I
103D CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1595
To require that all Federal lithographic printing be performed using ink
made from vegetable oil, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 1, 1993
Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Mr. LEACH, Mr. PENNY, and Mr. BEREUTER) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred jointly to the Committees on
House Administration and Government Operations
A BILL
To require that all Federal lithographic printing be per-
formed using ink made from vegetable oil, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Vegetable Ink Printing
Act of 1993’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that—
(1) more than 95 percent of Federal printing
involving documents or publications is performed
using lithographic inks;
(2) various types of oil, including petroleum and
vegetable oil, are used in lithographic ink;
(3) increasing the amount of vegetable oil used
in a lithographic ink would—
(A) help reduce the Nation’s use of
nonrenewable energy resources;
(B) result in the use of products that are
less damaging to the environment;
(C) result in a reduction of volatile organic
compound emissions; and
(D) increase the use of renewable agricul-
tural products.
(4) the technology exists to use vegetable oil in
lithographic ink and, in some applications, to use
lithographic ink that uses no petroleum distillates in
the liquid portion of the ink;
(5) some lithographic inks have contained vege-
table oils for many years; other lithographic inks
have more recently begun to use vegetable oil;
(6) according to the Government Printing
Office, using vegetable-based ink appears to add lit-
tle if any additional cost to Government printing;
(7) use of vegetable-based ink in Federal Gov-
ernment printing should further develop—
(A) the commercial viability of vegetable-
based ink, which could result in demand, for
domestic use alone, for 2,500,000,000 pounds
of vegetable crops or 500,000,000 pounds of
vegetable oil; and
(B) a product that could help the United
States retain or enlarge its share of the world
market for vegetable ink.
SEC. 3. FEDERAL PRINTING REQUIREMENTS.
(a) DEFINITION.—In this section, ‘‘Federal agency’’
means—
(1) an executive department, military depart-
ment, Government corporation, Government-con-
trolled corporation, or other establishment in the ex-
ecutive branch of the Government (including the Ex-
ecutive Office of the President), or any independent
regulatory agency; and
(2) an establishment or component of the legis-
lative or judicial branch of the Government.
(b) VEGETABLE-BASED INKS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other
law, beginning on the date that is 180 days after the
date of enactment of this Act, all lithographic print-
ing performed or procured by a Federal agency that
uses oil in its ink shall use the maximum amount of
vegetable oil that is technologically feasible and re-
sults in printing costs that are cost-competitive with
printing using petroleum-based inks.
(2) MINIMUM PERCENTAGES.—Except as pro-
vided in paragraph (3), in no event shall a Federal
agency use any ink that contains less than the fol-
lowing percentages of vegetable oil in its ink used for
lithographic printing:
(A) In the case of news inks, 40 percent.
(B) In the case of sheet-fed inks, 20 per-
cent.
(C) In the case of forms inks, 20 percent.
(D) In the case of heat-set inks, 10 per-
cent.
(3) SUSPENSION OF EFFECTIVENESS OF PARA-
GRAPH (2).—(A) At any time at which a Federal
agency determines that the cost of printing with veg-
etable-based ink is significantly greater than the cost
of printing with petroleum-based ink, the Federal
agency may perform or procure lithographic printing
using ink that contains less than the percentages of
vegetable oil in its ink than those specified in para-
graph (2) until such time as the cost of printing
with vegetable-based ink is not significantly greater
than the cost of printing with petroleum-based ink.
(B) A determination made under subparagraph
(A) shall be reviewed—
(i) at least once every quarter, for the per-
formance or procurement of printing of mate-
rials that are printed on a regular basis; and
(ii) prior to performing or procuring the
printing of particular material of significant
size that is printed once or is printed at inter-
vals of 6 months or more.
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