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FY 2021 Annual Performance Plan and 

FY 2019 Annual Performance Report

U.S. Government Publishing Office

April 2020

 

 

 

 

 
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About GPO 

Established in 1861, GPO’s mission can be traced to the requirement in Article I of the Constitution that 

Congress “keep a journal of its proceedings and from time to time publish the same.” GPO’s Plant 

Operations and Print Procurement Operations produce the official publications of Congress, the White 

House, and Federal agencies in digital and print formats. GPO’s information dissemination programs 

provide public access to the official publications and information of the Government in both digital and 

print formats through an official website (govinfo.gov), a partnership with Federal depository libraries 

nationwide, and both online and bookstore sales. Total GPO employment today is approximately 1,700.

GPO operates on a revolving fund basis, like a business. Just 12 percent of GPO’s funding comes from 

direct appropriations to cover the cost of congressional work, the Federal Depository Library Program 

and supporting distribution programs, and increases to working capital for specified projects in GPO’s 

Business Operations Revolving Fund. All other revenues to GPO are reimbursements from agencies for 

work performed or sales of publications to the public. 

What We Do

Congressional publications services are the primary function of GPO’s Plant Operations facility in 

Washington, DC. In addition to the Congressional Record, containing the daily proceedings of Congress, 

GPO produces bills, hearings, reports, and other legislative documents, in digital and print formats, as 

required by the Senate and House of Representatives and their committees. GPO’s Plant Operations 

facility also produces the daily Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations, and the annual Budget 

of the U.S. Government, as well as U.S. passports and other secure Federal credentials. GPO has an 

additional facility in Mississippi for passport and secure credential production. 

GPO provides centralized operations for the procurement of information products for the Federal 

Government, purchasing approximately $439.7 million from private sector vendors nationwide for 

Federal agency customers in FY 2019. About 78 percent of all the products ordered annually from GPO 

(other than essential congressional and Federal agency work produced by Plant Operations, including 

passports and secure credentials) are procured from the private sector including Social Security cards, 

census and tax forms, and Medicaid and Medicare materials. GPO typically awards contracts to 1,000–

2,000 printing contractors a year on a competitive basis, and nearly 10,000 companies are registered 

to do business with the agency, using GPO as their one-stop shop for print and related services 

contract opportunities. In FY 2019, GPO awarded jobs to vendors in all 50 states, plus the District of 

Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. GPO’s relationship with the private sector dates 

back to the 1940s and this program provides significant economic opportunity for the printing industry 

and local economies. The majority of the firms GPO deals with are small businesses of 20 employees or 

less. 

GPO’s primary information dissemination program involves a partnership with approximately 1,100 

Federal depository libraries nationwide. Today, the partnership is predominantly electronic, but tangible 

formats are distributed where required. GPO’s govinfo website provides public access to more than 2.5 
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million searchable titles linked through GPO. GPO also provides for public sale of Government 

publications via its traditional and online bookstores, and offers eBooks through partnerships with 

multiple vendors. 

For more information, please visit gpo.gov; follow GPO on Twitter twitter.com/USGPO, YouTube 

youtube.com/user/gpoprinter, Facebook facebook.com/usgpo, LinkedIn linkedin.com/company/u.s.-

government-printing-office and Instagram instagram.com/usgpo. 

Mission

Keeping America Informed as the official, digital, and secure source for producing, preserving, and 

distributing official Federal Government publications and information products for Congress, Federal 

agencies, and the American public.

Vision

An informed nation that has convenient and reliable access to their government’s information through 

GPO’s products and services.

Values

GPO’s core values define our character. These values transcend product and market cycles, 

management trends, technological change, and individual leaders. Over the years, GPO has developed 

new product lines, employed new strategies, reengineered processes, and significantly restructured the 

organization, yet the core values have remained intact. 

Commitment - GPO has had the responsibility of Keeping America Informed for over 150 years. It 

continues that long tradition by providing an uncompromised dedication to authentic, fast, and reliable 

service. 

Customer Service - GPO has a customer-centric approach and has agency-wide procedures, policies, and

activities in place to ensure we are meeting customers’ needs and exceeding their expectations. 

Innovation - GPO is committed to anticipating change and implementing new programs, processes, and 

technologies that bring value to our organization and customers.

Diversity - GPO is dedicated to diversity in every aspect of the business. Our commitment to diversity 

helps serve customers better and provides a positive work environment for employees. GPO is 

committed to promoting and supporting an inclusive environment that provides to all employees the 

chance to work to their full potential. 

Integrity - GPO’s employees believe that honesty and the highest ethics form the cornerstone of the 

organization and create an environment of trust. 

Teamwork - GPO employees treat one another with dignity and respect and communicate openly. 

GPO’s environment fosters collaboration and innovation while maintaining individual accountability. The 

agency partners with the Government and the private sector to provide the best value to customers.
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Strategic Goal 1. Exceed Our Stakeholders’ Expectations 

Overview: GPO exists to serve our stakeholders: Congress, Federal agencies, and the public, and in doing 

so, we work with a multitude of organizations, entities, private sector businesses, and interested 

communities. We endeavor to provide all of these stakeholder groups with efficient, cost-effective, and 

modern products and services that deliver results and exceed customer expectations. It is our goal to 

provide all stakeholders with world-class customer service together with product innovation through a 

wide range of publishing and technology vehicles. 

Strategies and Performance

1. Meet evolving stakeholder needs with a modern publishing portfolio of print and digital 

products and services

In an environment dominated by rapidly evolving technology, GPO will work to understand, anticipate, 

and meet the changing needs of our stakeholders. Technology investments will be in direct relationship 

with GPO’s business goals, resulting in excellent customer service, strong partnerships, secure 

infrastructures, and cost-effective performance. 

As GPO has transitioned from a print-centric to a content-centric operation, our portfolio of products 

and services has greatly diversified. In order to best meet our customer needs, GPO aligns resources 

with a streamlined set of publishing products and services that reflects our experience, expertise, and 

strengths. To keep pace with evolved customer needs GPO has modernized our products and services 

portfolio to include eBooks, print-on-demand, digital signature application, as well as procurement 

programs for digital products and services. Additionally, GPO is working with Federal Depository 

Libraries across the nation to digitize and expand access to historical collections currently available to 

only small, localized audiences. GPO has saved more than a million dollars in inventory costs through 

increased use of print-on-demand and just-in-time printing, and plans to continue to emphasize printon-demand and just-in-time printing to minimize inventory costs while keeping Federal print titles 

available for purchase.

Enhancements of Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) Tools and Services – In support of the 

FDLP, this initiative is to bring new technology and state-of-the-art customer services support for key 

stakeholders and customers, and enhance/replace existing technology to support staff in libraries to 

better manage program requirements. Subprojects and activities that support this effort include:

• SalesForce Implementation (replacement of current RightNow platform) for askGPO

• FDLP eXchange phase 2 enhancements

• Federal Depository Support Service unit: hiring of new Chief and other key positions for this unit 

and subsequent activities related to this restructuring

• DSIMS replacement

• Revamp of the Public Access Assessment process

• FDLP.gov migration from Joomla to Drupal

• FDLP Academy technology infrastructure replacement 
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The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) GitHub Project – This project enables users to 

freely download record sets extracted from the CGP for inclusion in local libraries’ online catalogs. This 

new method of distributing GPO’s cataloging records expands access to Federal Government 

information products and offers greater opportunities for acquiring those records to the FDLP

community, libraries at large, and the general public. This expanded dissemination of GPO’s 

bibliographic metadata also serves to enhance GPO’s capability of meeting its obligations under U.S.C. 

Title 44. This improvement also provided improved data to govinfo, resulting in increasing the 

accessibility of the material for libraries and the public users. 

GPO made several critical updates to procedures and improving programming efficiency with the GitHub 

dataset procedures. This effort involved the dissemination of records sets as a replacement for the GPO 

Cataloging Data Subscription Service. Milestones completed include development and documentation of 

options for distribution of online version records with no/inactive item numbers; creation and post of

several records sets on the GitHub repository, including two subject-based sets for the Tribal College

Federal depository library community; draft process for creation of different types of records sets; and a 

tutorial on how to use the repository. 

2. Provide the most trusted secure credentialing products and services in Government

GPO plays a critical role in our nation’s security by producing Secure Federal Credentials. We have 

manufactured the U.S. passport for over 90 years. Since the electronic passport program began in 2005, 

we have made well over 180 million e-Passports for our customer, the Department of State. Since 2005, 

the U.S. passport has incorporated a digital chip and antenna array capable of carrying biometric 

identification data. With other security printing features, this document – which we produce in 

Washington, DC, as well as an additional secure facility in Mississippi – is the most secure identification 

credential obtainable. 

