ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 11, Number 90 November 14, 2002 In This Issue: Access to Government Information: GPO and Printing Three federal agencies seek to be exempted from rules requiring them to use GPO for printing jobs; Bush Administration seeking to print FY2004 budget via outside contract rather than by GPO. Two significant developments have escalated the already serious debate on the impact of threatened changes to Federal government printing policies and practices on public access to government information. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the General Services Administration (GSA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are asking for the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to be amended to relieve their agencies from being required to use the Government Printing Office (GPO) for its printing functions. This follows the Bush Administration's decision to continue the tug-of-war with Congress over whether the Executive Branch can have its proposed FY2004 budget printed under an outside contract rather than through GPO. This is part of ongoing efforts within the Bush Administration to privatize and contract out many government services such as printing. First, the FAR Council is proposing to amend the FAR regulations to comply with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum # M-02-07 which addressed GPO printing and duplicating services. In the proposed rule, the FAR Council, on behalf of the three agencies, is requesting that they be able to contract out the printing functions. GPO would also be able to compete for such contracts. ACTION NEEDED: Library supporters and others concerned about public access to government information are encouraged to comment on this proposed rule. The ALA Committee on Legislation working with the Office of Government Relations, GODORT, and others in the library community, will be submitting comments on the proposal. Notice was published in the Federal Register on November 13, with a thirty day period allowed for comments. The proposed rule is available at the following URL: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/gpo_proposed_rule_revised.pdf In part, the notice reads that "In order to induce competition, save taxpayer money and promote small business opportunities, the memorandum eliminates restrictions that mandated use of GPO as the single source and frees agencies to select printing from a wide array of sources that can demonstrate their ability to meet the Government's needs most effectively. Moreover, specific new actions are proposed ensuring that all Government publications are in fact made available to the nation's depository libraries." The FAR notice continues under "Information Distribution": Effective dissemination of Government information is a cornerstone of citizen-centric Government. For this reason, OMB's memorandum recognizes the need to improve distribution to the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). The 1,300 depository libraries operating throughout the country that make up the FDLP help to ensure that the public has equal, efficient, permanent, and ready access to government publications. Unfortunately, many Government publications (as many as 50 percent by some estimates) become so-called 'fugitives,' never making their way to the Superintendent of Documents, who is responsible for indexing, cataloging and distributing documents to the public through the FDLP. Searching for a publication that cannot be easily located (e.g., because it has not been indexed and catalogued) is a time-consuming, if not fruitless, exercise. Until sufficient attention is given to this issue, the public's access to government publications will be unnecessarily impaired. The proposed rule is designed to improve this unacceptable record. The proposed rule addresses the 'fugitive documents' problem by proposing mandatory steps for meeting the requirement that Executive Branch agencies provide publications to the Superintendent of Documents for distribution to the depository libraries. Each publication would be transmitted using electronic means unless such means are unavailable. Agencies' obligation to provide Government publications to the Superintendent applies regardless of the source that prints the publications. The FAR Council asks for public comment on requiring the following clause: INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION [ ] To assist the Government in ensuring effective distribution of Government publications printed under this contract, the contractor shall submit one copy of each Government publication, as identified by the Government in the contract, to the Superintendent of Documents from the Government Printing Office. Transmission shall be made using electronic means unless such means are unavailable. Second, ALA sent a letter to the Office of Procurement in the Executive Office of the President on October 31, 2002, protesting the Bush Administration's initiatives to have its proposed FY2004 budget printed by outside contract, rather than through GPO. The letter was in response to a presolicitation notice published on October 28, 2002, by OMB asking for contractors and others to comment on the feasibility and interest in proceeding with a more formal solicitation for printing contract proposals. The ALA letter read, in part: Our concern is not only that OMB proposes to violate the law and congressional budget directives, but also that implementing that proposal will deny ready access to these most important government documents to the channels of distribution that make them most freely and conveniently available to the American public through libraries and public sales. BACKGROUND: In May 2002, the Bush Administration took the position that the Executive Branch is not constitutionally bound to have a legislative branch agency, namely GPO, print its budget documents. The Continuing Resolution H.J.Res. 120, that extended funding until Nov 22, 2002, contained language regarding GPO and the OMB printing proposal specifically prohibiting OMB from producing the budget documents anywhere other than GPO. OMB has the Solicitation and related documents on their web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/print_soliciting_bids.html. The ALA letter is on the web site at www.ala.org/washoff/governmentinfo.html Additional updates will be reported in ALAWON and on the Office of Government Relations web site. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. 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.