretary of the Senate and 
the Clerk of the House of Representatives, respectively, to 
furnish stationery, blank books, tables, forms, and other 
necessary papers preparatory to congressional legislation, 
required for the official use of the Senate and the House of 
Representatives, or their committees and officers. Rules 
governing the method of payment to the Superintendent of 
Production Services for such papers are to be established by 
the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the 
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives 
for their respective Houses. Moneys accruing under this section 
are to be deposited by the Superintendent of Government 
Production Services to the Government Publications Office 
Revolving Fund as provided in section 502. This section does 
not prevent the purchase by the officers of the Senate and 
House of Representatives of stationery and blank books 
necessary for sale to Senators and Members in the stationery 
rooms of the 2 Houses as provided by law.
            Sec. 730. Binding for Members of Congress
    This section authorizes the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House 
Oversight of the House of Representatives to establish rules 
regarding the binding needs of their respective Members.
            Sec. 731. Binding at expense of Members of Congress
    Section 731 provides that the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services may bind at 
the Government Publications Office books, maps, charts, or 
documents published by authority of Congress upon application 
of a Member of Congress, and payment of the actual cost of 
binding. Moneys accruing under this section are to be deposited 
by the Superintendent of Government Production Services to the 
Government Publications Office Revolving Fund as provided in 
section 502.
            Sec. 732. Binding for Senate library and House of 
                    Representatives library
    Section 732 indicates that the Secretary of the Senate and 
the Clerk of the House of Representatives may make requisition 
upon the Superintendent of Government Publications Production 
and Procurement Services for the binding of books for the 
library of their respective Houses, subject to the approval of 
the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the 
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives, 
respectively.
            Sec. 733. Distribution of Senate and House documents to 
                    Members
    Section 733 authorizes the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House 
Oversight of the House of Representatives, respectively, to 
determine appropriate mechanisms for the distribution of 
congressional documents to the Members of each House.
            Sec. 734. Publications stored at Capitol
    This section provides that the Secretary and Sergeant at 
Arms of the Senate and the Clerk and Sergeant at Arms of the 
House of Representatives, at the convening in regular session 
of each successive Congress, are to cause an inventory to be 
made of Government publications stored in and about the 
Capitol. This inventory shall not include publications in the 
allotment of Members of Congress, in the Library of Congress 
and the Senate and House libraries and document rooms. The 
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the 
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives 
are to determine the disposition of this inventory, save 4 
copies of leather-bound publications, which shall be reserved 
and carefully stored, for use in supplying deficiencies in the 
Senate and House libraries caused by wear or loss.
            Sec. 735. Congressional printing and binding appropriation; 
                    authorization
    This section provides that such sums are authorized to be 
appropriated as may be necessary.

Sec. 302(b). Feasibility report

    This subsection provides that, not later than 2 years after 
the effective date of this Act, the General Accounting Office, 
on behalf of the Administrator of the Government Publications 
Office, is to submit to the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House 
Oversight of the House of Representatives a report on the 
feasibility of legislative branch agencies procuring printing 
and publications services directly from nongovernmental sources 
under a delegation of authority from the Administrator of the 
Government Publications Office, if such agencies certify to the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs and 
the Superintendent of Government Publications Production and 
Procurement Services full compliance with the requirements of 
chapters 5 and 19 of title 44, United States Code. This report 
is to include an analysis of the impact on the procedures and 
precedents of each House of Congress and on the integrity of 
congressional publications of allowing legislative branch 
agencies to procure directly from nongovernmental sources; a 
study of the impact on the ability of the Government 
Publications Office to continue to function as a central 
procurement agency for the Federal executive, legislative, and 
judicial branches, exclusive of the Supreme Court; and 
recommendations for the assurance of information security, 
convenience, quality, economy, and efficiency in the 
procurement of printing services for all legislative branch 
agencies.

Sec. 302(c). Serial set feasibility study

    This subsection provides that, not later than 24 months 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Superintendent 
of Government Publications Access Programs, in consultation 
with the Federal Publications Access Library Council and 
others, is to prepare and submit to the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House 
Oversight of the House of Representatives a report with 
recommendations on the feasibility of producing, disseminating, 
and maintaining permanent public access to the serial sets 
described under section 716 as publications created for or 
transmitted through an electronic communications system or 
network.

Sec. 302(d). Technical and conforming amendments

    This subsection specifies that the table of chapters for 
title 44, United States Code, is amended by striking the item 
relating to chapter 7 and inserting the following:

``7. Production of Publications and Procurement of Publications 
              Services by Congress and Legislative Agencies.......701''.

                     sec. 303. congressional record

    This section provides that chapter 9 of title 44, United 
States Code, is amended to read as follows:

                    ``CHAPTER 9--CONGRESSIONAL RECORD

``Sec.
``901. Congressional Record: arrangement, style, contents, and indexes.
``902. Congressional Record: indexes.
``903. Congressional Record: daily and permanent forms.
``904. Congressional Record: maps; diagrams; illustrations.
``905. Congressional Record: additional insertions.
``906. Congressional Record: gratuitous copies; delivery.
``907. Congressional Record: extracts for Members of Congress; mailing 
          envelopes.
``908. Congressional Record: payment for printing extracts or other 
          documents.
``909. Congressional Record: subscriptions; sale of current, individual 
          numbers, and bound sets; postage rate.
            Sec. 901. Congressional Record: arrangement, style, 
                    contents, and indexes
    This section authorizes the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House 
Oversight of the House of Representatives, acting jointly, to 
control the arrangement and style of the Congressional Record, 
and while providing that it shall be substantially a verbatim 
report of proceedings, to take all needed action for the 
reduction of its size. Authorization is also provided for an 
index of the Congressional Record to be published semimonthly 
during and at the close of sessions of Congress.
            Sec. 902. Congressional Record: indexes
    Section 902 provides that the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services is to prepare 
the semimonthly and the session index to the Congressional 
Record. The Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate 
and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives, acting jointly, are to direct the form and 
manner of its publication and distribution. Those persons 
employed in the Congressional Record Index Office on the 
effective date of this Act are made employees of the Government 
Publications Office subject to the provisions of this title 
governing selection, appointments, employment in the Government 
Publications Office, and any regulations thereunder.
            Sec. 903. Congressional Record: daily and permanent forms
    This section specifies that the public proceedings of each 
House of Congress, as reported by the Official Reporters, are 
to be published in the Congressional Record, which is to be 
issued daily during each session and to be revised, printed, 
and bound in permanent form subject to section 714 of this 
title. The daily and the permanent Record are to bear the same 
date, which shall be that of the actual day's proceedings 
reported. The ``usual number'' of the Congressional Record may 
not be printed.
            Sec. 904. Congressional Record: maps; diagrams; 
                    illustrations
    Section 904 provides that maps, diagrams, or illustrations 
may not be inserted in the Congressional Record without the 
approval of the Committee on Rules and Administration of the 
Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives, acting for their respective Houses.
            Sec. 905. Congressional Record: additional insertions
    Section 905 provides that the Secretary of the Senate, 
acting under the direction of the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate, and the Clerk of the House of 
Representatives, acting under the direction of the Committee on 
House Oversight of the House of Representatives, are to cause 
to be published in the daily Record the legislative program for 
the day, together with a list of congressional committee 
meetings and hearings and the place of meeting and subject 
matter. Such committees are to cause a brief resume of 
congressional activities for the previous day to be 
incorporated in the Record, together with an index of its 
contents, prepared under the supervision of the Secretary of 
the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives, 
respectively.
            Sec. 906. Congressional Record: gratuitous copies; delivery
    Section 906 indicates that, at the direction of the 
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the 
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives, 
jointly, the Superintendent of Production Services is to 
furnish the bound edition of the Congressional Record as 
follows: not more than 1 copy to the Vice President; not more 
than 1 copy to those Senators and Members of Congress who so 
request in writing, prior to its publication; not more than 1 
copy each to the Secretary and the Sergeant at Arms of the 
Senate, if so requested in writing, prior to its publication; 
not more than 1 copy each to the Clerk of the House of 
Representatives and the House Sergeant at Arms; not more than 2 
copies each to the libraries of the Senate and House of 
Representatives, respectively; a number, to be determined and 
held by the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate 
and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives, acting jointly, for the use by each House, 
respectively; to fulfill standing orders and such other 
requirements authorized by law; the Federal Publications Access 
Libraries, in such numbers as the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs shall determine; and not more than 
1 copy each to the Congressional Research Service and the Law 
Library of the Library of Congress.
    At the direction of the same two committees, the 
Superintendent of Production Services is to furnish the daily 
edition of the Record in such numbers as is to be determined at 
the beginning of each Congress by the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House 
Oversight of the House of Representatives, acting jointly, as 
follows: to the Vice President; to the Senate document room for 
distribution to each Senator, committees, and for other 
purposes; to the offices of the Secretary of the Senate and 
Senate Sergeant at Arms; to the Clerk of the House of 
Representatives for distribution to each Member of the House of 
Representatives, committees, and for other purposes and to the 
House Sergeant at Arms; and to fulfill standing orders and such 
other requirements authorized by law. In addition, 2 copies of 
the daily edition of the Record is to be furnished to the Vice 
President and each Senator and Representative in Congress, on a 
nontransferable basis, of which 1 is to be delivered at his or 
her office, and 1 at the Capitol. The Federal Publications 
Access Libraries are authorized to receive the daily edition of 
the Record in such numbers as the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs determines.
    In addition to the foregoing, the Congressional Record and 
the semimonthly index are also to be furnished in such numbers 
as the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and 
the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives, acting jointly, determine at the beginning of 
each Congress, but in no case shall the usual number be less 
than 1. Furthermore, the usual number shall be sufficient to 
provide copies for distribution to the President; committees 
and commissions of Congress; the Chief Justice and Associate 
Justices of the Supreme Court; the Marshal and Clerk of the 
Supreme Court; the United States circuit and district courts 
and their respective libraries; the Tax Court of the United 
States and its library; the Court of Veterans Appeals and its 
library; the Office of the Congressional Record Index; the 
Chaplain of the Senate; the Postmaster of the Senate; the 
Secretaries to the Majority and Minority of the Senate; the 
Office of the Parliamentarian of the Senate; the Office of the 
Parliamentarian of the House of Representatives; the offices of 
the Official Reporters of Debate of the Senate; the offices of 
the Official Reporters of Debate of the House of 
Representatives; the office of the stenographers to committees 
of the House of Representatives; the offices of the 
superintendents of the Senate and the House of Representatives 
Press Galleries; the offices of the Legislative Counsel of the 
Senate and the House of Representatives; the Architect of the 
Capitol; the libraries of the Senate and the House of 
Representatives; the library of the Supreme Court; the library 
of the United States Court of Federal Claims; the library of 
the United States Court of International Trade; the 
Superintendent of Government Publications and Procurement 
Services, for official use; the Botanic Garden; the Archivist 
of the United States; the library of each Executive department 
and independent establishment of the Government of the District 
of Columbia, except those designated as Federal publications 
access libraries, and the libraries of the municipal government 
of the District of Columbia; the Smithsonian Institution; the 
Naval Observatory; the Governors of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the 
Virgin Islands; former Presidents and former Vice Presidents of 
the United States; to each former Senator and Representative 
andResident Commissioner, upon written request; to the 
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Committee 
on House Oversight of the House of Representatives; the Governor of 
each State; each of the separate establishments of the Armed Services 
Retirement Homes, the National Homes for Disabled Veterans, and the 
State Soldiers Homes; the Federal Publications Access Libraries, in 
such numbers as the Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs shall determine; the Department of State for United States 
Embassies and Consular offices; foreign legations in Washington, 
District of Columbia, whose governments extend a like courtesy to 
embassies and legations of the United States abroad; each accredited 
newspaper correspondent whose name appears in the Congressional 
Directory; the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces the Library of 
Congress; and the United States Customs Court and its library.
    Copies of the daily edition, unless otherwise directed by 
the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the 
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives, 
jointly, are to be supplied and delivered promptly on the day 
after the actual day's proceedings as originally published. 
Each order for the daily Record is to begin with the current 
issue, if previous issues of the same session are not 
available. The apportionment specified by the committees 
jointly for daily copies may not be transferred for the bound 
form and an allotment of daily copies not used by a Member 
during a session shall lapse when the session ends.
            Sec. 907. Congressional Record: extracts for Members of 
                    Congress; mailing envelopes
    Section 907 provides that the Superintendent Production 
Services may print and deliver, upon the order of a Member of 
Congress and payment of the cost, extracts from the 
Congressional Record. Provision of envelopes for the mailing of 
such extracts is governed by sections 727 and 728.
            Sec. 908. Congressional Record: payment for printing 
                    extracts or other documents
    Section 908 specifies that, if a Member or Resident 
Commissioner fails to pay the cost of printing extracts from 
the Congressional Record or other Government publications 
ordered by him to be printed, the Administrator shall certify 
the amount due to the Financial Clerk of the Senate or the 
Chief Accounting Officer of the House of Representatives, as 
the case may be, who shall deduct from the Member's office 
account the delinquent amount, and pay the amount so obtained 
to the Administrator, to be applied by the Administrator to the 
satisfaction of the indebtedness.
            Sec. 909. Congressional Record: subscriptions; sale of 
                    current, individual numbers, and bound sets; 
                    postage rate
    This section authorizes the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs to sell subscriptions to the 
Congressional Record and current, individual numbers, and bound 
sets of the Record. The price of the subscription is determined 
by the Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs and shall be sufficient to cover the cost of 
publishing and distributing the Congressional Record in 
accordance with section 1708. Such price must be paid in 
advance and the receipts from any such sale are to be deposited 
into the account of the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs within the Revolving Fund of the 
Government Publications Office. The Congressional Record is 
entitled to be mailed at the same rates of postage at which any 
newspaper or other periodical publication, with a legitimate 
list of paid subscribers, is entitled to be mailed.