GPO produces and personalizes millions of secure Federal smart card credentials each year for a variety 

of Federal agency customers. Since 2008, GPO has produced over 26 million secure Federal card 

credentials. These credentials are used to gain access to our nation’s borders, our Federal buildings and 

facilities, and our most sensitive IT networks and architectures. The success of our secure credential 

programs proves that we can connect security printing with secure electronics to produce the most 

trusted credentials in Government.

GPO serves as an integrator of secure identification smart cards to support the credentialing 

requirements of Federal agencies and other Government entities. GPO can offer secure credential 

services that include card and secure artwork design, security printing, card manufacturing, card 

personalization, and fulfillment services. 

ISO 9001:2015 Certification – GPO achieved and retained the global standard of excellence for the 

agency’s production of the U.S. passport and secure Federal credentials. Both of GPO’s production 

facilities in Washington, DC, and in Stennis, Mississippi achieved the ISO 9001:2015 certification. GPO 

initially attained ISO certification in 2010 and this recertification has been achieved for the past ten 

years at both production facilities. 
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This ISO 9001 standard is attained by demonstrating a number of quality management principles 

including a strong customer focus, the utilization of risk management methodologies, the motivation 

and full support of top management, the LEAN manufacturing process approach, and the employment 

of continual process improvement programs. An ISO 9001:2015 environment helps ensure that 

customers get consistent, good quality products and services, which in turn brings many business 

benefits. 

Next Generation Passport – GPO and the Department of State are working on the development of the 

Next Generation Passport. GPO plays a key role in the development of the final design, construction, and 

security features found in the Next Generation Passport and will ensure that the right equipment, 

trained personnel, and processes are in place to support the Department of State’s Next Generation 

Passport goals. In FY 2019, GPO’s Security and Intelligent Documents business unit produced more than

15 million electronic passports and more than 4 million other Federal secure credentials.

Based on the needs and schedule of the Department of State, the first Official and Diplomatic NextGen 

Passports are scheduled to be issued in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021. These passports will 

incorporate new security features including a polycarbonate-based data page and alpha-numeric book 

numbers, which have required the development and testing of new production processes and 

techniques at the same time GPO has been producing substantial quantities of its existing secure 

identification products for Federal clients. In the months ahead, GPO will be working on the rollout of 

the NextGen Official and Diplomatic Passports and will continue building the capacity for the production 

of NextGen Tourist Passports. Key ongoing projects that will underpin the successful launch of the 

NextGen Passport include the completion of modifications to bindery equipment that will optimize 

production and maximize product quality. Additionally, the GPO recently established a program to 

utilize multiple cross-functional teams of experts to identify, respond, mitigate and solve all unknown 

and unexpected NextGen passport production challenges. 

Smart Card Products and Services – In FY 2019, GPO produced over 4.6 million secure credential cards, 

and acquired additional smart card equipment, facilities, and personnel to support the growing business 

requirements of this division. In FY 2019, GPO began the planning and coordination to design and

develop the unique secure identification card credential that will be used to support the security 

protocols associated with the CY 2021 Inauguration event. Also, significant progress was made on the 

design, construction, testing, and validation of a next generation TSA Transportation Worker

Identification Card (TWIC). 

In FY 2020, GPO will continue to work with the Department of State on their redesigned Emergency 

Passport booklet and with the Department of Homeland Security on their newly designed Refugee 

booklet. GPO will continue to support existing secure credential card customers, provide consultations 

and product upgrades when requested, and continue to offer our secure credential products and 

services to new Federal agencies and Government entities. 
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3. Use analytics to improve the customer experience

GPO elicits feedback regularly from customers through multiple channels in order to gauge GPO service 

levels as well as customer expectations regarding future service needs. Survey results provide specific 

areas of focus for improvement that result in action plans to effect changes in processes or behaviors. 

This allows GPO to nurture existing customer loyalty and ensure we are meeting evolving customer 

requirements. 

GPO surveys customers with a focus on products, services, and programs; the cost-effectiveness of 

services; and satisfaction with GPO’s website and employee customer service. The findings from this 

survey are used to develop and implement customer expectations for daily interactions with customers 

to address desired service enhancements, identify new business opportunities, and develop plans to 

continuously improve performance. 

GPO 2020 Biennial Customer Satisfaction Survey – The GPO 2020 Biennial Customer Services 

Satisfaction Survey is an assessment sent to GPO Federal customers in order to gauge their satisfaction 

with using GPO’s shared services. The survey is anticipated to launch in the second quarter for FY

2020.

Customer Satisfaction Survey – In addition to the biennial Customer Satisfaction Survey, GPO randomly 

surveys customers after a specific job has delivered in order to ensure that they are receiving 

satisfactory service during the procurement process. Feedback received is used to make any necessary 

improvements in our service. 

GPO On-The-Go Visits – With the inception of library visits in FY 2015, GPO has conducted in-person 

visits to over 583 FDLs throughout the country. The purpose of these visits is to provide consultation, 

training and support services to these libraries and to ultimately strengthen the program and our ties 

with partner libraries. The visits have helped to identify current trends and issues in libraries, both 

across all libraries and unique to needs facing visited libraries. In FY 2019 staff visited 52 depository 

libraries in 14 states. 

4. Streamline customer-facing processes to optimize the customer experience

GPO is working to optimize the customer experience by enhancing external facing systems, streamlining 

access points for customer contact with GPO, and ensuring internal processes reflect a customer-centric 

approach. Our goal is to ensure our customers and stakeholders have a seamless experience from initial 

contact to ordering, billing, and payment. 

In order to provide quality service to customers, GPO will focus on the creation of first-rate, system-wide 

solutions that meet customer requirements and exceed customer expectations. GPO will improve 

processes and technologies to ensure that solutions are scalable, available, cost-effective, and secure. 

This includes modernization of agency business processes and systems used for conducting and 

managing print procurement ordering processes, enhancement of customer relationship management, 

and focus on developing informational resources on billing and payment processes, assisting in timely 

resolution of customer billing inquiries, and improving internal processes to facilitate ease of financial 

transactions.
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Publish (formerly Printing Procurement Systems Modernization) – The goal of Publish is to create an 

integrated approach to automating and streamlining the end-to-end print procurement process from 

online order submission to vendor payment and customer billing. It will include the technology and 

business practices to enable GPO to replace, enhance, or integrate current systems and processes 

currently used in support of the Federal Government’s printing and publishing needs. It will consolidate 

print procurement operations within a single modular system, improve work processes, and automate 

specific functions where applicable.

In FY 2019, the contract was awarded to begin system development in an agile environment. The first 

module of the system modernization will be to develop the order entry process for all work coming into 

GPO from our Federal customers. Additional components will be developed following agile software 

development methodologies. All modules are estimated to be complete within 5 years. 

Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) eXchange – The FDLP eXchange launched in June 2018 and 

consists of functionality required to manage key information used by depository libraries for disposition 

of materials, including bibliographic information on materials libraries wish to discard and bibliographic 

information on materials libraries wish to add to their collections. The application includes functionality 

to match one library’s need with another library’s offer and notify both libraries of the match and 

facilitate the transfer of the material. 

2019 was the first full operating year of the eXchange as a national service for libraries. The eXchange 

was reorganized on FDLP.gov to increase ease of access to important resources. A monthly average of 

78 libraries have posted offers in the eXchange. Through September 2019, 53,156 needs posted with 

434,446 offers posted; 19 training webinars conducted; 29 in-person and/or virtual for more than 500 

participants. Quarterly virtual discussions were held. Planned system enhancements will continue into 

FY 2020 as this program continues to gain popularity among the FDLs. 

Federal Register Savings Act Subscription System – In compliance with Public Law 115-120, in FY 2019, 

GPO created a website interface for subscribers to the daily Federal Register, gpo.gov/who-we-are/ouragency/official-federal-register-subscription-form, and adjusted the print distribution accordingly.

5. Meet the evolving needs of Congress

GPO was originally established to produce congressional products under the close guidance and control 

of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and this work continues as the agency’s primary 

mission. GPO is currently operating with the smallest workforce of any time in the past century, yet 

output for Congress has expanded to include both print and multiple digital formats, with a vastly 

superior ability to reach a larger portion of the public than ever before. Congress relies on GPO to 

prepare and post congressional publications increasingly online as demand for printed copies declines.

