Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Mr. PACKARD. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Hoyer, would you like to make any comments?

TESTIMONY OF CONGRESSMAN STENY H. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate this opportunity to join Mr. Thomas. I have a prepared statement which I would ask to be accepted as prepared. I don't know that an extensive or lengthy statement at this time is necessary. Clearly the committee has had hearings on the Government Printing Office, is going to have this hearing, and we will be hearing from Mr. DiMario and others reference to the Government Printing Office, and you are going to have a lot of discussions with respect to the Joint Committee on Printing and other joint committees.

Let me say, Mr. Chairman, that the irony of this revolution isbut not necessarily unusual, is that the revolution has looked at what is—and tried to change it—the definition of revolution.

The irony I think is that if we did not have the Joint Committee on Printing, if we did not have the Government Printing Office, and we looked at the plethora of printing processes that were ongoing in the Department of Defense and other agencies throughout the government, saw the very substantial additional expense that was the result of the noncentralization of these processes, and we had two committees considering what is in fact a joint enterprise, the informing of the American public of what its government is doing, and were faced with the opportunity to bring a greater efficiency and greater focus, a greater coordination of this effort, I would be coming before you in support of Mr. Thomas saying, This is outrageous, we cannot allow all the agencies of government to replicate very substantial expenses for the purposes of providing information to the public.

Now, of course, we have to some degree allowed that to occur. There will be a lot of debate about it, there will be a lot of further discussion about it.

What we have, Mr. Chairman, is, as the result of I think some wise decisions made in the last century, an effort to coordinate, to make more efficient, to effect cost savings. That is what the American public want. They want downsizing.

Very few agencies in government have downsized more quickly or more substantially than the Government Printing Office over the last decade. They want us to do things in a way that does more with less.

I don't know, Mr. Chairman, whether you had the opportunity of visiting the Government Printing Office. It is really a misnomer, the Government Printing Office. The Government Printing Office does much, much more than print. In fact, they are into cyberspace. Speaker Gingrich will be very happy to hear that, I know. They, in fact, are putting material on the Worldnet and on Internet as they print it. It is a contemporaneous process, as efficient as you can get.

In fact, I had, Mr. Chairman, the opportunity just the other evening to see how the American citizen that is on the Internet can now pull out of, immediately, a document that replicates that which is immediately available to the Congress, a Congressional Record page off Internet as we see it.

So that it is in fact the government's information agency at this point in time. It is saving money. The General Accounting Office has affirmed that fact. With respect to the congressional oversight of the critical function of providing the American public with information about what its government is doing, and with the information that its government is creating and organizing, if we did not have a joint committee we would say, it is silly to have the House oversight have hearings, the House Rules Committee to have hearings, when in fact this is a joint enterprise. We would say, let's create a joint committee.

In fact, you had a joint hearing on this issue. Why did you have a joint hearing? Because it made sense to bring everybody together-Mr. Mack, yourself and others-in a joint way, for a joint enterprise. And I suggest to you that you adopted the premise at the very beginning of the deliberations and your chairmanship, and that was, it made sense to bring together both the Senate and the House to oversee and to consider in a joint way these processes.

I would suggest to you that is what the Joint Committee on Printing does. I believe that the joint-you are going to hear from Senator Stevens and Senator Ford their strong feelings. I understand what Mr. Thomas has said. We are going to have to debate this.

I would urge this committee to fund the Joint Committee on Printing. We will then have an argument in the authorizing committees and in the House and in the Senate as to whether or not we ought to proceed as we have been, effect even greater savings, even greater coordination, even greater access to information in a coordinated fashion by the citizens of this country of their government, or whether or not we are going to in effect retreat, we are going to retreat into a discrete treatment by every government agency of the production, replication, and dissemination of information.

I suggest, Mr. Chairman, that is not the way the American public want us to go. They want us to coordinate. They want us to downsize. They want to us simplify. They want to us save money.

I believe this effort does that and I think we will be able to make that case, and I hope your committee will conclude that that is in fact the case, and will therefore fund the Joint Committee on Printing and continue to fund the Government Printing Office in a new, perhaps reconfigured and re-energized organization, but nevertheless continue its record of saving money and providing information to the American public.

[The information follows:]

STATEMENT

HONORABLE STENY H. HOYER

SUBCOMMITTEE ON LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS

FEBRUARY 22, 1995

MR. CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THIS DISTINGUISHED SUBCOMMITTEE: THANK YOU FOR PERMITTING ME TO PRESENT MY VIEWS ON THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING AND TO STRESS THE NEED OF THE CONGRESS TO CARRY OUT RESPONSIBILITIES ASSIGNED TO IT.