 SEC. 304. PRODUCTION OF PUBLICATIONS AND PROCUREMENT OF PUBLICATIONS 
                    SERVICES; LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT

    This section amends section 1108 of title 44, United States 
Code, by striking ``subject to regulations by the Joint 
Committee on Printing.'' It also amends section 1110 of title 
44, United States Code, by striking the last sentence and 
inserting the following: ``Publications ordered under this 
section shall be paid in advance and the receipts from any such 
sale shall be deposited into the account of the Superintendent 
of Government Publications Access Programs within the Revolving 
Fund of the Government Publications Office.''
    This section repeals section 1112 of title 44, United 
States Code and amends the table of sections for chapter 11 of 
title 44, United States Code, by striking the item relating to 
section 1112.
    Section 1114 of title 44, United States Code, is amended by 
this section to read as follows:

Sec. 1114. Annual reports: number of copies for Congress

    At the beginning of each Congress, the Committee on Rules 
and Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House 
Oversight of the House of Representatives, respectively, shall 
establish the number of annual reports of the departments to 
Congress to be printed for the use of each House.

    This section amends section 1121 of title 44, United States 
Code, by striking ``under direction of the Joint Committee on 
Printing,'' by striking ``sections 509-516 of this title'' and 
inserting ``section 507,'' and by striking ``the District of 
Columbia'' and inserting ``the national capital region'', as 
defined by 40 U.S.C. 71.
    Finally, chapter 11 of title 44, United States Code, is 
amended by this section by striking ``Public Printer'' each 
place it appears and inserting ``Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services,'' and, in 
section 1108, by striking ``Superintendent of Documents'' and 
inserting ``Superintendent of Government Publications 
Production and Procurement Services.''

              SEC. 305. PARTICULAR GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

    This section repeals chapter 13 of title 44, United States 
Code, except for section 1307, and amends the table of chapters 
for title 44 by striking the item relating to chapter 13. This 
section becomes effective 120 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act.

          SEC. 306. COSTS OF PRODUCING REGULATORY PUBLICATIONS

    This section amends section 1509 of title 44, United States 
Code, to read as follows:

Sec. 1509. Cost of publication, etc.

    (a) The cost of printing, reprinting, wrapping, binding, 
and distributing the Federal Register and the Code of Federal 
Regulations, and, except as provided in subsection (b), other 
expenses incurred by the Government Publications Office in 
carrying out the duties placed upon it by this chapter shall be 
charged to the Revolving Fund provided in section 306. 
Reimbursements for such costs and expenses shall be made by the 
Federal agencies and credited, together with all receipts, as 
provided in section 306.
    (b) The cost of producing, reproducing, and distributing 
all other publications of the Federal Register program, and 
other expenses incurred in connection with such publications, 
shall be paid by the Archivist of the United States from 
appropriations authorized by Congress for purposes of this 
section.

              SEC. 307. PUBLICATIONS OF THE SUPREME COURT

    This section amends section 411 of title 28, United States 
Code, to read as follows:

Sec. 411. Supreme Court reports; printing, binding, and distribution

    (a) The decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States 
shall be published and distributed in a manner and format 
determined by the Supreme Court as soon as practicable after 
rendition, and charged to the proper appropriation for the 
judiciary.
    (b) The Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs shall procure such copies of the publications of the 
Supreme Court in accordance with chapters 17 and 19 of title 44 
and the Government Publications Reform Act of 1998.

    Section 412 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by 
this section by striking ``Public Printer'' and inserting 
``Superintendent of Government Publications Production and 
Procurement Services,'' and by striking ``Superintendent of 
Documents'' and inserting ``Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs.''
    Section 676(b) of title 28, United States Code, is also 
amended by striking ``Public Printer and the Superintendent of 
Public Documents'' and inserting ``Administrator of the 
Government Publications Office and the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs.''

    SEC. 308. REPEAL OF PROVISIONS EXEMPTING STATUTORY PUBLICATIONS 
           PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTION PROCUREMENT REQUIREMENTS