GPO facilitates the needs of Members of Congress, congressional committees and staff, and their 

constituents, and we are an expert resource on GPO products and services, all of which meet the highest 

standards for accuracy, integrity, fairness, and professionalism.

Cutting the Cost of Congressional Work – GPO’s use of electronic information technologies has been 

the principal contributor to lowering the cost, in real economic terms, of congressional information 
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products. In FY 1980, as GPO replaced hot metal typesetting with electronic photocomposition, the 

appropriation for Congressional Publishing was $91.5 million, the equivalent in today’s dollars of $310.1 

million. By comparison, our approved funding for FY 2020 is $79.0 million, a reduction of nearly 75% in 

constant-dollar terms. 

Since 2010, we have achieved a 29% reduction in the constant-dollar value of the Congressional 

Publishing Appropriation, consistent with the continuing transformation of our technology profile, an 

emphasis on controlling costs, and collaborative efforts with Congress to reduce print distribution while 

meeting the information needs of the Senate and House of Representatives. 

Annual appropriations for Congressional Publishing have been at or below $79.7 million in each of Fiscal 

Years 2014 to 2020.

Continuity of Operations (COOP) Planning – Comprehensive planning is an essential element to an 

effective COOP operation, and GPO will continue to develop appropriate plans to provide for the 

continuation of essential functions and operations during a wide range of all-hazards emergencies.

GPO has continued to enhance Mobile Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) capabilities to support the 

mission needs of the agency and provide mobile continuity of operations to support Congress in 

producing essential congressional publications in the event that access to GPO or the National Capital 

Region is denied. 

Mobile COOP has been developed and thoroughly tested, moving the program into a state of 

sustainment, transitioning to an operational phase. Next, GPO will work to assess whether the various 

GPO COOP annex plans currently meet the needs of the agency and various business units and support 

organizations. This entails gathering insight into how COOP annex plans will be executed in the event of 

an emergency, challenges confronting the business units, and establishing a base line understanding of 

GPO’s overall capabilities that can subsequently be used to inform a revision of the agency’s overall 

COOP Plan. GPO participated in two offsite exercises with the House during 2019.
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Strategic Goal 2. Enhance Access to Federal Government 

Information 

Overview: In pursuit of our vision of an informed nation, GPO will continue to provide authentic, 

published Government information to the public through a variety of print and digital technology 

vehicles, both efficiently and securely. Our mission of Keeping America Informed has not wavered in our 

more than 150 years; what has changed is the range of formats and channels through which 

stakeholders expect to receive information. We further Government transparency efforts and continue 

to evolve our approach to public information dissemination.

Strategies and Performance

1. Increase the amount of U.S. Government information available for free to the public and 

enhance access to information to meet evolving user needs

GPO provides access to Government information through tangible distribution of U.S. Government 

publications to Federal depository libraries nationwide, ingest into govinfo, and identification and 

linking through GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP). Federal content is increasingly 

born-digital, living online, and never printed or preserved. As part of the agency’s core and historic 

mission of Keeping America Informed, GPO continuously works to capture the ever growing amounts of 

this content to ensure its availability to the American public in perpetuity by increasing the amount of 

content managed, preserved, and made publicly and freely available in many different formats. This 

includes print, digitized, and born-digital content in formats ranging from PDF and HTML to MP3, XML, 

and EPUB; Federal websites; and open data. GPO also works to coordinate efforts to increase public 

access to digitized collections of high value to the American public. 

GPO’s modern and user-friendly govinfo provides free public access to official publications from all three 

branches of the Federal Government. In addition to providing an advanced, metadata-powered search 

experience, govinfo also includes a content management system and a standards-compliant 

preservation repository. These three components comprise GPO’s world-class system for the 

comprehensive management of electronic information. Continuing to add to the collections currently 

available on govinfo is of the highest priority, with a goal of offering complete and historic holdings. 

FDsys Retirement – The govinfo website launched as a beta in 2016 and ran in parallel with the FDsys 

website until its retirement in FY 2019. The final replacement of the FDsys website with the new, 

modern govinfo website was completed in addition to providing ongoing system development and 

support. This included testing, and implementing redirects from FDsys to govinfo resources, working 

with data users on their transition from using FDsys data to govinfo data for their systems and 

processes, and communication efforts to keep the broad community of users informed. 

govinfo Development and Support – This work included enabling redirects from FDsys to govinfo

resources; building new features and enhancements requested by our user community; offering 

developer tools, and numerous additional updates documented in govinfo Release Notes at 

govinfo.gov/features/release-notes. 
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There were seven production deployments; 16 major milestones, features, and infrastructure 

improvements in FY 2019; and 85 individual change requests. The following are some highlights: 

• ISO 16363 Trustworthy Digital Repository Certification – Awarded in January 2019. See details 

under Strategy 2.

• Easy Access to Related Documents – In FY 2019, the related documents feature was expanded to 

link references in the history of bills and multipart hearings. This provides users with quick and 

easy access to related govinfo publications and has been enabled for a total of 9 collections and 

24 relationships. Learn more at govinfo.gov/related-documents.

• USLM XML for a Subset of Enrolled Bills, Public Laws, and Statutes at Large – Learn more about 

this project and the status under Goal 4.

• Accessibility and Design Improvements – Throughout govinfo development, GPO follows best 

practices and standards for making web pages accessible to assistive technology, such as screen 

readers, whenever feasible. Examples include providing alternative text for images, structuring 

content with headings to facilitate keyboard navigation, and using labels to provide enhanced 

semantics and accessibility for web content. Design improvements ensure a fresh and consistent 

look and feel to the pages to enhance the user experience.

• Developer Tool Enhancements – GPO works to consistently expand the capabilities of developer 

tools to make it easier to access and work with the information available on govinfo. In FY 2019, 

the API was enabled for the eCFR and Bill Status Bulk Data collections of content and other 

enhancements were made and tracked on GPO’s GitHub at github.com/usgpo. 

• Submission Enhancements – Several efforts were completed on the backend to streamline and 

enhance the tools and processes for content submission. This expands the system’s capability to 

perform pre-processing steps and accept a wide range of publications and metadata formats. 

• Helpful Resources – In FY 2019, a new series of articles on Finding Publications was launched, 

additional tutorial webcasts were added, and a Popular Resources section was added to the 

homepage in response to user feedback. GPO published 55 Feature Articles throughout the 

fiscal year. See them at govinfo.gov/features. 

• Infrastructure Support – While GPO continually works to support, maintain, and refresh the 

extensive system infrastructure, several significant efforts were undertaken in FY 2019 in 

support of system security and performance.

• Numerous Component Upgrades – In addition to continually launching new features and 

enhancements, GPO regularly performs maintenance and upgrades on the infrastructure, 

software, source code, databases, and other technologies that are part of the content 

management system, public access website, preservation repository, and processes which make 

govinfo unique among Government websites, databases, and repositories.

govinfo Content – Building the system’s collection to make it the most comprehensive information 

repository serving the information needs of Congress, Federal agencies, depository libraries, and the 
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public entails the ingest of current and historic content. The Collection Development Plan is reviewed 

and revised annually. Continuing to add to the collections currently available on govinfo is of the highest 

priority, with a goal of offering complete and historic holdings. Here are a few highlights of the new 

content added in FY 2019: 

A few highlights of content added in FY 2019 include: 

• Digitized volumes of the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States for President 

Herbert Hoover (1929) - George H.W. Bush (1991) 

• 1,322 digitized congressional hearings, which can be browsed by congress and congressional 

committee 

• United States Army in the World War, 1917-1919

• Federal Register Index (1936-1994 digitized indices; 2013-2018 annual cumulative editions; 2019 

most recent monthly cumulative edition) 

• GPO Style Manuals (pre-2000) 

• Historic GPO bill style manuals and type books 

• Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election (Mueller 

Report)

• Additional Statute Compilations, expanding the collection to 319 compilations 

• Beta USLM XML for a subset of enrolled bills, public and private laws, and the Statutes at Large,

Budget of the U.S. Government (FY 2020), Economic Report of the President (2019)

• Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation (CONAN, 2018 

Supplement) 

• Updates to the Congressional Directory, 115th Congress 

• Additional National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) digitized publications 

• House Rules and Manual, 116th Congress 

• GPO is actively digitizing historical content to complete retrospective holdings of existing 

govinfo collections and may accept materials from depository libraries that meet our needs. 

