Administrative Notes 

Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program

Vol. 20, no. 06 GP 3.16/3-2:20/06 March 15, 1999 

Laurie Beyer Hall Chosen as Supervisory Program Analyst 

Laurie Beyer Hall has been appointed as Supervisory Program Analyst, Gil Baldwin, Director of 

the Library Programs Service (LPS), announced in early March. Her duties in this new position 

include providing the Director with advice and documents that promote the effectiveness of the 

national programs, products, and services managed by LPS. She will be responsible for directing 

the activities of the LPS Program Analysts, the Office Automation Specialist, and the Electronic 

Transition Specialists. Her appointment is effective March 14, 1999. 

Laurie has been with LPS since 1985, in various positions including serials cataloger, Cataloging 

Section Chief, and Cataloging Branch Chief. Since 1992 she has worked on many LPS Web 

projects, including Amendments to Item Selections, WEBTech Notes, and, most recently, the 

Electronic Collection project. She earned her B.A. at the University of Virginia and received an 

MLS at Catholic University in Washington, DC. Prior to coming to GPO, Laurie worked in a 

variety of library settings: corporate, public, and academic, including a depository library. 

Phone Number, E-mail Changes for Council Member Davis 

Denise M. Davis 

The Gale Group 

27500 Drake Rd. 

Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535 

(248) 699-4253, 1759 

Fax: (248) 699-8066 

denise.davis@gale.com 
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Michael F. DiMario 

Public Printer 

Prepared Statement before the 

Subcommittee on Legislative Appropriations 

Committee on Appropriations 

House of Representatives 

On 

Appropriations Request for Fiscal Year 2000 

Wednesday, February 3, 1999 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, I am pleased to be here to present the 

appropriations request of the Government Printing Office (GPO) for FY 2000. 

GPO's MISSION: KEEPING AMERICA INFORMED 

A commitment to public access to Government information is deeply rooted in our system of 

Government. GPO is one of the most visible demonstrations of that commitment. For more than 

a century, our mission under the public printing and documents statutes of Title 44, U.S. Code, 

has been to fulfill the needs of the Federal Government for information products and to distribute 

those products to the public. 

Formerly, GPO's mission was accomplished through the production and procurement of 

traditional printing technologies. However, a generation ago we began migrating our processes 

to electronic technologies, and in 1993 Congress amended Title 44 with the GPO Electronic 

Information Access Enhancement Act (P.L. 103-40), which requires us to disseminate 

Government information products online. This Act is the basis of GPO Access, our Internet 

information service. 

Today, GPO is dedicated to producing, procuring, and disseminating Government information 

products in a wide range of formats-print, CD-ROM, and online. In GPO the Government has a 

unique asset that combines a comprehensive range of conventional production and electronic 

processing, procurement facilitation, and multi-format dissemination capabilities to support the 

information life cycle needs of Congress, Federal agencies, and the public: 

 We provide print and electronic information products and services to Congress and 

Federal agencies through inplant processes and the purchase of information products 

from the private sector. For Congress, we maintain a capability to fully support the 

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information product needs of the legislative process, working in close cooperation with 

leadership offices, committees, Members, and staffs in each Chamber. 

 We disseminate Government information to the public in print and electronic formats 

through a low-priced sales program and a reimbursable program, and to Federal 

depository libraries nationwide where the information may be used by the public free of 

charge. We provide a number of ancillary dissemination services, including cataloging 

and indexing Government information products, distribution of Federal information 

under international exchange agreements, and distribution of Federal documents to 

recipients designated by law. 

 We disseminate a massive volume of information online via the Internet with GPO 

Access. Between 10 million and 15 million documents are retrieved by the public every 

month using this system. We strongly support the increased dissemination of 

Government information in electronic formats, and GPO Access today is one of the 

leading Federal sites on the Internet. Our home page, at www.access.gpo.gov, provides 

free public access to more than 70 Federal databases from all three branches of the 

Government, a growing number of agency Government Information Locator Service 

(GILS) sites, and associated locator and Pathway aids. 

Value of GPO Services

GPO's value to Congress, Federal agencies, and the public is well established. Our programs 

reduce the need for duplicative production and procurement facilities throughout the 

Government. As multiple studies by the General Accounting Office, the Office of Technology 

Assessment, GPO's Inspector General, and others have shown, GPO achieves significant 

taxpayer savings through a centralized production and procurement system. Our dissemination 

programs represent the Government's most comprehensive and effective means for providing 

public access to Government information, which is increasingly valuable to all Americans in the 

Information Age. 