    This section amends section 3(a)(6) of the Presidential 
Transition Act of 1963 (3 U.S.C. 102 note) to read as follows: 
``(6) Payment of expenses for necessary printing and binding.'' 
Other amendments effected include section 4 of the Act of 
August 31, 1922 (7 U.S.C. 285) by striking ``without regard to 
section 501 of title 44, United States Code;'' section 101(f) 
of the Department of Agriculture Organic Act of 1944 (7 U.S.C. 
431) by striking ``without regard to existing laws applicable 
to public printing;'' section 3(h) of the International Wheat 
Agreement Act of 1949 (7 U.S.C. 1642(h)) by striking ``for 
printing and binding'' and inserting ``for printing and 
binding, subject to the provisions of title 44, United States 
Code;'' section 2(a)(1) of the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 
(12 U.S.C. 635(a)(1)) by striking ``without regard to the 
provisions of section 501 of title 44, United States Code, 
whenever the Bank determines that publication in accordance 
with the provisions of such section would not be practicable;'' 
and section 1 of the National Housing Act (12 U.S.C. 1702) in 
the third sentence by striking ``, printing, and binding.'' The 
Act entitled ``An Act to extend the time for purchase and 
distribution of surplus agricultural commodities for relief 
purposes and to continue the Federal Surplus Commodities 
Corporation,'' approved June 28, 1937 (15 U.S.C. 713c) is 
amended in the first proviso by striking ``, including rent, 
printing and binding,'' and inserting ``(except printing and 
binding) including rent.''
    Other amended provisions include section 201(e)(1) of the 
Export Administration Amendments Act of 1985 (15 U.S.C. 
4051(e)(1)) by striking ``Notwithstanding the provisions of 
section 501 of title 44, United States Code, and consistent'' 
and inserting ``Consistent;'' section 12 of the Tuna 
Conventions Act of 1950 (16 U.S.C. 961) by striking clause (c) 
and redesignating clauses (d) and (e) as clauses (c) and (d), 
respectively; section 2(b)(2) of the Act entitled ``An Act to 
authorize the construction of a National Fisheries Center and 
Aquarium in the District of Columbia and to provide for its 
operation,'' approved October 9, 1992 (16 U.S.C. 1052(b)(2)) by 
striking ``all or any of which may be reproduced by any 
printing or other process without regard to existing 
regulations;'' section 5(c) of the National Foundation on the 
Arts and Humanities Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 954(c)) by striking 
the first sentence following clause (10); section 7(c) of the 
National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act of 1965 (20 
U.S.C. 956(c)) by striking the first sentence following clause 
(10); section 2 of the Act entitled ``An Act to authorize the 
Secretary of Agriculture to cooperate with the Government of 
Mexico in the control and eradication of foot-in-mouth disease 
and rinderpest,'' approved February 28, 1947 (21 U.S.C.114c) by 
striking ``without regard to section 87 of the Act of January 12, 1895, 
or section 11 of the Act of March 1, 1919 (U.S.C. title 44, sec. 
111);'' section 2(b)(1) of the joint resolution entitled ``Joint 
Resolution providing for acceptance by the United States of America of 
the Constitution of the International Labor Organization Instrument of 
Amendment, and further authorizing an appropriation for payment of the 
United States share of the expenses of membership and for expenses of 
participation by the United States,'' approved June 30, 1948 (22 U.S.C. 
272a(b)(1)) by striking ``printing and binding without regard to 
section 11 of the Act of March 1, 1919 (44 U.S.C. 111), and section 
3709 of the Revised Statutes, as amended;'' section 2(b) of the joint 
resolution entitled ``Joint Resolution providing for membership and 
participation in the Caribbean Commission and authorizing an 
appropriation therefor,'' approved March 4, 1948 (22 U.S.C. 280i(d)) by 
striking ``printing and binding without regard to section 11 of the Act 
of March 1, 1919 (44 U.S.C. 111), and section 3709 of the Revised 
Statutes, as amended;'' section 2(b) of the joint resolution entitled 
``Joint Resolution providing for participation by the Government of the 
United States in the Pan American Railway Congress, and authorizing an 
appropriation therefor,'' approved June 28, 1948 (22 U.S.C. 280k(b)) by 
striking ``without regard to section 501 of title 44, United States 
Code, and section 3709 of the Revised Statutes (41 U.S.C. 5);'' section 
8 of the United Nations Participation Act of 1945 (22 U.S.C. 287e) by 
striking ``without regard to section 11 of the Act of March 1, 1949 (44 
U.S.C. 111);'' section 6(k) of the joint resolution entitled ``Joint 
Resolution providing for membership and participation by the United 
States in the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural 
Organization, and authorizing an appropriation therefor,'' approved 
July 30, 1946 (22 U.S.C. 287r(k)) by striking ``without regard to 
section 11 of the Act of March 1, 1919 (U.S.C., title 44, sec. 111), 
and section 3709 of the Revised Statutes (U.S.C. title 41, sec. 5);'' 
and section 3(b)(1) of the joint resolution entitled ``Joint Resolution 
providing for membership and participation by the United States in the 
World Health Organization and authorizing an appropriation therefor,'' 
approved June 14, 1948 (22 U.S.C. 290b(b)(1)) by striking ``without 
regard to section 11 of the Act of March 1, 1919 (44 U.S.C. 111), and 
section 3709 of the Revised Statutes, as amended.''
    Finally, other amended provisions include section 401(w) of 
the Foreign Assistance Act of 1969 (22 U.S.C. 290f(w)) by 
striking ``without regard to section 501 of title 44, United 
States Code;'' section 801(4) of the United States Information 
and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (22 U.S.C. 1471(4)) by 
striking ``, without regard to section 501 of title 44, United 
States Code;'' section 5 of the International Atomic Energy 
Agency Participation Act of 1957 (22 U.S.C. 2024) by striking 
``without regard to section 11 of the Act of March 1, 1919 (44 
U.S.C. 111);'' section 636(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 
1961 (22 U.S.C. 2396(b)) by striking ``without regard to 
provisions of any other law;'' section 15(a) of the Peace Corps 
Act (22 U.S.C. 2514(a)) by striking ``without regard to 
provisions of any other law;'' section 48 of the Arms Control 
and Disarmament Act (22 U.S.C. 2588) by striking ``without 
regard to the provisions of section 11 of the Act of March 1, 
1919 (44 U.S.C. 111);'' section 5(a)(1) of the Migration and 
Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 (22 U.S.C. 2605(a)(1)) by 
striking ``without regard to provisions of any other law;'' 
section 2(a) of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 
1956 (22 U.S.C. 2669(a)) by striking ``without regard to 
section 11 of the Act of March 1, 1919 (44 U.S.C. 111);'' 
section 23 of the Act of June 25, 1910 (25 U.S.C. 47; 33 Stat. 
861) by striking ``(including, but not limited to printing, 
notwithstanding any other law)'' and inserting ``(including 
printing);'' section 204(d)(3) of the Marine Resources and 
Engineering Development Act of 1966 (33 U.S.C. 1123(d)(3)) by 
striking ``, without regard to section 501 of title 44, United 
States Code;'' section 405(c)(4) of the Public Health Service 
Act (42 U.S.C. 284(c)(4)) by striking ``without regard to 
section 501 of title 44, United States Code;'' section 11(g) of 
the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 (42 U.S.C. 1870(g)) 
``, without regard to the provisions of section 87 of the Act 
of January 12, 1895 (28 Stat. 622), and section 11 for the Act 
of March 1, 1919 (40 Stat. 1270; 44 U.S.C., sec. 111);'' 
section 9(k) of the Lower Mississippi Delta Development Act (42 
U.S.C. 3121 note; Public Law 100-460; 102 Stat. 2246) by 
striking ``, notwithstanding any other provision of law;'' and 
section 11(c) of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (45 
U.S.C. 361(c)) by striking ``printing and binding.''
    This section takes effect 120 days after the date of 
enactment of this Act.

 SEC. 309. ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS RELATING TO 
                       CONGRESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS

    This section amends section 107 of title 1, United States 
Code, to read as follows:

Sec. 107. Printing of enrolled bills and resolutions

    Enrolled bills and resolutions of either House of Congress 
shall be printed in accordance with rules established by the 
respective Houses of Congress.

    The table of sections for chapter 2 of title 1, United 
States Code, is amended by this section by striking the item 
relating to section 107 and inserting the following: ``107. 
Printing of enrolled bills and resolutions.'' Sections 211, 
212, and 213 of title 1, United States Code, are repealed. The 
table of sections for chapter 2 of title 1, United States Code, 
is amended by striking the items relating to sections 211, 212, 
and 213.
    The section repeals the joint resolution entitled ``A joint 
resolution to provide for the printing and distribution of the 
Precedents of the House of Representatives compiled and 
prepared by Lewis Deschler,'' approved October 18, 1976 (2 
U.S.C. 28b, 28c, 28d, and 28e).
    The first section of the joint resolution of December 24, 
1970 (2 U.S.C. 168; Public Law 91-589; 84 Stat. 1586) is 
amended to read as follows: ``That (a) The Director of the 
Congressional Research Service shall have prepared every 10 
years, a hardbound revised edition of the Constitution of the 
United States of America--Analysis and Interpretation 
(hereafter referred to as the ``Constitution Annotated''); 
every 2 years in the interim period between decennial editions, 
cumulative supplements to the most recent hardbound decennial 
revised edition of the Constitution Annotated, which is to 
contain cumulative analysis of decisions rendered by the 
Supreme Court after the period covered by the last hardbound 
decennial revised edition; and an electronic version of the 
Constitution Annotated, to be updated regularly. Theedition of 
the Constitution Annotated first prepared after the effective date of 
this Act is to contain analysis and interpretation of decisions 
rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States through the end of 
its October 2001 term, construing provisions of the Constitution. 
Subsequent decennial revised editions will then revise and update 
analysis to cover constitutional law developments during the then-most-
recent 10 terms of the Supreme Court.
    Section 145 of title 4, United States Code, is repealed by 
this section; section 146 of title 4, United States Code, is 
amended in the section heading by striking ``Sec. 146.'' and 
inserting ``145;'' and the table of sections for chapter 5 of 
title 4, United States Code, is amended by striking the items 
relating to sections 145 and 146 and inserting the following: 
``145. Authorization of appropriations.''

      Title IV--Office of Government Publications Access Programs

                         SEC. 401. SHORT TITLE

    This section specifies that this title may be cited as the 
``Federal Publications Dissemination Act of 1998.''