2. Support access and discoverability through the Federal Depository Library Program and 

the Cataloging and Indexing Program 

As part of its publishing programs, GPO, through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), 

distributes certain Government documents free of cost to designated libraries throughout the United 

States and its territories. These libraries are known as Federal depository libraries. GPO’s primary 

information dissemination program involves a partnership with approximately 1,100 of these libraries 

nationwide. 

The Cataloging and Indexing Program (C&I), U.S.C. Title 44, Sections 1710 and 1711 – This program 

aims to provide a comprehensive index of every document issued or published by a department, 

bureau, or office not confidential in character. GPO administers this program and provides public access 

to this index through the online bibliographic records contained in GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government 
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Publications (CGP). The CGP is available at catalog.gpo.gov as a finding tool for Government 

publications, containing records with information about publications in many different file formats. 

In FY 2020, GPO will continue to develop, grow and improve programs and tools to support the FDLP 

and Cataloging and Indexing Program, by bringing new technology to improve access to U.S. 

Government information for the public and libraries in the FDLP, as well as enhance/replace existing 

technology to better manage program requirements. The specific projects that will be targeted include:

• Building and maintaining cataloging partnerships

• GitHub and methods for bib record distribution

• Metadata services such as API building, automated metadata extraction, etc.

• Cataloging Record Distribution Program (CRDP) service to libraries

• Inventory (National Bibliographic Record Inventory, NRBI) projects

• CGP enhancements, web discovery layer

• Hiring Key Technical Services positions

Bibliographic Records Services – In continuing efforts to build online bibliographic records for historical 

and fugitive (uncataloged but relevant) materials, GPO continues the National Bibliographic Records

Inventory Initiative (NBRII). This focus is on publications issued prior to 1976 and older, publications 

where bibliographic records exist only in a non-electronically available resource, and materials 

previously cataloged with minimal information that require critical record enhancement. 

In FY 2019, free public access to Government information was added to the CGP through the following 

partnerships:

• Colorado School of Mines Partnership added:

o 2,170 bibliographic records for the electronic versions of the U.S. Geological Survey 

(USGS) Water Supply Papers 

o Eight bibliographic records for the electronic versions of the USGS Water Resources 

investigations 

o 1,077 bibliographic records of the USGS Circulars 

o 284 bibliographic records of the USGS Open File Reports

• Completed the addition of electronic and print versions of WPA publications with 204 additional 

records from the University of Kentucky

• Continued to process new material available on FRASER (partnership with the Federal Reserve 

Bank of St. Louis)

3. Ensure security, authenticity, and accessibility of the nation’s publications for future 

generations

In order to provide continual access to information, GPO must also ensure long-term preservation, 

cybersecurity, authenticity, and accessibility and provide for the Continuity of Operations. It is necessary 

to preserve the official publications and information products of the U.S. Government in all formats. 

These publications document the fundamental rights of the public, the actions of Federal officials in all 

three branches of our Government, and the characteristics of our national experience. This information 
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asset is vulnerable to decay, technical obsolescence, malicious cyber-attacks, and neglect. Safeguarding 

access to Government information for everyone, now and for the future, is best achieved through 

programmatic preservation.

govinfo Certification as a Trustworthy Digital Repository – Throughout FY 2018 and into FY 2019, the 

govinfo repository underwent an extensive audit for certification as a Trustworthy Digital Repository in 

compliance with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 16363. In December 2018, GPO 

made history by becoming the first organization in the United States, and just the second organization in 

the world, to achieve this certification, the highest global standard of excellence for digital repositories. 

GPO’s govinfo was evaluated against 109 criteria covering all aspects of a digital repository including 

organizational infrastructure, digital object management, and infrastructure and security risk 

management. Certification provides assurance to GPO stakeholders that govinfo is a standardscompliant digital repository in which Government information is preserved, accessible, and usable now 

and into the future.

In September 2019, GPO was invited to participate on a panel at the 16th International Conference on 

Digital Preservation (iPRES 2019) with the British Library, CERN, and the Indira Gandhi National Centre 

for Arts. GPO shared its digital preservation experiences and best practices with conference attendees 

from library, archive, and cultural heritage institutions from around the world. In addition to sharing our 

expertise, in FY 2019, govinfo continued to experience significant growth and usage including the 

addition of 121 thousand documents and 377 million retrievals demonstrating GPO’s value to both 

Federal information producers and information consumers worldwide. Since the audit in 2018, GPO also 

added new and prospective Federal customers who are eager to leverage the digital content solutions 

provided through govinfo. GPO provides services to Federal agencies through a cost-recovery model 

thereby reducing duplication of effort across Government and enabling agencies to more efficiently 

spend taxpayer funds. 
15

Strategic Goal 3. Strengthen Our Position as the GovernmentWide Authority on Publishing 

Overview: GPO is an authority on printing through more than 150 years of experience and now seeks to 

strengthen and expand our expertise in all areas of publishing to reflect the transformation to a contentcentric provider of information. GPO is a primary source and a central hub for Federal Government 

information from all three branches. 

Strategies and Performance

1. Provide best practices, standards, and training to support evolving Federal agency 

publishing needs

GPO seeks to increase efficiencies across Government through knowledge sharing and exchange of ideas 

and best practices with the community through white papers, panel discussions, working groups, and 

collaboration with publishing standards organizations. GPO’s outreach efforts will reflect the agency’s 

transformation from a print-centric to a content-centric operation, highlight our innovations and 

achievements, and equip our customers with the knowledge and tools that meet their information 

needs. GPO aims to develop educational opportunities and provide informational resources for Federal 

agencies, vendors, and the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) community as an integral partner 

in helping these stakeholders accomplish their missions. GPO’s outreach initiatives will integrate 

traditional channels with a range of digital communication channels to increase awareness of GPO 

programs and services.

GPO Institute – The Institute at GPO offers courses to Federal publishing and printing professionals. The 

training and seminars in desktop publishing, digital management, and print management integrate 

hands-on exercises, demonstrations, discussions, and presentations. GPO can help your agency improve 

skills in areas that are unique to Federal agency publishing.

Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) LibGuides – FDLP LibGuides is a service provided by GPO for 

depository libraries and the public. Guides are created by LSCM staff on a variety of topics, including 

special requests by the FDLP community. Libraries and agencies can also submit their own guides for 

inclusion on the FDLP LibGuides Community page. In FY 2019, LibGuides had more than 30,000 views to 

the 83 LibGuides currently offered. 

FDLP National Collection Services Initiatives – In order to grow and develop services to depository 

libraries GPO is conducting pilots for services that will support the National Plan for Access to U.S. 

Government Information. In FY 2019, GPO identified the following pilots:

• Increase the number of Preservation Stewards by at least five. In FY 2019, nine libraries became 

Preservation Stewards. 

• Identify at least one Federal depository library that would consider receiving digital Government 

information dissemination products on deposit. In FY 2019, two libraries became Digital Content 

Contributors: Washington State Library and Boise State University.
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After a presentation at the DLC Spring Conference, a Digital Deposit Working Group, composed of DLC 

members, GPO staff, and representatives from the depository library community, proposed three pilots 

to undertake: 

• “Lost Docs” Project: This project aims to report lost documents to GPO, which will then be 

ingested, cataloged, and made available through govinfo and the Catalog of U.S. Government 

Publications.

• Agency Submission to GPO: An agency-driven “digital deposit” implementation model.

• Digital Deposit Dissemination Tool: This project will use API technology to “push” content to 

FDLs. 

GPO has visited the staff libraries at the College of William and Mary, the Library of Virginia and the 

University of Maryland and conducted pre-pilots to assess workflow, develop procedures and test 

methodologies for condition assessment, cataloging and inventory. A draft report of findings was 

presented at the Fall 2019 FDLP Conference. Findings will be used to develop a framework for a pilot 

program in FY 2020.

Building and Maintaining the National Collection of U.S. Government Information – This effort 

supports the Federal Depository Library Program, brings new technology and state-of-the-art customer 

services support for key stakeholders and customers, and enhances/replaces existing technology to 

support staff in libraries to better manage program requirements. In order to grow and develop services 

to depository libraries GPO is conducting pilots for services that will support the National Plan for Access 

to U.S. Government Information. The specific projects that will be targeted include:

• National Collection pilot projects

• Hiring Collection Management Librarian

• Preservation Stewards Program

• Digital Libraries project

• Revision of key policy documents related to regional libraries, preservation of tangible 

collections, etc. 

