GPO, OMB Agree on Agency Printing

Public Printer of the United States Bruce R. James and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. announced a compromise June 6 that will allow executive branch agencies to choose their own printers but also help with "fugitive documents."

By October 1, GPO will develop a demonstration print procurement contract that will allow federal customers a one-stop print ordering and invoicing system for jobs. Any registered printer in the country may bid. GPO will register and qualify printers for participation in the contract and offer 24/7 customer and printer support. Also, GPO will offer, on a cost recovery basis, additional printing procurement services.

Payments will be routed through GPO, which is statutorily in charge of most agency printing; OMB says private printers could save millions of dollars (see News, LJ 6/1/02 , p. 26). As a condition of payment, vendors would be required to provide GPO with one electronic version of every document ordered under the contract in a format acceptable to GPO and two paper copies. Currently, about half of all government documents do not enter the federal depository library program. A demonstration project will begin in FY04, with full deployment in FY05.

"We believe this agreement will lead to more and better access to the important information published by the federal government," said Carla Hayden, the incoming president of the American Library Association and director of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.