Sec. 402(a). Federal Publications Access Programs

    This subsection amends chapter 19 of title 44, United 
States Code, to read as follows:

           ``CHAPTER 19--FEDERAL PUBLICATIONS ACCESS PROGRAMS

``Sec.
``1901. Purpose.
``1902. Definition.
``1903. Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs.
``1904. Access to Government publications through the Superintendent of 
          Government Publications; Superintendent responsibilities and 
          authorities.
``1905. Access to Government publications through the Superintendent of 
          Government Publications Access Programs: agency 
          responsibilities and authorities.
``1906. Access to Government publications through the Superintendent of 
          Government Publications Access Programs: compliance and 
          enforcement: executive branch.
``1906a. Access to Government publications through the Superintendent of 
          Government Publications Access Programs: compliance and 
          enforcement: legislative branch.
``1906b. Access to Government publications through the Superintendent of 
          Government Publications Access Programs: compliance and 
          enforcement: judicial branch.
``1907. Permanent Public Access to Government publications.
``1908. Designation of Federal publications access libraries.
``1909. Regional Federal publications access libraries.
``1910. Federal publications access libraries: responsibilities.
``1911. Federal publications access libraries council''.
            Sec. 1901. Purpose
    Section 1901 specifies that the purposes of this chapter 
are to broaden, strengthen, and enhance public access to all 
Government publications regardless of form or format through 
Federal Publications Access Programs, and provide permanent 
public access to and ensure the authenticity of Government 
publications regardless of form or format.
            Sec. 1902. Definition
    Section 1902 defines certain terms used in this title.
    1. The term ``agency'' means an executive department, 
government corporation, government-controlled corporation, or 
other establishment in the executive branch of the Government, 
including the Executive Office of the President and any 
independent regulatory agency, and also embraces an 
establishment or component of the legislative branch, as 
determined by the rules of the Senate and the House of 
Representatives, respectively, or judicial branch of the 
Government.
    2. The term ``Federal publications access library'' means a 
library designated under section 1908 to participate in the 
Federal Publications Access Programs.
    3. The term ``Government publication'', for purposes of 
chapters 17 and 19, title 44, United States Code, as amended by 
this Act, means any information product or other discrete set 
of Government information, regardless of form or format, that 
is created or compiled (1) by the Government, or (2) at 
Government expense, in whole or in part, or (3) as required by 
law, and an agency discloses, disseminates, or makes available 
to the public. The term does not include information that (1) 
is required for official use only, (2) is for strictly internal 
administrative or operational purposes having no public 
interest or educational value, (3) is classified for reasons of 
national security, or, in the case of any agency within the 
Judicial Branch, orders, notices, or documents filed by 
litigants.
            Sec. 1903. Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
                    Programs
    Section 1903 authorizes the President to appoint, with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of 5 years, the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs,who 
may also be referred to as the ``Superintendent of Access Programs.'' 
This officer is to be appointed without regard to political 
affiliation, and solely on the basis of professional qualifications to 
perform the duties and responsibilities of the office. An individual 
may be appointed to more than 1 term as Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs. Serving under the direction of the 
Administrator, the Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs is responsible for taking charge of and managing the Federal 
Publications Access Program, including, but not limited to, the Federal 
publications access library program as provided in chapter 19, the 
Federal publications sales program as provided in chapter 17, and GPO 
ACCESS, as provided in chapter 41.
    In consultation with the Administrator of the Government 
Publications Office, the Office of Management and Budget, the 
Administrative Office of the United States Courts, the 
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the 
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives, 
the Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs 
is authorized to issue regulations, consistent with this title, 
that the Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs considers necessary to carry out the duties and powers 
of his or her office to enhance the dissemination of Government 
publications and to expand and improve the maintenance of 
permanent public access to Government publications. All such 
regulations are to be promulgated in accordance with the 
requirements of section 553 and section 556 of title 5, United 
States Code, and the requirements of chapter 7, title 5, United 
States Code. All such regulations shall be promulgated in 
accordance with chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, and, 
notwithstanding section 804(2), all such regulations are to be 
treated as a ``major rule.''
    The annual rate of pay for the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs is set at a rate equal to the rate 
payable for a position at level IV of the Executive Schedule 
under section 5314 of title 5, United States Code.
    The Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs is authorized to appoint a Deputy Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs, who shall perform all 
the duties and responsibilities assigned by the Superintendent 
of Government Publications Access Programs and the duties and 
responsibilities of the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs in the event of a vacancy in the 
office of the Superintendent or the incapacity of the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs. The 
Deputy Superintendent, in the event of such vacancy, serves as 
Superintendent until a successor to the position is appointed 
and qualified, but for no longer than 1 year after a vacancy 
occurs. The Deputy Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs is to be paid at an annual rate of pay equal to 
the rate payable for a position on the Senior Executive Service 
Schedule under section 5316 of title 5.
    Within the Revolving Fund of the Government Publications 
Office under section 306, an account, or accounts, under the 
authority of the Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs is authorized to be available without fiscal 
year limitation for the operation of the Federal Publications 
Access Programs, including rental of buildings; attendance at 
meetings; employee training; purchase, maintenance, and 
operation of required equipment, supplies, and contracts; and 
salaries and expenses of program employees. The fund is to be 
reimbursed and the account, or accounts, of the Superintendent 
of Government Publications Access Programs are to be credited 
for the cost of all services and supplies furnished, including 
those furnished by other appropriations of the Federal 
Publications Access Programs, and with all receipts, including 
sales of Government publications, waste, condemned and surplus 
property, with payments received for losses or damage to 
property, and with funds retrieved from agencies for the 
procurement of or access to publications not compliant with 
this title. An adequate system of accounts for the fund is to 
be maintained on the accrual method, and financial reports 
prepared on the basis of accepted accounting standards in 
accordance with section 306.
    The Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs is to prepare and submit to the Administrator an 
annual business-type budget for the accounts under his 
authority within the fund. This budget program is to be as 
prescribed by section 9104 of title 31. There are authorized to 
be appropriated such sums as are necessary for the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs for 
the salaries and expenses of the Federal Publications Access 
Programs, exclusive of the Government publications sales 
program under chapter 17.
            Sec. 1904. Access to Government publications through the 
                    Superintendent of Government Publications; 
                    Superintendent's responsibilities and authorities
    This section authorizes the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs to use whatever measures are 
necessary to ensure the timely dissemination of Government 
publications to the public and to expand and improve the 
maintenance of permanent public access to Government 
publications. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 
Government publications of the executive, legislative, and 
judicial branches must be made available at no charge to 
Federal publications access libraries. The Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs is to certify, on every 
contract for the production or procurement of any Government 
publications entered into by an agency, the number of 
additional copies required for the Federal publications access 
programs, or the terms and conditions, if any, for accessing 
Government publications required for the Federal publications 
access programs. For on-line, fee-based services, the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs is to 
negotiate terms and conditions for access by the Federal 
publications access programs, based upon the incremental cost 
of providing access to the Federal publications access 
libraries. The Superintendent is authorized to procure such 
access to ensure that the information needs of the user 
community are met at no charge to the Federal publications 
access libraries.
    Other responsibilities of the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs specified in the section include 
providing selection, cataloging, classification, locator, and 
indexing services for all Government publications from the 
executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Such services 
may be provided by the Superintendent through cooperative 
agreements with Government agencies or Federal publications 
access libraries.
    The Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs is also responsible for creating, maintaining, and 
making available a comprehensive and timely catalog of 
Government publications, regardless of form or format, that is 
accessible to the Federal publications access libraries and to 
the public, and for creating, maintaining, and making available 
a locator, in accordance with chapter 41, of all Government 
publications. This locator service must identify, describe, and 
link users to Government publications available through 
Government electronic communications systems or accessible 
through public telecommunications networks. The Superintendent 
is directed to consult with the Director of the Office of 
Management and Budget, the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House 
Oversight of the House of Representatives, the Administrative 
Office of the United States Courts, and other agencies and 
offices to coordinate implementation of the requirements of 
section 3511, with locator services required under this 
section.
    Other duties of the Superintendent include creating, 
maintaining, and making available a current, categorized list 
of Government publications, including annotations of contents 
and item identification numbers, to facilitate the selection 
of, or access to those publications required by Federal 
publications access libraries. The Superintendent must prepare 
and produce a consolidated index of congressional documents, 
and shall index single volumes of documents as the Committee on 
Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Committee on 
House Oversight of the House of Representatives direct.
    The section authorizes the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs to adopt such regulations, in 
accordance with section 1903(c), as are necessary to implement 
the requirements of this chapter. Such regulations are to 
include procedures for implementing this section and sections 
1905, 1906, 1907, and 1911 to require the availability of 
Government publications, regardless of form or format, to the 
public through the Federal publications access programs. Such 
regulations are to reflect the needs of the user community and 
provide access to Government publications at no charge to the 
Federal publications access libraries. Government publications 
made available by the Superintendent may be chosen or accessed 
by Federal publications access libraries according to 
regulations and guidelines issued by the Superintendent for 
such purposes. The Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs is to coordinate with the Committee on Rules 
and Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House 
Oversight of the House of Representatives, the Office of 
Management and Budget, and the Administrative Office of the 
United States Courts for the development and establishment of 
uniform policies and procedures relating to the dissemination 
of Government publications, including policies and procedures 
for ensuring authenticity, and of guidelines to facilitate 
permanent public access to and use of Government publications.
    The procedures, guidelines, and regulations developed by 
the Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs 
under this section must be consistent with sections 1903(c) and 
1907(f).
    Finally, this section provides that the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs, after informing the 
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the 
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives, 
is to promulgate, through notice and comment, appropriate 
regulations governing the qualifications, process for 
selection, periodic inspection, collection maintenance, 
termination, and total number of Federal publications access 
libraries in accordance with sections 1903(c) and 1908.
            Sec. 1905. Access to Government publications through the 
                    Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
                    Programs: agency responsibilities and authorities
    This section provides that, notwithstanding any other 
provision of law, each agency head of the executive branch, the 
Administrative Office of the Courts, on behalf of the judicial 
branch, and the Committee on Rules and Administration of the 
Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives, respectively, for each House of Congress, are 
authorized to take such action as is necessary to ensure that 
all Government publications produced or procured for production 
by the agency are made available to the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs, as required by this 
chapter, for dissemination to the public through the Federal 
publications access program, at no charge to Federal 
publications access libraries.
    Each agency head must immediately notify the Superintendent 
of Government Publications Access Programs of the intent of the 
agency to produce or procure, substantially modify, or 
terminate the production of a Government publication, 
regardless of form or format, so that the Superintendent may 
have access to Government publications created for or 
transmitted through electronic communications systems or 
networks, or to order Government publications at the 
incremental rate for the Federal publications access program. 
Notification under this section is intended to be required in 
addition to the requirements of section 3506 of title 44, 
United States Code.
    Agencies intending to eliminate printed copies of 
Government publications and provide only electronic access to 
those publications must notify the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs at least 60 days in advance.
    Any contract for the production or procurement of any 
Government publication, regardless of form or format, entered 
into by an agency must contain a provision that certifies that 
the head of the agency, in the executive branch, or the 
Director of the Administrative Office of the United States 
Courts, in the judicial branch, has given proper notification, 
as prescribed in this section, to the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs before the awarding of 
the contract. This contract must also include the number of 
additional copies required by the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs for the Federal publications 
access program or any terms and conditions for accessing 
Government publications required by the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs for the Federal 
publications access program. Such certification must require 
that the procuring official ensures, before production, that 
each contract for the procurement of Government publications 
contains verification of the notice to the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs required by this title.
    Agencies, upon request of the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs, agencies must promptly provide 
copies of, or access to, electronic files of any Government 
publication to which this section applies for purposes of 
producing appropriate format material for the Superintendent 
and providing permanent public access, in accordance with 
section 1907, to Government publications created for or 
transmitted through an electronic communications system or 
network under this section.
    Each agency must assure and provide permanent public access 
to Government publications created for or transmitted through 
an electronic communications system or network until a system 
for permanent public access to Government publications created 
for or transmitted through an electronic communications system 
or network is established by the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs, in accordance with section 1907. 
Each agency also must provide the Superintendent with a copy 
of, or access to, any Government publication, created on or 
after the date of enactment of this Act, regardless of form or 
format, to enable the Superintendent to perform mandated 
cataloging, locator, and indexing services, as provided by this 
section.
    Finally, when an agency makes a publication available only 
as a Government database accessible on an electronic 
communications system or network, the agency must immediately 
furnish information about and access to that publication to the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs for 
purposes of providing locator services.
            Sec. 1906. Access to Government publications through the 
                    Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
                    Programs: compliance and enforcement: executive 
                    branch
    Section 1906 specifies that all Government publications, 
regardless of form or format, of the executive branch, as 
provided by this title, must be made available at no charge to 
the Federal publications access libraries. The Superintendent 
of Government Publications Access Programs is authorized to use 
any measures the Superintendent considers necessary for the 
economical and practical implementation of this chapter to 
ensure the timely dissemination of Government publications to 
the public and to expand and improve the maintenance of 
permanent public access to Government publications, as provided 
by this chapter.
    Upon a determination by the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs that an agency has not complied 
with the requirements of this chapter, the Superintendent is to 
notify the Administrator.
    If the Superintendent determines that a Government 
publication of an agency has not been made available to the 
Federal publications access libraries as provided by this 
chapter, the Superintendent is authorized to use whatever 
measures are necessary to bring the agency into compliance and 
secure access to the Government publication, and certify to the 
Administrator the costs associated with securing such access. 
Upon the issuance of a final determination by the 
Superintendent that an agency has not complied with the 
provisions of this chapter, the Administrator is to certify to 
the agency and the Department of the Treasury the costs 
determined in accordance with subsection (a)(2) and is to 
prepare a voucher for reimbursement of the certified costs.
    The Department of the Treasury is directed to cause to be 
established a designated budget account for each agency that 
intends to produce, procure, or enter into a contract to 
produce or procure a Government publication from which, upon 
certification of noncompliance and associated costs in 
accordance with subsection (a)(2), the Secretary of the 
Treasury is authorized to transfer funds, upon presentation of 
a voucher from the Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs, to the Revolving Fund of the Government 
Publications Office, for reimbursement to the programs of the 
Superintendent.
    A final determination of noncompliance by the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs under 
this subsection is to be deemed a determination of 
noncompliance with section 501.
    The section further specifies that each agency of the 
executive branch must use the Government Publications Office as 
its agent for the production or the procurement of production 
of Government publications in accordance with section 501. No 
agency may produce, procure, or enter into a contract for the 
production or procurement of any Government publication, 
regardless of form or format, unless such agency is in 
compliance with the requirements of this chapter.
    Upon a determination by the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Production and Procurement Services that an agency 
has not complied with the requirements of section 501, the 
Superintendent shall notify the Administrator. The 
Administrator is to certify to the agency and the Office of 
Management and Budget that the agency is not in compliance and 
shall suspend any delegation of authority provided under 
section 501(b). Upon a final determination of noncompliance, 
the Administrator is directed to withhold any delegation of 
authority to the agency for a period of 24 months and shall 
immediately revoke any delegation of authority which has been 
granted to the agency under section 501(b). If an agency which 
has been determined to be in noncompliance with section 501 is 
also determined to be in noncompliance with the requirements of 
this chapter under subsection (a), the Administrator is 
directed to withhold any delegation of authority for an 
additional period of 36 months.
    Determinations made under this section may be reviewed by 
the Administrator. A determination of the Superintendent of 
Publications Production and Procurement Services and a 
determination by the Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs become final unless overturned or revised by 
the Administrator within 20 days after the determination. A 
final determination under this section is not be subject to 
judicial review.