• Digitization projects for key Government documents

• Continued Offerings for Regional Discard

FDLP Basic Collection – The FDLP Basic Collection is a list of titles that every Federal depository library is 

required to have accessible for immediate use. These titles are vital sources of information that support 

the public’s right to know about the workings and essential activities of the U.S. Government. The FDLP 

Basic Collection list includes 23 titles and was updated in FY 2019 to include Congress.gov and USA.gov.

Marketing and Educational Events for Federal Customers – GPO utilizes an integrated marketing 

approach for fostering greater awareness of GPO’s products and services. By leveraging all available 

digital tools in a coordinated effort with traditional channels, this generates a meaningful body of 

experience to gauge the relative effectiveness of various elements of the outreach program. 

During FY 2019, GPO launched five integrated digital marketing campaigns and a series of webinars 

titled “30 Minutes with GPO.” Federal customers across the country sign on to learn more about the 
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various GPO products and services offered in order to get their message out to the public. In addition, 

GPO traveled to several locations across the country to train customers. Our customer database has an 

active email distribution of 18,000 Federal customers that receive our digital marketing material.

With the use of Gov.Delivery in FY 2019, GPO is now better able to manage outreach efforts. 

Gov.Delivery is tailored for Government use and is FedRAMP certified for enhanced security of our 

data. This tool allows our customers to manage the informational content that they receive from GPO; 

captures analytics such as click/open rates with our email communications; and improved the read 

rate of our educational material.

GPO Contract Terms – In September 2019, GPO released the revision of GPO Contract Terms Quality 

Assurance Through Attributes Program – Publication 310.1. This publication had not been updated since 

2002. It contains quality attributes, which are measurable properties, including tolerances of a printed 

piece, which define its compliance with the specifications. These terms are an integral part of every 

contract written in our Print Procurement programin order to protect the rights of the Government and 

vendor community in the performance of the contract.

Government Paper Standards Specifications – In FY 2019, GPO began the process of updating the 

Government Paper Standards. The purpose of these standards is to achieve compliance with relevant 

statutes regarding printing papers; address environmental, workplace safety, and paper longevity issues; 

and maximize savings in the Government’s paper purchases and ultimately print projects. Updates are 

being made based on industry trends. This new version will be implemented in FY 2020.

2. Provide products and services at every stage of the publishing lifecycle

GPO aims to offer customers products and services to support the entire publishing lifecycle of both 

tangible and digital information products from concept generation, planning, and creative design, to 

production, publication, document conversion, dissemination, and storage. 

• Project Planning – Design consultation and marketability. 

• Creative Design/Preflight – Development of comps for digital and tangible products; editorial 

and preflight services; and a variety of design services including publication design, branding and 

identity, exhibit graphics, video, multimedia, photography, and security design.

• Production – Nationwide print and print-related procurement program for tangible and digital 

products, print-on-demand solutions, in-house printing, eBook conversion and creation, 

scanning, and 508 compliance services.

• Dissemination – Channels include the U.S. Government Online Bookstore, Federal Depository 

Library Program, and govinfo online repository. 

• Storage and Distribution – Storage/Inventory Management/Distribution, Customized Online 

Ordering Solutions, and Contracted Services. 

Customer Handbook – In FY 2019 GPO developed a Customer Handbook for its Federal customers on 

Doing Business with GPO. This Handbook guides the Federal customer through the process that frames 
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Federal printing and publishing policy. It is an excellent resource in navigating the creation-tocompletion of a publishing project. By sharing the services provided by GPO, the customer gains more 

time to focus on other duties to support their agency’s mission. 

3. Communicate our unique value and evolved portfolio of products and services

Known for more than 100 years as the Government Printing Office, and since 2014 as the Government 

Publishing Office, GPO is positioned to effectively bring about a new level of visibility to the agency’s 

expanding array of products and services that meet the changing information needs of Congress, 

Federal agencies, and the American public in the digital age. 

With a name that aptly reflects GPO’s transformation, the agency will continue to build and market this 

new, relevant brand and live up to the brand promise as the “Official, Digital, and Secure” source for 

producing, protecting, preserving, and distributing the official publications and information products of 

the Federal Government.

GPO’s outreach efforts reflect the agency’s transformation from a print-centric to a content-centric 

operation, highlight our innovations and achievements, and equip our customers with the knowledge 

and tools that meet their information needs.

Open House – In FY 2020 GPO will hold an Open House for Federal employees with the theme “GPO 

2020 Vision – Seeing is Believing.” Federal employees will meet GPO professionals; learn about 

products and services; enjoy hands on activities; and see demonstrations. 

Joint Promotions – In FY 2019, GPO explored partnership opportunities for GPO products and 

services. GPO exhibited at conferences and tradeshows that included:

• National Association of Government Communicators

• Federal Training Officer Consortium

• Federal Managers Association Convention

Distribution Facility – GPO implemented an electronic marketing campaign and eliminated outdated 

manual workflow with digital processes. 

• Working with customer agencies completed seven email marketing promotions and five direct 

marketing promotions during FY 2018

• Eliminated outdated manual workflow with digital process, trained employees, and established 

SOPs

• Staff worked to clean up records and develop and implement Retention Plan
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Strategic Goal 4. Promote Collaboration and Innovation Within 

Government 

Overview: GPO is perfectly positioned based on our existing relationships across all three branches of 

the Federal Government to leverage the collective expertise of the Government in pursuit of 

interoperability of information with an outcome of better access to information. GPO collaborates with 

a number of other Federal agencies on solutions that enable both agencies to better fulfill their 

missions.

Strategies and Performance

1. Provide shared services across Government and connect Federal agencies with private 

sector businesses through our procurement program

GPO utilizes our collective expertise in printing, publishing, and information technologies to provide 

shared services that save Federal agency customers time and money, and help them accomplish their 

missions. GPO operates a variety of procurement vehicles that simplify, streamline, and lower costs of 

the procurement process for Federal agencies. GPO’s demonstrated expertise in this area for print 

products and services is continually being expanded to include a wider array of digital solutions to help 

Federal agencies cost effectively meet their publishing and information dissemination needs. GPO is also 

leveraging existing in-house capabilities, developed for GPO’s own information dissemination functions, 

but now offered as shared services for other Federal agencies. 

GPO provides the technical expertise and flexible procurement processes for agencies to cost effectively 

obtain a wide range of products and services to meet their mission. 

GPOExpress – GPO provides Federal agencies discounts on copying, binding, signs, and other products 

and services through 1,800 FedEx Office locations nationwide through the GPOExpress program.

Learn more about GPOExpress at gpo.gov/how-to-work-with-us/agency/services-foragencies/gpoexpress. 

On-Site Document Solutions – GPO solutions include assessment and consulting, document conversion, 

and in-house production support. These services are designed specifically for Federal agency 

professionals responsible for printing resources, document management, and in-house copying. Learn

more about GPO’s on-site document solutions at gpo.gov/how-to-work-with-us/agency/services-foragencies/onsite-document-solutions. 

GPO Online Paper Store – The GPO Online Paper Store is the simple, one-stop solution for ordering cutsheet paper for use in office copiers and printers. Learn more at gpo.gov/how-to-work-withus/agency/services-for-agencies/gpo-online-paper-store. 

Simplified Purchase Agreements (SPA) – In order to control their purchase of printing, publishing, and 

digital services at competitive prices from hundreds of certified, tested, and reliable vendors, Federal 

agencies can participate in this program. Backed by GPO administrative and technical assistance, the 

Simplified Purchase Agreement (SPA) ensures vendor compliance with GPO Contract Terms Quality 
20

Assurance Through Attributes Program for Printing and Binding and Government Paper Specification 

Standards—while offering the best value for purchases up to $10,000. Learn more at gpo.gov/how-towork-with-us/agency/services-for-agencies/simplified-purchase-agreement. 

Creative Services – In 2019, GPO received four graphic design awards from the 2019 Graphic Design 

USA, Inhouse Design Awards. GPO continues to be honored year after year for its design services, 

receiving five awards in 2018, four awards in 2017 and six awards in 2016.

FDLP and C&I Collaborations – In FY 2019, GPO contributed to and collaborated with groups in support 

of the FDLP and Cataloging and Indexing Programs.

• In July 2019, working with the National Archives’ Office of the Federal Register to digitize and 

make available on govinfo volumes of the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States 

for Presidents Herbert Hoover through George H.W. Bush, with the exception of the Franklin D. 

Roosevelt presidency. The FY 2019 digitization effort added to the previously digitized Public 

Papers for Presidents George H.W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack H. 