UNDERSTANDABLY, NEITHER THE HOUSE NOR SENATE CONSIDERS THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING TO BE A MAJOR COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENT. PRINTING AND INFORMATION DISSEMINATION IS DWARFED BY OTHER SEGMENTS OF OUR FEDERAL BUDGET. HOWEVER, OUR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT HAS A LARGE BUDGET FOR ALL THE PROCESSES, PERSONNEL, MATERIALS, AND DISTRIBUTION OF ITS PUBLISHED PRODUCTS - ABOUT ONE QUARTER OF THAT IS PROCURED COMPETITIVELY THROUGH THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, AND THE REST IS DONE IN EXECUTIVE AGENCY FACILITIES.

IF CONGRESS LOSES INTEREST AND STEPS AWAY FROM ITS AGGRESSIVE OVERSIGHT OF THIS FUNCTION AS IS DONE BY THE JCP, I BELIEVE THESE COSTS WOULD QUICKLY DOUBLE AND CONTINUE TO RISE.

DURING THE 103RD CONGRESS, THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING SAVED OVER $50 MILLION IN PRINTING COSTS. THAT IS 25 DOLLARS ANNUALLY FOR EVERY DOLLAR APPROPRIATED TO THE JOINT COMMITTEE. THIS FIGURE WAS REACHED BY DENYING REQUESTS OF HEADS OF AGENCIES FOR NEW PRINTING EQUIPMENT AND VARIANCES FROM GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING STANDARDS THAT WOULD HAVE UNNECESSARILY ADDED TO THE COSTS OF PRINTING. THE SAVINGS COULD HAVE BEEN SUBSTANTIALLY HIGHER BUT FOR THE AGGRESSIVE EXPANSION OF EXECUTIVE PRINTING CAPABILITIES, PARTICULARLY WITHIN THE DEFENSE PRINTING SERVICE.

IN ADDITION TO THESE SAVINGS, THE COMMITTEE HAS DRIVEN THE COST-EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RECYCLED PAPER PROGRAM. CONGRESS IS NOW ONE OF THE WORLD'S HIGHEST USERS OF POST CONSUMER RECYCLED PUBLISHING PAPERS, AND WE'RE STILL PAYING LESS FOR IT THAN THE PAPER WE WERE BUYING SIX YEARS AGO WHEN THE JOINT COMMITTEE FIRST INSTITUTED THE RECYCLED PAPER STANDARDS.

IN FACT, THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING SETS ALL GOVERNMENT PAPER SPECIFICATIONS AND PROVIDES GUIDANCE FOR LEAST COST FORMATS FOR GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS. IT SEEMS THE INTEGRITY OF THE APPEARANCE OF GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS ALSO HAPPENS TO SAVE MONEY.

PERHAPS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THAN SAVINGS IS THE NEED TO MAINTAIN STRUCTURED AND INTENSIVE CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT OF THE FREE FLOW OF FEDERAL INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC -- WHETHER IN PRINTED OR ELECTRONIC FORM. UNDER SENATOR'S FORD CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING, THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTED THE GPO ACCESS PROGRAM, WHICH NOW PROVIDES THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, THE FEDERAL REGISTER AND ADDITIONAL CONGRESSIONAL PRODUCTS TO MEMBERS AND THE PUBLIC THROUGH THE FEDERAL DEPOSITORY PROGRAM, AT LITTLE OR NO

ADDITIONAL COST TO CONGRESS OR THE END USER.

NON-DEPOSITORY USERS MAY SUBSCRIBE TO THE ELECTRONIC CONGRESSIONAL RECORD OR THE FEDERAL REGISTER FOR AS LITTLE AS $350 ANNUALLY. THE JOINT COMMITTEE ALSO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR PUBLISHING THE CONGRESSIONAL DIRECTORY, THE CONGRESSIONAL PICTORIAL DIRECTORY, AND A NUMBER OF PRIZE-WINNING PUBLICATIONS AND MEMORIAL TRIBUTES EACH CONGRESS AND ASSURES THAT THESE IMPORTANT PUBLICATIONS ARE MADE AVAILABLE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

MR. CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THIS SUBCOMMITTEE, WITHOUT STRONG CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT THE ECONOMICAL PRODUCTION AND PROCUREMENT, THE SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUING AND THE PUBLIC ACCESS TO FEDERAL INFORMATION WE KNOW TODAY IS LIKELY TO DETERIORATE OR EVEN EVAPORATE WHETHER BY DESIGN OR SIMPLE CHAOS AND THE ULTIMATE LOSER WILL BE THE AVERAGE TAXPAYER WHO EITHER WON'T BE ABLE TO FIND THE INFORMATION NEEDED OR MAY HAVE TO PAY A PRIVATE PUBLISHER DEARLY FOR THE PRODUCT IF IT IS FOUND.