            Sec. 1906a. Access to Government publications through the 
                    Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
                    Programs: compliance and enforcement: legislative 
                    branch

    Section 1906a specifies that all Government publications, 
regardless of form or format, of the legislative branch must be 
made available, at no cost, to the Federal publications access 
libraries. In the case of Senate publications, the Secretary of 
the Senate, under the direction of the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate, and in the case of House 
publications, the Clerk of the House of Representatives, under 
the direction of the Committee on House Oversight of the House 
of Representatives, are authorized to use whatever measures are 
necessary to ensure the timely dissemination of Government 
publications of the respective Houses to the public and to 
expand and improve the maintenance of permanent public access 
to Government publications under this chapter. In the case of 
congressional publications, the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate and the Committee on House 
Oversight of the House of Representatives, acting jointly, are 
authorized to use whatever measures are necessary to ensure the 
timely dissemination of Government publications of Congress and 
to expand and improve the maintenance of permanent public 
access to Government publications of Congress under this 
chapter. If the Committee on Rules and Administration of the 
Senate determines that this section has not been complied with, 
the Committee is authorized to direct the Secretary of the 
Senate to bring the Senate into compliance. Upon approval by 
the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate of a 
voucher submitted by the Secretary of the Senate, the 
contingent fund of the Senate is to be charged for the costs 
incurred by the Secretary of the Senate to bring the Senate 
into compliance under this subsection. If the Committee on 
House Oversight of the House of Representatives determines that 
this section has not been complied with, the Committee is 
authorized to direct the Clerk of the House of Representatives 
to bring the House of Representatives into compliance. As in 
the case of the Senate, upon appropriate authorization, the 
costs incurred by the Clerk are to be charged to the 
appropriate House account.
    If the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate 
and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives, acting jointly, determine that the provisions 
of this section regarding congressional publications have not 
been complied with, these committees are authorized to jointly 
take specific action to bring Congress into compliance with 
this section.Upon the joint approval by these two committees of 
a voucher submitted by the Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs, the Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation 
is to be charged for the costs incurred by the Superintendent, as 
authorized by this section.

            Sec. 1906b. Access to Government publications through the 
                    Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
                    Programs: compliance and enforcement: judicial 
                    branch

    Section 1906b specifies that all Government publications, 
regardless of form or format, of the judicial branch, including 
court opinions, must be made available at no charge to the 
Federal publications access libraries. The Director of the 
Administrative Office of the United States Courts is authorized 
to use whatever measures are necessary to ensure the timely 
dissemination of Government publications of judicial branch 
agencies and the courts to the public, and to expand and 
improve the maintenance of permanent public access to 
Government publications of judicial branch agencies and the 
courts under this chapter. In the event of noncompliance with 
the requirements of this title, the Director of the 
Administrative Office of the United States Courts, in 
consultation with the Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs, is authorized to establish a means to bring 
the judicial branch into compliance with this chapter.

            Sec. 1907. Permanent Public Access to Government 
                    publications