Obama. 

• Working with the Law Library of Congress, GPO is cataloging Global Legal Research Directorate 

Reports to increase public access. In FY 2019 GPO cataloged 40 of these reports. 

• Through a partnership with the Civics Renewal Network (CRN), a consortium of organizations 

committed to strengthening civic life in the U.S. by increasing the quality of civics education in 

our nation’s schools. GPO makes available through the CRN website, K-12 resources that 

support civics education.

• Continued partnership with the Technical Report Archive & Image Library (TRAIL). GPO and 

TRAIL work to ensure that Federal technical reports are openly accessible, as well as offering 

cataloging expertise and participation in the exchange of information about U.S. Government 

scientific and technical information.

• The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and GPO continued their collaboration to broaden 

public access to the information made available via the CGP. Through the partnership over 

194,000 records from the CGP are available to the public through the DPLA website, including 

the Federal budget, laws, Federal regulations and congressional hearings, reports, and 

documents. 

• Working with the Library of Congress, GPO continues to be heavily involved in cooperative 

cataloging and metadata activities, including BIBCO (Bibliographic Record Cooperative), CONSER 

(Cooperative Online Serials), NACO (Name Authority Cooperative), and SACO (Subject Authority 

Cooperative). 

• GPO continues to be a member of OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) since 1976 

contributing bibliographic records for U.S. Government Information to the International 

database daily. 

• GPO, as part of the Electronic Cataloging in Publication Program (ECIP) is creating prepublication bibliographic records for publications from Federal agency publishers. 

• In FY 2019 GPO continued to collaborate with the above-mentioned organizations and another 

24 organizations to make Government information available on a wide variety of platforms.
21

2. Form strategic partnerships where collaboration and innovation can flourish

GPO will continuously work on strengthening purposeful collaboration with internal and external 

customers that will create more efficient and effective programs and processes. Since 1997, GPO has 

developed strategic partnerships with Federal depository libraries, Federal agencies, and other 

institutions to increase public access to electronic U.S. Government information. Partnering is an 

integral part of how GPO is Keeping America Informed, and over the past two decades, these 

partnerships have grown and evolved. Today, GPO collaborates with a number of organizations to 

further its mission and ensure permanent public access to the wealth of information products, both 

current and historic, that are produced by the U.S. Government. 

GPO will continue developing new strategic partnerships with Federal agencies, Federal depository 

libraries, and other entities to increase access to Federal publications and services, reduce duplication of 

digital initiatives, safeguard historical Government documents, and preserve print collections. These 

partnerships may include cataloging, digitizing, and preserving tangible copies of Government 

publications. GPO will support efforts to increase public access to digitized collections of high value to 

the American public.

Federal Publishing Council (FPC) – The Federal Publishing Council, which was established in 1976, is 

made up of Federal employee professionals involved in all facets of the Federal printing and publishing 

community which serve as an advisory council to GPO. Over the years the scope of Federal publishing 

has expanded far beyond strictly tangible printed content. In addition to tangible printed content, the 

council will focus on digital publishing concepts, web content management, and graphic design. The FPC 

is a forum to discuss the changes in the industry including trends in publishing and printing. GPO works 

closely with the Council to support their initiatives.

The goals of the Federal Publishing Council include:

• Develop recommendations to enhance the combined efforts of Federal organizations and the 

GPO to provide the most efficient, effective, and economical publishing services possible

• Propose new printing and publishing policy

• Provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and the examination of mutual concerns among 

Federal printing and publishing representatives

• Foster knowledge-sharing opportunities and disseminate information relating to training, new 

technologies, and best practices in Federal publishing

In April of FY 2019, GPO assisted the Council in putting together a panel of commercial industry leaders 

to discuss The State of Digital Publishing. Adobe, Fujifilm, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Konica Minolta, 

Ricoh, and Xerox participated on a panel. 
22

3. Support Government-wide innovation and interoperability

GPO has incorporated a range of strategies in order to support our transformation from print-centric to 

content-centric and will offer our expertise in these areas to the rest of the Federal Government where 

technology evolves at such a rapid pace that institutions must incorporate flexibility and agility into 

everyday operations to meet their missions in this digital era. GPO is working to increasingly utilize 

shared-service and open-source technologies which enable increased sharing of data across 

Government in an effort to make content more accessible. 

GPO is a member of the Legislative Branch Bulk Data Task Force, which was mandated in a committee 

report accompanying the House's Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill for FY 2013. As a member of the 

Task Force, GPO works with our legislative data partners to make congressional information available to 

the public as XML bulk data. Bulk data reduces the burden on the provider of information while 

maximizing the possible ways information can be used or repurposed. 

GPO is also migrating to new XML workflows in order to take advantage of the flexibility and robustness 

that is provided by XML. These efforts include modernization of GPO’s composition system as well as 

conversion of online documents into United States Legislative Markup (USLM), an XML schema 

specifically for documents in the legislative process. Standardization of these publications into XML 

promotes interoperability of the documents.

United States Legislative Markup (USLM) Projects – In support of the Legislative Branch Bulk Data Task 

Force, in early FY 2019, the first project was completed with the release of a subset of enrolled bills, 

Public and Private Laws, and Statutes at Large in Beta USLM XML on govinfo. GPO is collaborating with 

the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate on several such initiatives to convert legacy file 

formats into United States Legislative Markup (USLM) XML. USLM offers a standard XML schema to 

promote interoperability among documents as they flow through the legislative and regulatory 

processes. USLM also promotes international interoperability with documents produced by 

governments worldwide. The next project in this initiative is to convert Statute Compilations into USLM 

XML and make the files available on govinfo. 

XPub (formerly known as the Composition System Replacement) – GPO is replacing a 30-year-old, 

locator-file based composition system known as MicroComp with XPub, a state-of-the-art composition 

system based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML). XPub preserves the typographic and page 

layout characteristics of historic, legislative publications while adding the capability to simultaneously 

publish content online in semantically rich XML format on govinfo. XPub will modernize and improve the 

accuracy and efficiency of GPO’s Prepress operations, replacing legacy tools and work processes with an 

XML-native, computerized system for producing print and digital products on a daily production 

schedule.

GPO just finished publishing the 2018 Main Edition of the U.S. Code with XPub. GPO is nearing 

production release of the XPub system for congressional bills, resolutions, amendments, public laws, 

and the Statutes at Large in close coordination with the staff of the Secretary of the Senate, the Clerk of 

the House, and the Office of the Federal Register.
23

Strategic Goal 5. Engage Employees and Enhance Internal 

Operations 

Overview: GPO’s ability to be viewed as an employer of choice depends on the agency’s ability to 

develop and attract quality employees and to motivate them to perform at high levels. GPO is 

committed to treating all employees fairly, respecting their diversity, and valuing their contributions. 

GPO also utilizes a cost effective and collaborative approach in managing GPO’s business processes to 

help the agency achieve its strategic initiatives and ensure continued financial stability.

Strategies and Performance

1. Build and retain a workforce that is talented, diverse, motivated and committed

Through the use of strategic human capital management, GPO aims to attract and keep high-caliber 

employees with the skills necessary to support GPO’s transformation and cultivate a talented, diverse 

workforce that will allow GPO to tackle the challenges posed by an increasingly complex, ever-changing 

external environment. GPO will encourage a diverse, high performing, results-oriented workforce by 

managing effective performance management systems, implementing effective training and 

development programs, and fostering work life programs. 

GPO conducts proactive workforce planning that focuses on diversity and fosters work life programs to 

meet the changing needs of present and future employees. Since 1980, GPO has reduced its workforce 

by over 74 percent as a result of using new technologies, a rate of change unparalleled elsewhere 

among other legislative branch agencies. Furthermore, 44 percent of GPO’s workforce will be eligible to 

retire by FY 2024 and only 10 percent of GPO’s workforce is under age 40. If not carefully managed, 

anticipated retirements could cause skill gaps to develop (particularly when considering the loss of GPO 

institutional knowledge). For this reason, talent management and effective workforce planning and 

knowledge management are vital to the success of GPO. 

GPO will focus on knowledge retention, evolution and refinement of skills through training, and 

work/life balance programs as well as mitigation of the impact of retiring employees on departmental 

function. These are all Human Capital (HC) and Business Unit (BU) activities that should be incorporated 

in the BU specific strategic plans. The Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) office, through its advisory 

responsibility, will ensure that GPO maintains an environment that is fair, unbiased, and, if 

discrimination allegations are raised, proactive intervention and use of Alternative Dispute Resolution

will be used to resolve workplace disputes without litigation.