We provide all of our services in a non-partisan, service-oriented environment that emphasizes 

the primacy of the customer's requirements for timeliness, quality, security, and economy. We 

are dedicated to achieving the greatest access and equity in information dissemination through 

printed publications, CD-ROM, and online information technologies. Our electronic and 

traditional technologies simultaneously enable us to facilitate the re-engineering of information 

products to satisfy the Government's changing information requirements, and to preserve and 

protect public access to Government information for all of our citizens. 

Most importantly, GPO's skilled and dedicated employees have a bedrock commitment to 

serving Congress, Federal agencies, and the public. They demonstrated this once again during 

the production of the various publications associated with the report of independent counsel 

Kenneth Starr. These voluminous, high-profile publications were required by Congress under 

the very demanding circumstances of short turnaround time and tight security constraints. In 

each case, our employees were able to produce the documents within the required deadlines and 

provide public access in both print and electronic forms, all in record-breaking time, earning the 

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praise of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Hyde. Under the close direction of the 

Appropriations Committees, we also produced the Omnibus Appropriations bill at the end of the 

105th Congress under tight deadlines. GPO's performance demonstrated once again that our 

employees have the skills and the ability to provide for Congress's information needs under 

virtually any circumstance. They are indeed our greatest and most valuable asset. 

More than a century ago, Congress in its wisdom designed a system in GPO for keeping America 

informed. That system continues to serve a vital purpose today. 

FY 2000 APPROPRIATIONS REQUEST 

For FY 2000, we are requesting a total of $128,459,000. The request includes $82,214,000 for 

the annual Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation and $31,245,000 for the annual 

Salaries and Expenses Appropriation of the Superintendent of Documents. Our request also 

includes $15,000,000 for GPO's revolving fund, to remain available until expended, for 

extraordinary expenses associated with the replacement of our air-conditioning systems, elevator 

renovation, and to ensure Year 2000 (Y2K) compliance in our computer systems. As our budget 

submission shows on pages I-2 and I-3, GPO's appropriations have remained relatively stable 

over the past decade while declining substantially in real purchasing power. 

The Congressional Printing and Binding Appropriation is critical to the maintenance and 

operation of our inplant capacity, which is structured to serve Congress's information product 

needs. This appropriation covers the costs of congressional printing such as the Congressional 

Record, bills, reports, hearings, documents, and other products. Each year, a substantial volume 

of this work is requisitioned. In FY 1998, more than 1.3 billion copy pages of congressional 

products were produced at an average cost of about 5 cents per page, inclusive of all prepress 

work, printing, binding, and delivery. This appropriation also covers database preparation work 

on congressional publications disseminated online via GPO Access. 

The majority of the Superintendent of Documents Salaries and Expenses Appropriation is for the 

Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). While some of the funding for this program is for 

salaries and benefits, most is for printing and distributing publications (including publications in 

CD-ROM and online formats) to depository libraries. This appropriation also covers other 

statutory distribution responsibilities, such as cataloging and indexing and international exchange 

distribution of U.S. Government publications, and provides the majority of funding for the 

operation of GPO Access. GPO's other major distribution functions, the sales program and 

agency distribution services, are funded entirely by revenues earned and receive no appropriated 

funds. 

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CONGRESSIONAL PRINTING AND BINDING APPROPRIATION 

The items covered by our request of $82,214,000 for the Congressional Printing and Binding 

Appropriations are as follows: 

Category........................................................................Estimated Requirement 

Congressional Record .......................................................................$22.1 million 

 (including the online Record, 

 the Index, and the bound Record) 

Committee hearings ..........................................................................$18.0 million 

Miscellaneous Printing and Binding.................................................$13.9 million 

 (including letterheads, envelopes, 

 blank paper, and other products) 

Bills, resolutions, amendments ..........................................................$ 9.8 million 

Miscellaneous Publications................................................................$ 4.9 million 

 (including the Congressional Directory, 

 the U.S. Code, and serial sets) 

Committee Reports ............................................................................$ 3.8 million 

Business and Committee Calendars...................................................$ 2.5 million 

Documents .........................................................................................$ 2.4 million 

Details to Congress ............................................................................$ 2.0 million 

Committee Prints ...............................................................................$ 1.7 million 

Document Envelopes and Franks.......................................................$ 1.1 million 

 Total ..............................................................................................$82.2 million

Part of the increase in our appropriations request over the current year is due to changes in 

product prices. Price increases are anticipated to increase our funding requirements by 

$1,899,000 over the current year base, due to the increased costs of employee compensation and 

benefits (based on existing wage contracts), utilities, maintenance, materials, and supplies. We 

are continuing to work to minimize the impact of these costs. 