-

WITHOUT SOME TYPE OF COORDINATION AND OVERSIGHT, AS CURRENTLY ESTABLISHED BY THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING, DOCUMENTS GENERATED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WILL NOT BE SYSTEMATICALLY AVAILABLE TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC AND MORE IMPORTANTLY MAY NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY.

THE

BY STATUTE, THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING HAS CARRIED OUT THE OVERSIGHT RESPONSIBILITIES FOR SOME 149 YEARS. UNLESS CONGRESS SETS ASIDE FUNDS FOR THIS FUNCTION, THIS IMPORTANT OVERSIGHT ACTIVITY AND THE RESULTANT SAVINGS WILL BE LOST.

I RESPECTFULLY ASK THIS COMMITTEE TO CONTINUE TO FUND THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING. WHILE I AM OPEN TO EXAMINATION OF THESE CRITICAL FUNCTIONS, THIS SHOULD OCCUR ONLY AFTER FULL AND CAREFUL LEGISLATIVE CONSIDERATION. ANY SUBSTANTIAL STREAMLINING OF THESE FUNCTIONS SHOULD BE CLOSELY CONSIDERED BY THE LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEES HAVING JURISDICTION OVER CONGRESSIONAL PRINTING AND INFORMATION DISSEMINATION, ie: THE SENATE RULES COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE ON HOUSE OVERSIGHT.

AND UNTIL SUCH REVIEW HAS TAKEN PLACE, THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING PLAYS A VITAL ROLE AND SHOULD BE PROVIDED FUNDING TO CARRY OUT ITS MISSION.

THANK YOU, MR. CHAIRMAN.

89-935 95-15

Mr. PACKARD. Thank you very much, Congressman.

Well, let's open it up a little bit, and you can feel free to ask questions. We may ask you some questions also, as a Member of the joint committee.

Mr. HOYER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have been a Member of the joint committee for all of about 30 days, Mr. Chairman,

ᏚᏅ

Mr. THOMAS. I have been a Member for 32, so-
Mr. HOYER. I will defer to your seniority, then.

GPO RESTRUCTURING

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Chairman, may I make just a couple of comments to bring that back into perspective?

As we have begun this process, clearly relatively new commerce to this specific area, and one of the things I always do when I go in is read as much material as I can on the area, I was struck, as we were doing some research on congressional hearings, which was investigating the report of Congressional Printing investigation commission, and during the testimony, Mr. Ricketts, who was the government printer, acting public printer, when asked by Representative Landis, Do you think there is too much public printing done, said, "There is undoubtedly too much printing turned out by the government. The abuse has been growing for some time. In my opinion the remedy is largely with Congress, aided by the executive departments. But primarily the laws governing the public printing are at fault. I think the whole public printing law should be revised and remodeled to meet changed conditions based on common-sense ideas."

This was from a hearing in 1906. I think what we need to do is respond to that, realizing that the superintendent of public documents started in the Interior Department, gravitated over.

Clearly, the creation of the Government Printing Office in response to the needs in the 1860s made sense. But to try to hang on to that structure today I think indicates vested interests are primarily motivating the decision not to change, rather than, as was suggested in 1906, some common-sense ideas in reexamining what we are doing and why.

I thank the Chairman.

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Chairman, if I might join this discussion, as I am sure Mr. Thomas and I are going to have a lot of, I would agree with you. We just may not agree with which vested interest is at play here, as to who wants to make more money and who wants to create efficiencies and savings.

I think Mr. Thomas is correct. Clearly there are vested interests here. We are talking about a lot of money. We are talking about a way of doing things. We are talking about agencies who want carte blanche to do whatever they want to do.

We have a tremendous replication of ability to produce documents in the Federal executive department. Every agency wants to have its own 110 percent capability to produce whatever it wants, whenever it wants. That is not surprising.

The irony is, it seems to me, that in 1906, somebody had the sagacity that early on-indeed, in 1856-to say we need to do things

« ZurückWeiter »