Resolving Complaints – GPO’s FY 2019 accomplishments in the elements of processing and resolving 

complaints include:

• Conducted management inquiries to promptly and effectively address allegations of harassment 

before they become EEO complaints;

• Closed 45 formal complaints with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) decisions 

favorable to the GPO. No findings of discrimination;
24

• Significantly reduced time to complete all EEO complaints investigations from an average of 236 

days in FY 2018 to 147 days in FY 2019, thereby surpassing the regulatory timeline of 180 days 

to complete investigations;

• Developed a reasonable accommodation handbook and acquired centralized funding for 

ergonomic equipment to timely and reasonably accommodate qualified persons with 

disabilities; and

• Delivered all mandatory EEO-related training.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Utilization – As a priority initiative, key objectives of using ADR 

include reducing the negative impact of the conflict on the relationship between a supervisor and an 

employee; reducing time to resolve workplace disputes, thereby improving efficiency and productivity; 

allowing parties to control the process and the solution by negotiation; reducing the cost of complaints, 

both in agency staff resources and actual cost of investigations. 

GPO’s FY 2019 accomplishments in the areas of Alternate Dispute Resolution include:

• Implementation of a new Facilitation program to give aggrieved individuals another path to 

resolve both formal and informal complaints without litigation;

• Mediator certification for two EEO staff, enhancing our capability of resolving workplace 

disputes before they escalate; and

• Offered and conducted ADR at the pre-complainant stage resulting in the following: offered 

ADR to 46 individuals, 31 individuals participated in ADR; of those who participated in ADR, 2

pre-complaints were settled with benefits, 12 resulted in no formal complaints filed, and only 17

resulted in the filing of a formal complaint. ADR significantly reduced the processing of possible 

formal complaints by 63 percent. 

Workforce Development – Since GPO will continue to lose employees at record rates due to the aging 

workforce and competition with the Federal and private sector for skilled workers will increase, it is 

important to identify skill gaps and attract, develop, and retain employees to ensure GPO’s workforce 

has the critical skills, competencies, and engagement to propel the agency through transformation. To 

accomplish this GPO will continue to offer employees the opportunity to develop leadership, 

management and digital literacy knowledge and skills to include: 

• The award winning Leadership Evaluation and Development (LEAD) program, which for the past 

nine years has empowered the next generation of GPO leaders by developing leadership skills 

and the tools to lead themselves, individuals, and teams. The number of LEAD Program 

graduates is 421 or 25% of the agency’s employees.

• Business Analysis Development Program with Duke University and IIBA Certification – 56 

Graduates

• Lean Six Sigma Program with Duke University Certification – 74 Graduates

• Project Management Development Program with Duke University Certification – 22 Graduates, 

and 6 PMP Certifications

• Digital Print and Management Courses 
25

• ePublishing Courses and Adobe Training and Professional Certification Programs – 190 

Graduates

• Microsoft Office Suite Training and Professional Certification Programs – 212 Graduates

• Supervisor and Manager Training Program 

Safety and Security – Key initiatives include:

• Wireless Lock Installation – This ongoing initiative will enhance security and accountability 

throughout GPO. The first phase was completed in FY 2019.

• P2000 Security System Upgrade – This project will allow transition from a stand-alone network 

to the GPO network while allowing more flexibility to troubleshoot issues.

• Video Camera System & Video Upgrade – This project will replace an antiquated system with 

state-of-the-art systems with better monitoring capability as well as more storage space and 

redundancy while continuing to maintain a safe environment.

2. Reduce our environmental footprint

GPO is committed to working toward a more sustainable future and providing a safer, healthier 

environment to future generations. GPO will continue to introduce programs that include recycling, 

reducing energy consumption, and reducing GPO’s carbon footprint and will provide Federal customers 

with environmentally friendly printing alternatives. GPO strives to reduce our environmental footprint 

by implementing employee recycling and environmental awareness programs.

Sustainable Green Printer – GPO’s plant maintains certification as a Sustainable Green Printer by the 

Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP) and integrates environmentally friendly values into 

processes and supports environmental stewardship through fiscally responsible and effective 

implementation of green initiatives. These efforts include sourcing of raw materials with low volatile 

organic compounds, using papers with appropriate post-consumer content, and reducing our electrical 

consumption (new, more efficient press and binding equipment). Built on three pillars, economic, 

societal, and environmental, SGP's certification attests to GPO’s commitment to sustainability and 

environmental, health, and safety compliance. 

In October 2019, GPO was recertified for meeting sustainable environmental standards by the 

Sustainable Green Printing Partnership, a non-profit organization. This is the GPO's fourth certification 

since 2012. SGP certified printers are held to rigorous standards and go through a months-long process 

where each aspect of their business is evaluated. Certification shows the printer is achieving energy 

savings, waste reduction, emission reduction, and reduced resource consumption.

Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) – GPO will implement a CMMS system that 

will enable Facilities Management to manage human, finance, and information resources 

strategically. The system will support emerging policies and procedures outlined in GPO Directive 

810.10G Facilities Management Procedures for Requesting Service. The system will align with GPO’s 

financial processes which the agency uses to prepare, justify, and administer the program budget. The 

system will be a tool to monitor expenditures and leverage cost-benefit thinking to set priorities.
26

Reduce Paper Waste – GPO installed multiple digital inkjet technologies that improve production 

workflows, reduce paper waste, labor expenses, and other operational expenses in support of GPO’s 

commitment to sustaining an environmentally friendly Plant. 

Green FDLP Shipments – In an effort to improve the environmental impact of our services, beginning 

March 1, 2019, FDLP boxes distributed from GPO’s Distribution Facility in Laurel, Maryland, use only 

paper made from 100% recycled material for box packing. Plastic bubble wrap is no longer being used. 

3. Modernize and streamline internal processes and systems

The modernization of GPO’s legacy systems is a long-term effort to modernize legacy applications to 

ensure application support and improve system capabilities. This includes a migration of legacy 

mainframe applications and business logic to a more modern platform, modernization of printing 

procurement systems, implementation of an effective and comprehensive workflow integrated with the 

acquisition life cycle, and improvements to the in-house manufacturing process areas of estimating, 

scheduling, tracking, data collection, and analysis. Moving away from outdated technologies will ensure 

continuity and improve system capabilities. 

Warehouse Management System (WMS) – GPO implemented a new digital WMS system to control 

paper and production materials from end-to-end during manufacturing operations. The new system will 

reduce costs by replacing an intensively manual process with automated wireless scanner devices. The 

WMS will improve inventory tracking, reduce errors, and provide accurate inventory data. 

Digital Presses – As part of our ongoing modernization effort to make investments in equipment that 

increase operating efficiencies, reduce production costs, and improve returns on Federal Government 

expenditures, GPO acquired six smaller and more agile digital inkjet presses for producing the daily 

Congressional Record, Federal Register, House and Senate Calendars, and various executive branch 

publications. The new equipment is highly automated, requires fewer people to operate, and designed 

for smaller count production. The equipment was installed in December 2019.

Facilities Update – In 2017, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) offices of the 

Federal Register (OFR) and Government Information Systems (OGIS) moved into 17,000 sq. ft. of 

renovated space on the 7th floor of GPO's Building A. Meanwhile, in cooperation with NARA and the 

offices of the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate, GPO has provided space parcels of 

approximately 24,500 sq. ft. in Building A, 3rd floor and is currently proposing 24,284 sq. ft. in Building 

A, 4th floor for the construction of facilities to house NARA's Center for Legislative Archives. Phase 1 of 

that project, which included the space in Building A, 3rd floor has been completed. NARA is expected to

occupy this space in February 2020. 

GPO and NARA have met to discuss Phase 2 of the project which includes the space in Building A, 4th 

floor. Before work can be started, both agencies must enter into a memorandum of agreement that will 

outline how design, construction, and project management will be conducted. At the present time, 

NARA has been solely focused on moving into Building A, 3rd floor but we expect them to refocus their 

attention to Phase 2 of the project in the immediate future. 
27

Information Technology – The following are the five primary IT strategic objectives that will support 

GPO’s mission: 

1. Cybersecurity – Sustain a sound cybersecurity posture. All initiatives have been completed - 

developed a cybersecurity strategy, developed IT COOP and Business Impact Assessment, 

implemented next generation security monitoring tool, and certified and accredited GPO’s 

General Support System. 