The majority of the increase in our request, however, is due to projected workload, or volume, 

increases. An increase of $5,850,000 over the current year base is required due to anticipated 

workload increases, based on historical trend data. After a period of reduced workload in the 

105th Congress, we anticipate a return to workload levels more consistent with historical trends 

during the 106th Congress. Most of this increase ($4,366,000) is projected for the Congressional 

Record program, including the daily Record, the bound Record, and the Record index. Historical 

data indicates an increase in Record pages in a second session year. Other increases are 

projected for bills, resolutions, and amendments; committee reports, miscellaneous printing and 

binding, business and committee calendars, documents, and committee prints. Partially 

offsetting workload reductions are projected for miscellaneous publications (since the 

Congressional Directory is printed in a first session year), details to Congress, and hearings. 

While these estimates are based on historical factors and represent our best estimates as to the 

projected workload for the first session of the 106th Congress, actual workload may vary. 

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Legislative Information Systems 

We continue to participate with both the House and the Senate in the development of new 

legislative information systems that will expand the capability to create and utilize electronic 

information products in Congress and potentially reduce GPO's printing costs. One objective of 

these systems is the adoption of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) to permit the 

submission of machine-readable keystrokes requiring less processing by GPO prior to final 

production. We are supporting initiatives in both Chambers to facilitate the sharing of 

information. 

Computer-to-Plate Technology 

We are acquiring state-of-the-art computer-to-plate (CTP) technology that will reduce costs, 

improve press-ready plate quality, and expedite the processing of prepress work on many 

congressional products, including the Congressional Record. The new systems are already in 

limited operation. CTP technology makes it possible to send electronic text and image files 

directly to automated platemaking devices, eliminating the need for film negatives and additional 

labor-intensive manual processes. The acquisition of this equipment means that GPO's prepress 

processes will be totally electronic from submission of the information to the creation of the 

offset plate. We are constantly monitoring industry for other technological improvements that 

can be used in GPO's operations. 

SALARIES AND EXPENSES APPROPRIATION 

The programs covered by our request of $31,245,000 for the Salaries and Expenses 

Appropriation of the Superintendent of Documents are as follows: 

Program ................................................................ Estimated Requirements 

Federal Depository Library Program..........................................$26.8 million 

Cataloging and Indexing Program ...............................................$ 3.3 million 

By-Law Distribution Program ......................................................$ .6 million 

International Exchange Program...................................................$ .5 million 

 Total .....................................................................................$31.2 million

Mandatory pay increases and price level changes represent $842,000 of the requested increase of 

$1,981,000. Mandatory pay increases account for $358,000 of this amount. The majority of the 

increase, $484,000, reflects price level changes calculated at the assumed rate of inflation for the 

year, or 2.3 percent. 

FDLP Electronic Collection 

A total of $1,077,000 over the current year base is requested for workload changes, primarily for 

expenditures associated with managing the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) 

electronic collection. The collection consists of electronic sources that are within the scope of 

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the FDLP and with which GPO has various levels of involvement: (1) core congressional and 

regulatory products that reside permanently on GPO servers; (2) other remotely accessible 

products managed by either GPO or by other institutions with which GPO has established formal 

partnership agreements; (3) remotely accessible electronic Government information products that 

GPO identifies, describes, and links to, but which remain under the control of the originating 

agencies; and (4) tangible electronic Government information products distributed to Federal 

depository libraries. The collection also has defined responsibilities for life cycle management 

of electronic Government information products to ensure permanent availability, as well as 

responsibilities for assisting users in locating information resources. 

The collection already consists of over 140,000 electronic titles, including over 85,000 titles on 

GPO Access itself and almost 48,000 additional titles at agency sites that we link to through our 

electronic locator services. We are beginning to work with agencies, depository libraries, and 

other partners to ensure permanent access to these products so they can continue to be used by 

the public well into the future. Projected expenditures associated with this plan include 

increased server space and connection capacity for agency originated files that GPO archives; 

data conversion and migratory costs to prevent technological obsolescence; software to improve 

searching capabilities; and software to manage data archiving for electronic collection titles. We 

also anticipate personnel costs associated with a collection manager and reimbursement to 

Production areas for collection support. 

