ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES
Newsletter of the Federal Depository Library Program
 
 
 
Vol. 18, no. 04 GP 3.16/3-2:18/04       February 28, 1997
 
 
 
 
MICHAEL F. DIMARIO
PUBLIC PRINTER
 
PREPARED STATEMENT BEFORE THE 
SUBCOMMITTEE ON LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATIONS
COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ON
APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATES FOR FISCAL YEAR 1998
 
February 11, 1997
 
        Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, I am pleased to be
here today to present the funding requirements of the Government Printing
Office (GPO) for FY 1998, which are $84 million for Congressional Printing
and Binding and $30.5 million for the Salaries and Expenses of the
Superintendent of Documents.  To assist you in your review of our
appropriations request, I have provided introductory information relative
to GPO's mission and programs.
 
        OVERVIEW OF GPO
 
GPO Mission and Purpose
 
        GPO's mission, as required by the public printing and documents
chapters of Title 44 of the U.S. Code, is to fulfill the printing needs of
the Federal Government and distribute Government publications to the
public.  In 1993, an amendment to Title 44, the GPO Electronic Information
Access Enhancement Act (P.L. 103-40), expanded our statutory mandate to
include the dissemination of Government information products online.
 
        GPO is essentially a service organization.  We provide printing
and information replication services to Congress and Federal agencies
through in-plant production and the purchase of information products from
the private sector.  We procure approximately 75 percent of all printing
requisitioned from us, and produce the remainder in-house, of which about
half is for Congress.  We disseminate Government information directly to
the public through a sales program and to Federal depository libraries
nationwide where the information may be used by the public free of charge.
We disseminate a growing volume of information via the Internet free of
charge.  We catalog and index Government information products, and we
distribute them on behalf of other Federal agencies.
 
        We conduct all of our services in a non-partisan, service-oriented
environment that emphasizes the primacy of the customer's requirements for
timeliness, quality, security, and economy in printing and related
information services, and are committed to achieving the greatest access
and equity in information dissemination whether through printed
publications, CD-ROM, or online.
 
        There are significant information policy implications resulting
from the mission and operations of GPO.  Our programs reduce the need for
duplicative and wasteful printing operations throughout the Government,
achieve significant savings through a centralized production and
procurement system, and enhance public access to critical Government
information.
 
        More broadly, GPO is a key component of the Government's informing
function, a role traceable to Article I of the Constitution.  A century
ago, publications distribution activities under the Superintendent of
Documents were placed by Congress in GPO to create an economical link
between those operations and our production activities.  The link between
production and distribution in GPO ensures that the most comprehensive
range of publications possible is made available for dissemination to the
public.  The establishment of a single dissemination entity in the
Superintendent of Documents provides the public with a central, visible,
and convenient point of access to the myriad Government publications
produced each year.  We are located in the legislative branch not only to
provide for direct oversight by Congress of its own printing, but to
facilitate direct oversight of the Government's primary information
dissemination programs by the elected representatives of the people.
Electronic information technologies have not altered our mission to
perform an informing function, although these technologies are changing
the way that mission is performed, making the information products
produced by GPO far more cost-effective and universally accessible than
ever before.