ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 11, Number 81
October 3, 2002

In This Issue: Public Printer Confirmation Hearing Held

A hearing was held today before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration on the confirmation of Bruce R. James as the Public Printer.  Senator Mark Dayton (D-MN) chaired the hearing.  Also in attendance were Senators Cochran (R-MS) and Warner (R-VA).  Senator Ensign (R-NV) introduced Mr. James to the Committee members.

In his testimony, Mr. James stated that he would be honored to lead the GPO into the future and that he intends "to do [his] best to uphold the tradition of the office while providing the leadership required to guide the agency into a new era to ensure that it remains relevant for years to come."

In response to a question from Senator Dayton regarding the May 3, 2002 OMB memoranda directing agencies to contract out printing, away from GPO, Mr. James stated that he would act according to current law (Title 44 U.S.C.) that requires the government and federal agencies to contract printing services through GPO.  He also stated that he sees the problem as "an issue between Congress and the Executive," but said that he would explore the reasoning behind OMB Director Mitch Daniel's decision to issue the memo.

Testifying on behalf of the American Library Association and the Special Libraries Association was Ms. Joan Cheverie, Head of Government Documents/Microforms at the Joseph Mark Lauinger Library, Georgetown University.  Ms. Cheverie accurately and effectively represented ALA policy on the role GPO plays in the dissemination of and permanent public access to federal government information.  Senator Dayton questioned Ms. Cheverie, asking how requests for government information have changed now that information is presented electronically and largely available via the Web as well as in print.  She responded that although she receives fewer requests for information, the "finding tools" for electronic government information are still inadequate and improvements should be explored.

Other witnesses included Benjamin Y. Cooper, Executive Vice President, Printing Industries of America, Inc. and Bob Willard for Martha B. Gould, Chairperson, U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, both of whom endorsed Mr. James as Public Printer.



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ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff.  Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Camille Bowman, Mary Costabile, Don Essex, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell, Claudette Tennant. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.