An additional $62,000 increase is required to fund depreciation arising from asset acquisitions, 

including the establishment of a training center for online access to Government information, 

new software for the Monthly Catalog of Government Publications, upgrades to the lighted bin 

system used for distributing publications to the libraries, and other improvements. 

We are also requesting an increase in the statutory limitation on travel, from $150,000 to 

$175,000, due primarily to the increasing cost of travel. These funds cover travel by depository 

library inspectors to libraries around the Nation, travel by GPO staff to attend various library 

association conferences and meetings, travel of members of the Depository Library Council to 

Council meetings to serve in an advisory capacity to the Public Printer, and travel by GPO staff 

nationwide to provide training in the use of GPO Access. 

FDLP Transition 

The transition to a more electronic FDLP is continuing, as projected in the Study to Identify 

Measures Necessary for a Successful Transition to a More Electronic Federal Depository Library 

Program (June 1996), as required by Congress in the Legislative Appropriations Act for FY 

1996. The development of the FDLP electronic collection concept is an important element of 

that transition. Approximately 34 percent of all titles disseminated to depository libraries in FY 

1998 were in electronic format. 

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REVOLVING FUND 

FY 1998 Performance 

After a period of net losses in the early 1990's, GPO completed a second consecutive year of 

positive bottom line results in FY 1998, generating net income of about $1,000,000 on total 

revenues of approximately $723,000,000. However, losses were sustained in our procurement 

and sales areas, and we are reviewing options to restore each of these programs to a sound 

financial basis. During the year, an audit of GPO's financial reports and systems was conducted 

by KPMG Peat Marwick, Inc., under contract with the General Accounting Office. The audit 

resulted once again in a clean opinion for GPO. 

Infrastructure Costs 

Our appropriations request includes a request for $15,000,000 for the revolving fund, to be 

available until expended, to cover the cost of necessary improvements to GPO's infrastructure 

and systems. The request includes $8,100,000 for reimbursement of extraordinary expenses 

required to ensure Y2K compliance (including equipment repairs, replacement, testing, and 

contingency planning); $6,000,000 for our air conditioning system which is in critical need of 

replacement; and $900,000 for necessary elevator renovation. Without a direct appropriation, 

financing these extraordinary capital expenses through the revolving fund will require us to 

reimburse the fund through rate adjustments. As these costs are not related to the direct 

provision of printing and information product services, their impact on our rate structure will be 

detrimental to our ability to carry out our mission to provide cost-effective and economical 

products and services. The installation of our air conditioning system in 1974 was funded by a 

direct appropriation to the revolving fund, and we request that these extraordinary costs be 

funded similarly. 

FTE Level 

We are requesting an increase in the statutory ceiling on employment of full-time equivalents 

(FTE's) to 3,550, the level established for FY 1998. GPO is now at its lowest employment point 

in this century. We have reduced employment levels by 33 percent over the past decade, and by 

more than 25 percent since 1993. Our employment levels are now dangerously low. Overtime 

utilization has increased by 11 percent in the past year. While we were able to perform the 

demands placed on us for production of the Starr report and Omnibus Appropriations bill 

materials, our ability to continue providing this level of service is being jeopardized by continued 

attrition and reductions in our FTE ceiling. 

Due to the age of our workforce, we need to replace essential skills. For example, GPO's 

prepress area is an area with potentially critical staff shortages. The prepress area is essential to 

Congress-it is where the Congressional Record, bills, reports, hearings, and all other documents 

essential to the legislative process are assembled for timely delivery both in print and electronic 

formats. Critical staffing shortages in these areas threaten GPO's ability to perform its mission. 

In addition, our expanding electronic mission requires an infusion of new technical skills that are 

not readily available in-house. 

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Finally, we need additional staffing to fulfill the recommendations of the Booz-Allen & 

Hamilton, Inc., management audit of GPO conducted last year at the request of Congress. The 

auditors said "[GPO's] Production [Department] must take aggressive action to adequately 

recruit, train, and retain staff in critical skill areas;" "GPO's information systems security 

program has been undermined by staff reductions and budget cuts;" GPO's Position Management 

Branch "lacks effective resources;" and that GPO's aging workforce "leaves the agency at risk of 

instability." It is becoming increasingly evident that GPO must place more emphasis on 

maintaining a highly skilled workforce of sufficient size to fulfill the demands placed upon it and 

to guard against sacrificing the future of the agency as we seek cost savings today. A restoration 

of our FTE ceiling to 3,550 will provide us with the flexibility we need to make important 

additions to our workforce. 