    Section 1907 defines the term ``permanent public access,'' 
as used in this section, to mean that a Government publication 
within the scope of the Federal publications access program 
must remain available for current, continuous, and future 
public access; and be made available at no fee to Federal 
publications access libraries.
    The Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs is authorized to establish a system of permanent 
public access to Government publications, for publications 
other than those publications identified in subsection (c), in 
accordance with the requirements of section 1909(c). The 
Superintendent is also authorized to establish a system of 
permanent public access to Government publications created for 
or transmitted through an electronic communications system or 
network.
    The Superintendent is authorized, as well, to establish a 
committee to make recommendations on the components of a 
distributive system for permanent public access and the 
strategy for achieving such system and access. This committee 
is to include representatives of the Committee on Rules and 
Administration of the Senate; the Committee on House Oversight 
of the House of Representatives; the National Archives and 
Records Administration; the Office of Management and Budget; 
the Administrative Office of the United States Courts; the 
Library of Congress and other national libraries; regional and 
other Federal publications access libraries; the Federal 
publications access library council; the National Commission on 
Libraries and Information Science; the information, computer 
software, and printing industries; the American Federation of 
Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations; and other entities 
as appropriate. The responsibilities of the committee, as 
specified in this section, include, not later than 24 months 
after the effective date of this Act, to provide 
recommendations to the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs for necessary statutory and 
regulatory changes to implement a system to provide permanent 
public access to Government publications created for or 
transmitted through an electronic communications system or 
network; periodically review developments in public access to 
Government publications created for or transmitted through an 
electronic communications system or network, and make 
recommendations for further action by the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs and Congress as 
necessary; propose regulations to the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs to be promulgated under 
section 1904 by the Superintendent as appropriate, necessary to 
implement permanent public access to Government publications; 
identify criteria for Government publications created for or 
transmitted through an electronic communications system or 
network that warrant permanent accessibility; and establish 
certifying criteria to accompany Government publications 
created for or transmitted through an electronic communications 
system or network to ensure that such publications are official 
versions.
    The system of permanent public access to Government 
publications created for or transmitted through an electronic 
communications system or network established under this section 
is to include a distributive system that provides for adequate 
redundancy and requires official and contractual agreements 
among participating entities. The Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs retains final responsibility for 
permanent public access to Government publications created for 
or transmitted through an electronic communications system or 
network and for ensuring that the system is operated in 
accordance with this section.
    Until the system of permanent public access under this 
section is established, each agency is to provide permanent 
public access to the Government publications it creates for or 
transmits through an electronic communications system or 
network.
    The Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs is responsible for developing, in consultation with 
Congress, the Office of Management and Budget, and the 
Administrative Office of the United States Courts, procedures 
and guidelines for permanent public access to Government 
publications created for or transmitted through an electronic 
communications system or network for purposes of paragraph (1). 
The Superintendent is authorized to offer to agencies, on a 
cost-recovery basis, services for providing permanent public 
access to the Government publications created for or 
transmitted through an electronic communications system or 
network.
    Until such time as the bound permanent Congressional Record 
and the bound United States Congressional serial set are 
created for or transmitted through an electronic communications 
system or network, such Record and set shall remain available 
in a bound, printed format for those Federal publications 
access libraries which have chosen to receive such Record and 
set.
            Sec. 1908. Designation of Federal publications access 
                    libraries
    This section provides that, subject to subsection (e), 
Federal publications access libraries are to be designated by 
certain elected officials as specified: each Senator 
designating up to 2 libraries within the State represented; 
each Representative designating up to 2 libraries within the 
district represented; the Resident Commissioner designating up 
to 2 libraries within Puerto Rico; the Mayor of the District of 
Columbia designating up to 2 Federal publications access 
libraries in the District of Columbia; the Governors of Guam, 
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American 
Samoa each designating 1 Federal publications access library in 
each area represented; the Governor of the Virgin Islands 
designating 1 Federal publications access library on the Island 
of Saint Thomas and 1 on the Island of Saint Croix.
    In addition, upon request of the institution, the following 
authorized to be designated by the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs as Federal publications access 
libraries: land grant colleges; State libraries; the library of 
the highest State appellate court in each State; the library of 
any law school accredited by a nationally recognized 
accrediting agency or association, or accredited by the highest 
appellate court of the State in which the law school is 
located; and the libraries of the executive departments, the 
United States Military Academy, the United States Naval 
Academy, the United States Air Force Academy, the United States 
Coast Guard Academy, and the United States Merchant Marine 
Academy.
    A Federal publications access library within each 
independent agency may be designated by the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs upon certification of 
need by the head of the agency to the Superintendent. 
Additional Federal publications access libraries within 
executive departments and independent agencies may be 
designated by the Superintendent upon certification of 
justifiable need by the head of the agency.
    Before any additional or replacement Federal publications 
access library is designated, the head of the library must 
furnish the appointing authority justification of the necessity 
for such designation. The justification must be approved by the 
head of the library authority of the State, the District of 
Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, within which the 
proposed Federal publications access library is to be located, 
or signed by the head of each existing Federal publications 
access library within the congressional district, the State, 
the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. 
The Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs 
may designate as a Federal publications access library, upon 
recommendation of a Senator or Representative representing the 
area, any library serving an underserved area.
    Notwithstanding the limitations on numbers of Federal 
publications access libraries that may be designated under this 
section, each library that is designated as a Federal 
Depository Library as of the effective date of this Act shall 
continue to be a Federal publications access library. A library 
may be designated under this section as a Federal publications 
access library only if it is able properly to maintain and 
provide public access to Government publications, regardless of 
form or format.
            Sec. 1909. Regional Federal publications access libraries
    Section 1909 specifies that not more than 2 Federal 
publications access libraries, including any group of Federal 
publications access libraries with a cooperative agreement, in 
each State or service area and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico 
and the District of Columbia may be designated as regional 
Federal publications access libraries and are authorized to 
receive from the Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs copies of or access to all new and revised 
Government publications disseminated to Federal publications 
access libraries. A cooperative group of libraries that 
includes libraries in more than 1 State may be designated under 
this section.
    Designation of regional Federal publications access 
libraries may be made by a Senator or the Resident Commissioner 
from Puerto Rico or the Mayor of the District of Columbia 
within the areas represented by them, after consultation with 
the head of the library authority of the State or the 
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or the District of Columbia, as the 
case may be, who shall first ascertain from the head of the 
library, or cooperative group of libraries, to be so designated 
that the library will fulfill the requirements of a regional 
Federal publications access library. The agreement to function 
as a regional Federal public access information library is to 
be transmitted to the Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs by the Senator or the Resident Commissioner 
from Puerto Rico or the Mayor of the District of Columbia when 
the designation is made.
    The responsibilities of regional Federal publications 
access libraries, as specified in this section, include 
permanently maintaining for public use at least 1 copy of all 
Government publications not created for or transmitted through 
an electronic communications system or network, except those 
authorized to be discarded by the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs, or coordinating with other 
Federal publications access libraries in the applicable service 
area to ensure that such service is provided by a Federal 
publications access library in the area. In addition, within 
the region served, a regional Federal publications access 
library provides or coordinates the provision of all program-
related activities in the service area, including interlibrary 
loans and reference services.
            Sec. 1910. Federal publications access libraries: 
                    responsibilities
    Section 1910 specifies that Federal publications access 
libraries are responsible for making Government publications 
received or accessed through the Federal publications access 
program available for the use of the public at no fee. All 
Government publications not created for or transmitted through 
an electronic communications system or network received by 
Federal publications access libraries remain the property of 
the United States Government. Federal publications access 
libraries may dispose of Government publications only as 
authorized by the Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs. Federal publications access libraries are to 
operate in accord with regulations promulgated under section 
1904.
            Sec. 1911. Federal publications access libraries council
    The Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs is authorized to establish a permanent Federal 
Publications Access Library Council. The Superintendent is to 
determine the composition of the Council and the duration of 
terms of the members, and publish the membership of the Council 
annually in the Federal Register. The Council's members are to 
be representative of the various classes of libraries which 
comprise the Federal publications access library program and 
others. Appointments to the Council are to be made without 
regard to political affiliation. The Council is responsible for 
advising the Superintendent on appropriate items and preferred 
formats for inclusion in the program under this chapter; 
Government publications that are not included in the program 
and the Council recommends for inclusion in the program; and 
such other policy matters as the Superintendent may request.
    The Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs is authorized to establish other advisory committees 
consisting of representatives of Federal publications access 
libraries, agencies, and users of Government publications, as 
the Superintendent determines appropriate.
    All meetings of the Council and those of any other advisory 
committee established by the Superintendent must be open to the 
public, except when the Superintendent determines that the 
meeting or any portion of the meeting is to be closed to the 
public consistent with the provisions of section 552b of title 
5, and only after a two-thirds vote of the Council. All 
meetings of the Council and those of any other advisory 
committee established by the Superintendent must provide an 
opportunity for public comment and be preceded by timely public 
notice in the Federal Register of the time, place, and subject 
of the meeting. Minutes of each meeting must be kept and are to 
contain a record of the people present and a description of the 
discussion that occurred. The minutes and records of all such 
meetings and other documents that were made available to or 
prepared for the Council or any other advisory council 
established by the Superintendent must be made publicly 
accessible, unless the Superintendent determines that a record 
or any portion of such record is not to be publicly disclosed, 
consistent with the provisions of section 552 of title 5, 
United States Code, and only after a two-thirds vote of the 
Council.

Sec. 402(b). Report to Congress

    This subsection provides that, not later than 30 months 
after the effective date of this Act, the Superintendent must 
submit a report to the Committee on Rules and Administration of 
the Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives concerning the status of the Federal 
publications access program established under chapter 19 of 
title 44, United States Code; the expected developments in the 
program, including recommendations for necessary statutory and 
subsequent regulatory changes to implement a system to provide 
continuous and permanent access to Government publications 
created for or transmitted through an electronic communications 
system or network; and specific recommendations for legislative 
proposals, as appropriate.

Sec. 402(c). Transfer

    This subsection transfers to the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs, for performance on and 
after the effective date of this Act, all of the duties, 
authorities, responsibilities, and functions performed by the 
Superintendent of Documents of the Government Printing Office 
on the day before the effective date of this Act.

Sec. 402(d). References

    This subsection provides that references in any other 
Federal law, Executive order, rule, regulation, or delegation 
of authority, or any document of or relating to the 
Superintendent of Documents are to be deemed to refer to the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs, and 
the Office of the Superintendent of Documents is to be deemed 
to refer to the Office of the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs.

Sec. 402(e). Transition

    This subsection provides that the individual serving as the 
Superintendent of Documents of the Government Printing Office 
on the effective date of this title may serve as Acting 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs of 
the Government Publications Office until the President appoints 
a Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs 
under paragraph (2).
    Paragraph (2) specifies that, not later than 180 days after 
the effective date of this title, the President is to appoint a 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs of 
the Government Publications Office in accordance with section 
1903 of title 44, United States Code, as amended by this Act.
    Assets and real property under the control of, in use by, 
or assigned to the Superintendent of Documents by the Public 
Printer on the day before the effective date of this Act is to 
be under the control of the Acting Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs on theeffective date of this Act 
for the use of the Acting Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs thereafter for purposes of implementing this Act.
    Personnel under the supervision of or assigned to the 
Superintendent of Documents by the Public Printer on the day 
before the effective date of this Act are to be under the 
supervision or assigned to the Acting Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs on the effective date 
of this Act for purposes of implementing this Act.