2. Cloud – Establish and enhance cloud smart strategy. The OneDrive as a desktop backup solution 

deployment has been partially completed and will continue to full deployment in FY 2020/2021. 

All other initiatives have been completed - develop GPO IT Cloud Smart Strategy Plan, build a 

cloud infrastructure in Microsoft Azure, govinfo third site cloud backup solution, and 

AskGPO.gov implementation by Salesforce (First Phase).

IT has created a cloud strategy plan that is in alignment with the “Cloud Smart” initiative and will 

provide GPO with great benefits such as a third data center option. The GPO has some cloud 

applications already in the cloud and this project will ensure strong, well-orchestrated, and 

consistent GPO cloud strategy and implementation.

Cloud solutions eliminate capital expenses of buying racks, servers, power, and cooling, etc. The 

ability to scale by delivering just the right amount of resources/services needed is another 

benefit. Other benefits include speed, productivity, reliability, performance, and security. This is 

a multi-year and multi-phase plan that will enable GPO to adapt to future computing needs 

quickly.

3. Digital Workplace – Transform GPO workplace. Implemented a site recovery manager and load 

balancer for automatic failover with upgrade to latest version and the rest of project will be 

implemented in FY 2020/2021. Replaced footprint ticketing system with the ServiceNow. 

Developed laptop acquisition plan for cost saving. Creation of a paper reduction policy within IT 

to enable digital signatures is partially complete. Deployed Windows 10 to the agency.

4. Infrastructure – Modernize IT Infrastructure: Completed assisting in completing the first phase 

of the Composition System Replacement (CSR), developed a mainframe and legacy system 

modernization plan, and implemented a secure file transfer option to meet internal/external 

stakeholders’ needs. Initiative to implement the first phase of Stennis data center to serve as a 

backup for the Alternate Computing Facility (ACF) is no longer the strategy. All following work 

has been completed and is also part of ongoing regular maintenance activities: upgrade ACF, 

HQ, Stennis, and Pueblo’s routers, switches, and servers, upgrade the Alpha servers for Plant 

Operations (hardware and software), upgrade the Official Journals of Government COOP 

infrastructure and create a test lab, implement the second VPN for Security and Intelligent 

Documents (SID) to connect to the Department of State, and work with business units to 

replace, upgrade, or rewrite legacy applications. 

5. Smart Government – Apply Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process Automation, Internet of Things 

(IoT) and Blockchain technologies to increase efficacy and reduce cost for all business units. It 

has been determined that Blockchain and IoT technologies are not applicable to GPO. IT has 
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initiated Artificial Intelligence tool investigation, and continues to test Robotic Process 

Automation tool to automate manual processes, continues to test Power Business Intelligence 

tool for data analytics, and continues to install wireless access points and scanners at Pueblo to 

increase efficiency.

Data Center Relocation – GPO supports a wide array of mission critical computing systems in its data 

centers at the following two locations, ACF (Alternate Computing Facility), Manassas, VA as the primary 

DC, and the GPO Washington, DC Headquarters as the backup DC. 

Due to recent setbacks of multiple outages at the ACF primary DC facility and aging infrastructure at 

both data centers with high estimated cost of renovation that would take great length of time, GPO

decided to reduce a single point of failure and began searching for an alternate location that will satisfy 

and meet concurrently maintainable requirements of data centers, a facility that would meet uptime 

requirements and can interface with tertiary backup facility. GPO also determined the requirements for 

a facility that would maintain against an all hazards risk evaluation, and must meet the requirements of 

technical communication capabilities to ensure all mission-critical compute resources involved in 

supporting the GPO’s mission can interoperate effectively with the Senate, House and other legislative 

and non-legislative agencies should an all hazards situation arises. 

Based on above needs, GPO developed a multi-year and multi-phase strategy to mitigate current highrisk factors and also develop a plan that is scalable for future expansions and upgrades as well as 

geographically dispersed to sustain IT operations should an all hazards situation be experienced: 

1. Build out a primary data center in Iron Mountain (Manassas, VA)

2. Plan for a staged migration of all IT compute and infrastructure resources from ACF to Iron 

Mountain (Manassas, VA)

3. Upgrade and build out a backup data center at HQ

4. Leverage existing cloud services (Microsoft Azure) as a tertiary data center to provide a high 

availability that will suffice a geographically dispersed information technology environment 

under all hazardous conditions.

At the completion of these efforts, the new computing environments will provide a much more secure, 

highly robust data center capability that will better protect the GPO data and Information Technology 

(IT) assets and will also reduce overall risk for the Agency.

Acquisition Services – GPO plans to establish a formal Contracting Officer Representative (COR) 

program to facilitate more effective contractor performance, and provide better contract value to our 

stakeholders; and establish an advance acquisition planning portfolio, to be updated quarterly, and 

maintained on the Acquisitions page of GPO.gov.

Upgrading GPO's Cost Accounting System – Modernization of GPO's cost accounting system is 

predicated on the successful transition from GPO's legacy Production, Estimating, and Planning System 

(PEPS), developed in the late 1970s, to a state-of-the-art Manufacturing Workflow System (MWS). The 

MWS will provide significantly improved job entry, inquiry, scheduling, estimating, analysis, reporting, 

and tracking functionality for GPO's Plant Operations, Official Journals of Government, and Customer 
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Services business units, and will integrate with existing systems, including Oracle Financials. A key 

outcome will be improved reports on the cost of producing work for Congress. GPO acquired EFI Pace to 

serve as its Plant Operations Manufacturing System (POMS). This project will remain a strategic priority 

into FY 2020. 

G-Invoicing Initiative – G-Invoicing is a Federal Government-wide effort to establish inter-agency 

agreements in order to simplify the buy/sell activities of the Federal parties, and recognize the 

appropriate accounts payable and receivable transactions between agencies in order to achieve a clean 

audit opinion on the U.S. Government Consolidated Financial Statements. There is a stated 

implementation date of June 30, 2021. The Treasury G-Invoicing initiative cascades to all Federal 

agencies. It is still in the design stage, so timeframes and actions by agencies are driven by Treasury’s 

lead. 

At GPO, this project is likely to be implemented in three phases, with current workflows and current 

systems being changed to handle a largely paper-based process, secondly upgrading GPO’s GBIS/Oracle 

system to align with Department of Treasury’s G-Invoicing system to pull in 7600-A and 7600-B forms, 

and a third phase with more streamlined order processing using the new Publish system, when 

operational. 

The initial paper-based process will include changes to existing systems and operating procedures to 

ensure alignment with required G-Invoicing process flows. This somewhat temporary process will be 

necessary to comply with the mandate to conduct all intergovernmental transactions in G-Invoicing no 

later than June 30, 2021. 

In FY 2019 GPO:

• Participated in numerous user conference calls to understand the U.S. Treasury’s vision of 

G-Invoicing. Topics included the four phases of G-Invoicing; establishing GT&C’s (7600-A), order 

submission and acceptance (7600-B), recognizing performance, and settling transactions.

• Submitted GPO’s G-Invoicing Implementation Plan to Treasury along with a required first 

quarter update in December. Treasury is using Federal agency submissions to identify gaps in 

planned processes. For example, GPO has made Treasury aware of GPO’s efficient Deposit 

Accounts process that customer agencies have used for years to simplify their settlement 

activities with GPO.

• Began internal planning for the impact of G-Invoicing including: potential changes to customer 

order workflows, data requirements, systems charges to the new Publish, and GPO’s 

GBIS/Oracle. 

• Requested and obtained funding for Phase I GBIS/Oracle modifications. 

In FY 2020 GPO plans to:

• Continue participation with Treasury and GPO business units to develop G-Invoicing processes.

• Develop, to the extent practical, and with assistance of GPO’s Office of General Counsel, 

standard GT&C terms, conditions, and language.

• Identify appropriate GPO personnel that will be involved in G-Invoicing GT&C’s.

• Educate identified GPO personnel on new roles and what is expected.
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• Document GBIS/Oracle requirements for modifications that will support Phase I of G-Invoicing.

• Reach out and meet with customers to discuss impacts of G-Invoicing and their expectations.

In FY 2021 GPO plans to:

• Finalize G-Invoicing processes, roles, and GBIS modifications for Phase I.

• Continue to work on Phase II. This phase will likely require an Oracle system upgrade to enable 

GPO to pull G-Invoicing transactional data from Treasury’s system (as input by customer 

agencies) into GBIS/Oracle. Some manual operations will likely continue in this phase.