**The HHS Printing Handbook\
Executive Summary**

**Background.** For the past four years (FY 1994 - FY 1997), the
Department has incurred printing costs that have ranged between \$40 and
\$50 million per year. Over these years, the cost trend has been
slightly downward; until this year, due to the Medicare + Choice
initiative, we expect costs to be significantly higher. During this same
period of time, re-organizations have taken place, staff have changed
and/or been reduced, and the resulting changes have left a number of
component managers with less than a full understanding of the statutory
and regulatory specifications that pertain to the acquisition of
printing products and services.

Given these parameters of changing staff, changing program
responsibilities, and millions of dollars in annual obligations, we
determined that managers of component activities responsible for the
dissemination of information on paper needed a non-technical guide to
assist them in the complex area of printing service and product
acquisition. To that end, we have developed a Department Printing
Handbook. In addition, but to a lesser extent, this Handbook is intended
to assist those component managers that acquire printing equipment,
including copiers, or acquire printed material, including stationery,
forms, and magazines.

The Handbook is an introduction to most subjects important to printing
in HHS and is a guide to where additional information may be obtained.
It is not a complete technical manual. So if the user of this Handbook
is seeking a solution to a new printing matter, it is always wise to
seek the counsel of your OPDIV Printing Officer, or the Department
Printing Officer, listed in Attachment A.

**The Printing Statute.** 44 U.S.C. 501 states that \"all printing,
binding, and blank-book work for Congress, the Executive Office, the
Judiciary, other than the Supreme Court of the United States, and every
executive department, independent office and establishment of the
Government, shall be done at the Government Printing Office,\" unless

\(1\) the printing is in a field printing plant operated by an executive
department, independent office or establishment (and within the limits
of their charter);

\(2\) the printing is a class of work the Congressional Joint Committee
on Printing (JCP) considers to be urgent or necessary to have done
elsewhere;

\(3\) it is an individual printing order costing not more than
\$1,000.00, if the work is not of a continuing or repetitive nature, and
as certified by the Public Printer, if the work is included in a class
of work which cannot be provided more economically through GPO; or

\(4\) it is printing acquired from other sources specifically authorized
by law.

The statute continues \"printing or binding may be done at the
Government Printing Office only when authorized by law.\"

\"As used in this section, the term *printing* includes the processes of
composition, platemaking, presswork, duplicating, silk screen processes,
binding, microform, and the end items of such processes. It should be
noted that the 102^nd^ Congress amended the statutory definition of
printing by adding *duplicating*.

**The Printing Regulations.** The Government Printing & Binding
Regulations, published by the Joint Committee on Printing, Congress of
the United States (JCP), provides implementing regulations for 44 U.S.C.
and contains most of the government-wide regulations pertaining to
information dissemination on paper. The current issuance of these
regulations is Number 26, released in February, 1990. Additional
acquisition regulations specific to the acquisition of printing
equipment are contained in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and
the HHS Acquisition Regulation (HHSAR). And a fourth set of regulations,
the Federal Property Management Regulations (FPMR), contain requirements
for the acquisition of copiers by Executive Branch agencies.

**Handbook Subject Areas.** In order of the frequency of questions we
have received over the past couple of years, the Handbook addresses the
following subject areas:

-   Acquisition of printing equipment (Chapter II). This chapter
    describes the approvals required, from the JCP and from the
    Department, prior to the acquisition of many types of printing
    equipment.

-   Supplies and forms (Chapter III). This chapter covers stationery
    requirements and the procurement of paper, forms, articles,
    separates, reprints and general printed supplies. The Department has
    been granted a blanket waiver from JCP for the acquisition of
    separates. Also, upon request, GPO may provide blanket waivers, on a
    fiscal year basis, for the acquisition of reprints.

-   Production process (Chapter IV). This chapter covers all aspects of
    production printing including steps which must be taken to obtain
    clearances; where printing may be done; requirements of the
    Depository Library Program; and distribution of printed material.

-   Guidelines for Preparing and Submitting Electronic Design and
    Pre-Press Files (Chapter V). This chapter supplements Chapter IV
    with specific information about creating publications on a desktop
    computer. It covers office graphics and professional graphics.

-   Printing through grants and contracts (Chapter VI). This chapter
    describes the stringent limitations on the use of grants and
    contracts as sources of printing without specific prior approval,
    granted by JCP in certain limited printing and printing related
    activities. This chapter also covers the use of GPO Regional
    Printing Procurement Offices (RPPOs) by HHS contractors and
    grantees.

-   Copier management (Chapter VII). This chapter addresses the use of
    copiers, the lease or purchase of copiers and the acquisition of
    copier services.

-   Publishing journals and magazines (Chapter VIII). This chapter
    covers the requirements for the publication and distribution of HHS
    journals, magazines, periodicals and other similar publications.
    Note that publications must be cleared through the Assistant
    Secretary for Public Affairs (ASPA) and that all HHS publications
    for sale are sold through GPO (unless a waiver is obtained). Melissa
    Skolfield (ASPA) exempted the Office of Inspector General from the
    HHS internal clearance process on June 11, 1998.

-   Plans and reports (Chapter IX). This chapter discusses the annual
    Comprehensive Printing Program Plan and the additional annual and/or
    semiannual reports required by the JCP.

**Supplementary Material.** The remaining portion of the Handbook, the
nine attachments and the glossary of acronyms and terms, provide
additional technical information, samples of JCP and GPO forms which can
be copied and used to respond to routine reporting, ordering, and other
requirements, and an additional shorthand tool for assistance in
navigating the printing acquisition complexities.

Finally, in keeping with the Department\'s preference to leverage our
resources through the use of newer technologies, the Handbook has been
HTML encoded and will soon be added to the other electronic information
products and services in the Department www inventory.

We hope you find the Handbook to be a valuable tool in fulfilling the
information dissemination and other printing aspects of your program.