Sec. 402(f). Technical and conforming amendment

    The table of chapters for title 44, United States Code, is 
amended by striking the item relating to chapter 19 and 
inserting the following:

``19. Federal Publications Access Programs.......................1901''.

Sec. 403(a). Distribution and sale of government publications by 
        Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs

    This subsection amends Chapter 17 of title 44, United 
States Code, to read as follows:

     ``CHAPTER 17--DISTRIBUTION AND SALE OF GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

``Sec.
``1701. Publications for public distribution to be distributed by the 
          Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs; 
          mailing lists.
``1702. Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs; sale 
          of Government publications.
``1703. Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs: 
          assistants, blanks, printing, and binding.
``1704. Payment of costs.
``1705. Additional copies for sale to the public.
``1706. Production and sale of extra copies of Government publications.
``1707. Reproducing Government publications required for sale.
``1708. Prices for sales copies of publications; crediting of receipts; 
          resale by dealers; sales agents.
``1709. Blank forms: printing and sale to public.
``1710. Publications for use of the Superintendent of Publications 
          Access Programs.
``1711. Publications for use of National Archives and Records 
          Administration.
``1712. Publications for the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of 
          the House of Representatives.
``1713. Government publications for the Library of Congress.
``1714. Exchange of Government publications by heads of Federal 
          agencies.''
            Sec. 1701. Publications for public distribution to be 
                    distributed by the Superintendent of Government 
                    Publications Access Programs; mailing lists
    This section prohibits the use of appropriated funds for 
services in an executive department or other Government 
establishment at the District of Columbia in the work of 
addressing, wrapping, mailing, or otherwise dispatching a 
publication for public distribution, except maps, weather 
reports, and weather cards issued by them or for the purchase 
of material or supplies to be used in this work. The 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs is 
authorized to perform this work at the Government Publications 
Office. The head of an executive department, independent 
office, and establishment of the Government at the District of 
Columbia, is to furnish from time to time to the Superintendent 
mailing lists, in convenient form, and changes in them, or 
penalty mail slips, for use in the public distribution of 
publications issued by the department or establishment. The 
Superintendent may furnish copies of a publication only in 
accordance with law or the instruction of the head of the 
department or establishment issuing the publication. This 
section does not apply to orders, instructions, directions, 
notices, or circulars of information printed for and issued by 
an executive department or other Government establishment or to 
the distribution of public publications by Senators or Members 
of the House of Representatives or to the Senate Service 
Department, House of Representatives Publications Distribution 
Service, and document rooms of the Senate or House of 
Representatives.
            Sec. 1702. Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
                    Programs; sale of Government publications
    Section 1702 provides that, if an officer of the Government 
who has Government publications for sale and desires to be 
relieved of the publications, the officer may turn the 
publications over to the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs, who is authorized to receive and 
sell them under this section, or dispose of such publications 
under section 306 or 314. Moneys received from the sale of such 
Government publications is to be paid to the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs, placed in the 
Revolving Fund of the Government Publications Office, and 
credited to the account of the Superintendent.
    This section also vests the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs with general supervision of a 
Government publications sales program, which is to provide 
Government publications to the public for purchase. The 
Superintendent is to report monthly to the Administrator the 
number of publications received by the Superintendent and the 
disposition made of them.
            Sec. 1703. Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
                    Programs: assistants, blanks, printing, and binding
    This section authorizes the Administrator to provide 
convenient office space, storage, and distributing rooms for 
the Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs. 
The Superintendent of Government Production and Procurement 
Services, upon requisition by the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs, is authorized to perform the 
printing and binding required by the office in accordance with 
section 1107.
            Sec. 1704. Payment of costs
    Section 1704 provides that employees in the Office of the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs may 
be paid for night, Sunday, holiday, and overtime work at rates 
not in excess of the rates of additional pay for this work 
allowed other employees of the Government Publications Office 
under section 303. The costs of printing and related services 
incurred by the Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs under this chapter for work performed by the 
Superintendent of Government Production and Procurement 
Services is to be paid by the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs from accounts under the 
Superintendent's authority within the Revolving Fund of the 
Government Publications Office. The Administrator is authorized 
to transfer funds from the account of the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs to the account of the 
Superintendent of Government Production and Procurement 
Services, upon a voucher prepared by the Superintendent of 
Government Production and Procurement Services and approved by 
the Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs.
            Sec. 1705. Additional copies for sale to the public
    Section 1705 provides that, upon requisition by the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs, the 
Superintendent of Government Production and Procurement 
Services is authorized to produce additional copies of a 
Government publication, not confidential in character, required 
for sale to the public, as determined by the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs. The cost of such 
production is to be determined in accordance with section 1107. 
Such production must not interfere with the prompt execution of 
publications production for the executive, legislative, or 
judicial branches of Government.
            Sec. 1706. Production and sale of extra copies of 
                    Government publications
    This section provides that the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs may furnish to private, 
nongovernmental applicants, giving notice before a publication 
is produced, such copies of the requested Government 
publication as the applicant requests. The applicant must pay 
in advance the price of the requested Government publication as 
determined by the Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs. The production of such copies for private, 
nongovernmental parties must not interfere with the production 
for the Government.
            Sec. 1707. Reproducing Government publications required for 
                    sale
    Section 1707 indicates that the Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs may order reproduced, 
from time to time, Government publications required for sale, 
subject to the approval of the head of the department or agency 
in which the Government publication originated. The 
Superintendent of Government Production and Procurement 
Services must be reimbursed by the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs for the cost of reproduction from 
the moneys received from the sale of Government publications. 
Such receipts are to be deposited in the Revolving Fund of the 
Government Publications Office to the credit of the 
Superintendent of Government Production and Procurement 
Services.
            Sec. 1708. Prices for sales copies of publications; 
                    crediting of receipts; resale by dealers; sales 
                    agents
    Section 1708 specifies that, to the greatest extent 
feasible, the Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs must operate the sales program of Government 
publications on a self-sustaining basis. Sales prices for 
Government publications sold by the Superintendent are to be 
established by the Superintendent to cover the cost of 
procurement or production, dissemination, and other appropriate 
costs, including the offering of sales discounts and any costs 
associated with the sales program. The Superintendent is 
authorized to prescribe terms and conditions under which the 
Superintendent authorizes the resale of Government publications 
by book dealers. The Superintendent may designate any 
Government officer, or any person who is not a Federal 
employee, as his or her agent for the sale of Government 
publications under terms and conditions agreed upon by the 
Superintendent and the head of the respective agency of the 
Government.
            Sec. 1709. Blank forms: printing and sale to public
    This section authorizes the Superintendent of Government 
Publications Access Programs to have produced for sale to the 
public, upon prepayment, additional copies of approved 
Government blank forms.
            Sec. 1710. Publications for use of the Superintendent of 
                    Publications Access Programs
    Section 1710 authorizes the Superintendent of Publications 
Access Programs to retain out of all publications, bills, and 
resolutions printed, the number of copies absolutely needful 
for the official use of the Government Publications Office, not 
exceeding 5 of each.
            Sec. 1711. Publications for use of National Archives and 
                    Records Administration
    Section 1711 directs the Administrator to cause to be 
printed and delivered to the National Archives and Records 
Administration for use by the Archivist of the United States 
one copy each of the following publications, chargeable to the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs: 
House and Senate documents and public reports, bound; House and 
Senate Journals, bound; United States Code and supplements, 
bound; United States Statutes at Large, bound; United States 
Reports, bound; all other documents bearing Congressional 
number or printed upon order of a committee in either House of 
Congress, or of a department, independent agency or 
establishment, commission, or officer of the Government, except 
confidential matter, blank forms, and circular letters not of a 
public character; and public bill and resolutions in Congress 
in each parliamentary stage. The cost of providing these 
publications is deemed an expense of the Government 
Publications Access Programs and is to be paid in accordance 
with section 1902(g) of this Act. The Superintendent of 
Government Publications Access Programs is to furnish to the 
Archivist, without cost, copies of publications available for 
free distribution.
            Sec. 1712. Publications for the Secretary of the Senate and 
                    the Clerk of the House of Representatives
    This section provides that, when printing not bearing a 
congressional number, except confidential matters, blank forms, 
and circular letters not of a public character, is done for an 
agency of Government, or not of a confidential character, is 
done for use of congressional committees, 2 copies are to be 
sent by the Government Publications Office to the Senate and 
the House of Representatives libraries, respectively. These 
purchases are to be made in accordance with section 1107, and 
from funds appropriated for congressional printing and binding 
under section 735 of title 44, United States Code, as amended 
by this Act.
            Sec. 1713. Government publications for the Library of 
                    Congress
    The Librarian of Congress is authorized to determine 
annually the number of full and partial sets of Government 
publications necessary for the Library's service to Congress, 
maintenance of the Library's collection, and for use in the 
international exchange program. The Director of the 
Congressional Research Service is authorized to determine 
annually the number of full and partial sets of Government 
publications necessary for the Service to provide assistance to 
Congress. The Superintendent of Government Publications Access 
Programs is directed to provide these necessary documents to 
the Library and the Congressional Research Service in a timely 
manner and in the needed quantities.
    The Librarian is also authorized to administer an 
international exchange program, pursuant to the Brussels 
convention of March 15, 1886, and subsequent similar bilateral 
and multilateral treaties and agreements, by providing 
Government publications for foreign governments which agree to 
send to the United States similar publications of their 
governments for deposit at the Library of Congress.
    Payment by the Library of Congress and the Congressional 
Research Service for Government Publications and related 
services under this section are authorized to be made from 
funds appropriated to each entity for such purposes. Payment 
for such publications is mandated at the incremental cost of 
printing, in accordance with section 1107, title 44, United 
States Code, as amended by this Act.
    An effective date of October 1, 1999, is prescribed for 
this section.
            Sec. 1714. Exchange of Government publications by heads of 
                    agencies
    Section 1714 authorizes the head of an agency to exchange 
surplus Government publications for other Government 
publications required by the agency, if it is to the advantage 
of the public service.