RETIREMENT INCENTIVE AUTHORITY 

The Legislative Branch Appropriation Act, 1999, provides authority for a "buyout" retirement 

incentive program for GPO. The Act requires GPO to submit a plan to the Joint Committee on 

Printing (JCP), or any applicable successor committees, by January 15, 1999. We sent a letter to 

the Chairman of the JCP by that date, stating that GPO will not offer a retirement incentive at 

this time based on the services required of us and our already reduced workforce. However, the 

letter also stated that, should this situation change and a retirement incentive is required within 

the 3-year period authorized by the legislation-particularly to avoid or minimize the need for 

involuntary separations-we will develop the requisite plan for the approval of the JCP or any 

applicable successor committee. 

STATUS OF Y2K PREPAREDNESS 

We have been working closely with the General Accounting Office (GAO), operating under the 

direction of the Chairman of the Senate Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, to 

prepare our computer systems for compliance with Y2K requirements. As stated in our most 

recent quarterly status report on Y2K preparedness, the software used in processing the 

Congressional Record was repaired, tested, and verified as Y2K compliant in February 1998. 

The hardware utilized for Record processing was tested and found to be Y2K compliant. A live 

system test of the Record and other congressional products will be conducted for Y2K-specific 

conditions in the presence of representatives from GAO and the legislative branch. 

As of earlier this month, all of our mission-critical systems have been assessed, 90 percent have 

been renovated, and 78 percent have been validated and implemented. We are optimistic that 

our mission-critical applications will be Y2K-compliant by March 1999. A major concern 

remains the ongoing drain through attrition of information technology (IT) professionals from 

GPO who are assisting in the Y2K preparedness effort. We are looking to acquire contracting 

services for independent validation and verification to supplement the stretched resources of our 

in-house IT areas. 

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STATUS REPORT ON MANAGEMENT AUDIT RECOMMENDATIONS 

As detailed in the report submitted with our FY 2000 appropriations justification, the Booz-Allen 

& Hamilton report, "Management Audit of the Government Printing Office" (May 21, 1998) 

contained 95 recommendations for action affecting 7 GPO areas: Overall (3); Marketing, Sales, 

and Distribution (27); Procured Printing Services (8); In-Plant Production (13); Human 

Resources (24); Financial Management (12); and Information Technology (8). Implementation 

action in the various affected GPO areas has been classified according to "action planned," 

"action ongoing," "action completed," "action deferred," "action taken as needed," or "no action 

currently planned." 

In formal comments on the Booz-Allen & Hamilton Management Audit, GPO stated that "GPO 

management is currently reviewing all of the recommendations and will take action to address 

them as it deems necessary." Of the 95 recommendations, action is being taken in a total of 71 

cases: action is either planned (8 cases), ongoing (60 cases), or completed (3 cases). This means 

that GPO either plans to act, is currently acting, or has acted affirmatively on approximately 75 

percent of the recommendations contained in the Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Inc., final report. 

These include recommendations on planning, program modernization, ensuring financial 

stability, promoting intra-agency communications, and improving information technology 

capabilities as well as ensuring preparedness for Y2K. Many of the recommendations for which 

action is "ongoing" are essentially open-ended and would not be expected to reach a formal 

"completion" stage. 

On the remaining recommendations, action has been deferred in 3 cases; in 15 cases action will 

be taken as necessary; and in 7 cases no action is currently planned (on one recommendation 

under Sales, Marketing, and Distribution there have been two actions). The recommendations 

for which no action is currently planned include those to which we objected in our formal 

comments. 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, this concludes my prepared statement. I 

would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.

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Federal Depository Library 

Program Online 

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs 

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12 

Table of Contents 

Laurie Beyer Hall Chosen as Supervisory Program Analyst........................................................ 1 

Phone Number, E-mail Changes for Council Member Davis....................................................... 1 

Public Printer Statement: House Committee on Appropriations .................................................. 2 

Administrative Notes is published in Washington, DC by the Superintendent of Documents, Library 

Programs Service, Government Printing Office, for the staffs of U.S. Federal Depository Libraries. 

It is published on the 15th day of each month; some months have additional issues. Postmaster send 

address changes to: The Editor, Administrative Notes 

 U.S. Government Printing Office 

 Library Programs Service, SLLD 

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Internet access via World Wide Web at URL: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/adnotes.html 

Editor: Marian W. MacGilvray (202) 512-1119 mmacgilvray@gpo.gov