Sec. 403(b). Technical and Conforming Amendment

    This subsection amends the table of chapters for title 44, 
United States Code, by striking the item relating to chapter 17 
and inserting the following:

``17. Distribution and Sale of Government Publications...........1701''.

     SEC. 404. TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS RELATING TO THE 
       SUPERINTENDENT OF GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS ACCESS PROGRAMS

    This section amends section 1108 of title 44, United States 
Code, by striking ``Superintendent of Documents'' and inserting 
``Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs''. 
It amends chapter 17, title 44, United States Code, by 
repealing sections 1718 and 1719, effective October 1, 1999. It 
also amends section 4101 of title 44, United States Code, by 
striking ``Superintendent of Documents'' each place it appears 
and inserting ``Superintendent of Government Publications 
Access Programs'', by striking ``, under thedirection of the 
Public Printer; and'', and by inserting before the semicolon in 
subsection (a)(1) ``, for the executive, legislative, and judicial 
branches of Government'', and by adding at the end the following new 
subsection:

          (d) Locator.--The electronic directory, or locator, 
        authorized under section 3511 shall not replace, but 
        shall be established in addition to, the locator 
        established by this section. The Superintendent of 
        Government Publications Access Programs shall be the 
        sole administrator of the Government locator 
        established under this section and shall coordinate and 
        integrate the services of the locator established under 
        section 3511.

    Finally, this section repeals section 4102 of title 44, 
United States Code, and amends the table of sections for 
chapter 41, United States Code, by striking the item relating 
to section 4102.

             Title V--Administrative and Savings Provisions

       SEC. 501. CONTINUATION OF EMPLOYMENT TERMS AND CONDITIONS

    This section provides that compensation, benefits, and 
other terms and conditions of employment in effect on the day 
before the effective date of this Act, whether provided by 
statute, regulation, or agreement between employees and the 
Public Printer, continue to apply to officers and employees of 
the Government Printing Office until modified or terminated in 
accordance with law, including the provisions of this Act.

                   SEC. 502. PROCEEDINGS NOT AFFECTED

    This section provides that the provisions of this Act do 
not affect any proceedings, including notices of proposed 
rulemaking, or any application for any license, permit, 
certificate, or financial assistance pending before the 
Government Printing Office at the time this Act takes effect, 
with respect to functions transferred by this Act, but such 
proceedings and applications are continued. Orders are to be 
issued in such proceedings, appeals are to be taken therefrom, 
and payments are to be made pursuant to such orders, as if this 
Act had not been enacted, and orders issued in any such 
proceedings are to continue in effect until modified, 
terminated, superseded, or revoked by a duly authorized 
official, by a court of competent jurisdiction, or by operation 
of law. Nothing in this section is to be deemed to prohibit the 
discontinuance or modification of any such proceeding under the 
same terms and conditions and to the same extent that such 
proceeding could have been discontinued or modified if this Act 
had not been enacted.

                      SEC. 503. SUITS NOT AFFECTED

    This section specifies that the provisions of this Act do 
not affect suits commenced before the effective date of this 
Act, and in all such suits, proceedings are to be had, appeals 
are to be taken, and judgments are to be rendered in the same 
manner and with the same effect as if this Act had not been 
enacted.

                   SEC. 504. NONABATEMENT OF ACTIONS

    This section provides that no suit, action, or other 
proceeding commenced by or against the Government Printing 
Office, or by or against any individual in the official 
capacity of such individual as an officer of the Government 
Printing Office, is to abate by reason of the enactment of this 
Act.

                         SEC. 505. SEPARABILITY

    This section specifies that, if a provision of this Act or 
its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, 
neither the remainder of this Act nor the application of the 
provision to other persons or circumstances is to be affected.

   SEC. 506. TRANSFER OF CERTAIN FUNCTIONS OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON 
                                PRINTING

    This section makes modifications of references to the Joint 
Committee on Printing by amending section 208 of title 1, 
United States Code, in the section heading by striking all 
after ``agencies'', and by striking ``Joint Committee on 
Printing'' and inserting ``Administrator of the Government 
Publications Office, in consultation with the Committee on 
Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Committee on 
House Oversight of the House of Representatives''. In addition, 
the table of sections for chapter 3 of title 1, United States 
Code, is amended in the item relating to section 208 by 
striking all after ``agencies'' and inserting a period. Other 
modifications include amendment of section 3 of the joint 
resolution of December 24, 1970 (2 U.S.C. 168b) by striking 
``Joint Committee on Printing'' and inserting ``Committee on 
Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Committee on 
House Oversight of the House of Representatives''; amendment of 
section 2(b)(1) of Public Law 94-386 (2 U.S.C. 285b note; 
District of Columbia Code, section 49-102) by striking ``Public 
Printer'' and ``Public Printer (in consultation with the Joint 
Committee on Printing)'' and inserting ``Superintendent of 
Government Publications Production and Procurement Services (in 
consultation with the Committee on Rules and Administration of 
the Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of the House of 
Representatives)''; amendment of section 312 of the Federal 
Water Power Act (16 U.S.C. 825k) by striking all beginning with 
``Joint Committee on Printing'' in the fourth sentence through 
the end of the section and inserting ``Administrator of the 
Government Publications Office may prescribe''; amendment of 
section 5(c) of the National Foundation on the Arts and the 
Humanities Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 954(c)) by striking the 
sentence following paragraph (10); amendment of section 7(c) of 
the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 
1965 (20 U.S.C. 956(c)) by striking the sentence following 
paragraph (10); amendment of section 602(d) of the Federal 
Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (40 U.S.C. 
474(d)(18)) by striking ``Joint Committee on Printing'' and 
inserting ``Government Publications Office''; repealing chapter 
1 of title 44, United States Code; amendment of the table of 
chapters for title 44, United States Code, by striking the item 
relating to chapter 1; amendment of chapter VII of title I of 
the Second Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1976 (Public Law 
94-303; 90 Stat.616; 44 U.S.C. 103 note) under the heading 
``JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING'' by striking the 2 provisos; and 
amendment of Title I of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 1978 
(Public Law 95-94; 91 Stat. 669; 44 U.S.C. 103 note) under the heading 
``JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING'' by striking the first 2 provisos.

        SEC. 507. ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS

    This section provides that, after consultation with the 
Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the 
Committee on House Oversight of the House of Representatives, 
the Administrator of the Government Publications Office, the 
Superintendent of Government Publications Access Programs, and 
the Superintendent of Government Publications Production and 
Procurement Services are to each prepare and submit to Congress 
recommended legislation containing technical and conforming 
amendments to reflect the changes made by this Act. This 
recommended legislation is to be submitted to Congress not 
later than 6 months after the effective date of this Act.

                    SEC. 508. IMPLEMENTATION ACTIONS

    This section provides that, effective on the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Public Printer and the 
Superintendent of Documents may each take such administrative 
actions as necessary to provide for the orderly implementation 
of this Act.

                        SEC. 509. EFFECTIVE DATE

    This section specifies that, except as provided under 
sections 305, 308, 403, 408, and 508, this Act is to take 
effect on January 1, 1999.

                           VI. Cost Estimate

    In compliance with paragraph 11(a) of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, the estimate of costs of this 
measure prepared by the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to 
section 403 of the Congressional Budget Act, is as follows:

               congressional budget office cost estimate

S. 2288--Wendell H. Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998

    S. 2288 would make numerous changes to Title 44, United 
States Code, regarding procedures for the production, 
publication, and distribution of federal documents. The bill 
would eliminate the Joint Committee on Printing and assign the 
committee's authorities to the Committee on House Oversight, 
the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, and the 
Government Printing Office. In addition, it would rename and 
reorganize the Government Printing Office as the Government 
Publications Office (GPO) and move the office from the 
legislative to the executive branch. S. 2288 also would 
generally direct GPO to produce or procure all federal printing 
within five years of the bill's enactment. The bill contains 
many other provisions that aim to reform the production and 
distribution of federal publications.
    Enacting S. 2288 would affect direct spending, although the 
net amounts involved would not be significant. Therefore, pay-
as-you-go procedures would apply to the bill. By requiring that 
all agencies and departments procure printing services through 
GPO, the bill will could affect the printing and reproduction 
costs of agencies that receive no annual appropriations, such 
as the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Office of the 
Comptroller of the Currency. In addition, by allowing GPO to 
transfer or donate its surplus machinery and other equipment, 
the bill could decrease receipt from the sale of such property. 
Finally, S. 2288 could affect the amount of receipts from the 
public for GPO publications and other services.
    Many of the provisions of S. 2288 would affect federal 
discretionary spending. The proposed reorganization of the 
Government Printing Office would increase administrative costs, 
for example, whereas the procurement of federal printing 
through GPO could eventually yield savings. At this time, 
however, CBO cannot provide an estimate of the bill's net 
effect on discretionary spending.
    S. 2288 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and 
would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal 
governments. The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are John 
R. Righter and Mark T. Grabowicz. This estimate was approved by 
Paul N. Van de Water, Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.

                   VII. Regulatory Impact Evaluation

    In accordance with paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee believes that 
passage of S. 2288 would have no regulatory impact. The 
Government Printing Office currently administers a body of 
regulation governing the procedures it follows in procuring 
printing from the private sector on behalf of other Federal 
agencies. S. 2288 directs that these regulations be adopted, 
through notice and comment, to govern the procurement 
procedures of the successor agency authorized in the bill. 
Therefore, there will be no new regulatory requirement or 
burdens imposed on any groups and classes of individuals or 
businesses.

                     VIII. Changes in Existing Law

    In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee notes that this 
bill substantially revises the administrative provisions of 
title 44, United States Code.