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LEGISLATIVE APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1980

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1979.

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WITNESSES

JOHN J. BOYLE, PUBLIC PRINTER

SAMUEL L. SAYLOR, DEPUTY PUBLIC PRINTER

WALTER C. DeVAUGHN, ASSISTANT PUBLIC PRINTER FOR MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

CARL A. LABARRE, ASSISTANT PUBLIC PRINTER, SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS

BRYAN W. MERCER, COMPTROLLER

W. SCOTT SONNTAG III, CHIEF, CONGRESSIONAL INFORMATION SECTION

Mr. BENJAMIN. We will consider the budget for the Government Printing Office.

The Public Printer, John Boyle, and members of his staff are with us. Welcome, Mr. Boyle. Please introduce the people that are accompanying you.

Mr. BOYLE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

On my right I have with me Mr. Carl LaBarre, who is the Assistant Public Printer, Superintendent of Documents. To his right is Mr. Samuel Saylor, the Deputy Public Printer. On my left is Mr. Walter DeVaughn, Assistant Public Printer for Management and Administration. To my rear is Mr. Bryan Mercer, who is our Comptroller. And seated to his right is Mr. Scott Sonntag, who is our Congressional Information Officer.

Mr. BENJAMIN. The 1980 budget as submitted totals $138,186,000, which is an increase of $29,549,000 over 1979 appropriations, including pending supplementals. The request includes an additional $19,396,000 for site acquisition and building design that was not considered last year.

At this point, we will insert the summary of your request in the record, page I-1.

[The information follows:]

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE-SUMMARY OF APPROPRIATIONS REQUESTED

Congressional printing and binding.
Printing and binding.

Superintendent of Documents, S & E.
Site acquisition and building design.
Deficiency-Printing and binding_.

Total..

Fiscal year 1979
Requested

$73,961,000

11, 476, 000 I 24, 465, 000 18, 000, 000

Please proceed.

[The information follows:]

Approved

$73,961,000
11, 476, 000
23, 200, 000

(?)

$127, 902, 000 $108,637,000

Fiscal year 1980 requested

$76, 212, 000 15,722,000 23,037,000 19, 396, 000 33,819,000

$138, 186, 000

1 Fiscal year 1979 request includes the proposed supplementals for civilian pay increases ($285,000) and law libraries ($980,000.).

2 This request was not approved because authorizing legislation was not available.

3 Deficiency for fiscal year 1978 is $1,145,000 and for fiscal year 1979 is 2,673 000.

Five percent shall be withheld from obligation and expenditure in accordance with P.L. 95-391.

Mr. BENJAMIN. Mr. Boyle, I believe you have a general statement. Would you like to insert it in the record and summarize it for us?

Mr. BOYLE. Yes, sir, I would like to insert my general statement in the record, and I have a brief summary of the highlights of it. Mr. BENJAMIN. It is submitted for the record.

GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE PUBLIC PRINTER

The funds requested for Fiscal Year 1980 for the Government Printing Office aggregate $138,186,000. This amount consists of $76,212,000 for Congressional Printing and Binding; $19,541,000 for Printing and Binding authorized by law to be distributed without charge to the recipient; $23,037,000 for the various programs of the Office of the Superintendent of Documents; and $19,396,000 for Acquisition of Site, General Plans, and Design associated with the proposed construction of a new Government Printing Office building.

The amount requested for Congressional Printing and Binding for Fiscal Year 1980 is $2,251,000 more than the Fiscal Year 1979 appropriations, an increase of 3 percent. The increase is due mainly to increases in the costs of labor and materials. However, the increase has been materially offset by cost reductions resulting primarily from improvements in productivity, use of increased automation, and improved methods which have been factored into the appropriation request.

The amount requested for Printing and Binding which is not directly related to the Congress is $8,065,000 more in Fiscal Year 1980 than appropriated for Fiscal Year 1979. The increase is due mainly to an increase in labor and material costs both for Fiscal Years 1978 and 1979 resulting in a deficiency of $3.8 million for those fiscal years which is included in our Fiscal Year 1980 request. The remaining $4.2 million is applicable to Fiscal Year 1980 and is 11 percent above the Fiscal Year 1979 revised estimate, even with a 35 percent increase in the price of paper, as a result of cost increases for labor and material in all categories

GPO COST REDUCTION EFFORTS

As I indicated above, our appropriation request had been moderated by our efforts at cost reductions. In this connection, last year I promised this Committee that I would establish a study group to look into ways to cut back on Government-wide printing and binding costs. Many worthwhile suggestions were developed by my staff. Those suggestions pertaining to cost savings in areas under my control have been implemented and are helping to avoid rate increases in many areas of production and distribution. Suggestions pertaining to areas not under my direct control have been submitted to the Joint Committee on Printing for consideration and we are working with staff in the implementation of those suggestions.

One example of a suggestion by a member of my staff which was adopted and implemented just prior to the beginning of this session of Congress was to eliminate the printing of the tailpiece on certain classes of Senate bills and resolutions and all House bills and resolutions. The appropriate officials in both houses agreed to the

change and the discontinued requirement will save an estimated $250,000 annually in the printing of bills and resolutions.

The latest edition of the United States Code, which had formerly been produced from standing hot metal type, was converted to a computer data file, photocomposed electronically, and reprinted in its entirety during Fiscal Year 1978 and the first quarter of Fiscal Year 1979 at a reduced cost as anticipated in our prior years appropriation requests. These savings will again surface when the complete U.S. Code is revised in its entirety in 1982.

The photocomposition of congressional bills originating in both the House and Senate was initiated, experimentally, in August 1978. The success of this project has made it possible to convert production of bills from hot metal to photocomposition. The savings from this conversion have been built into the Fiscal Year 1980 request for Congressional Printing and Binding.

MODERNIZATION OF EQUIPMENT

GPO is continuing to modernize its press and bindery operations. Three new web presses were installed in the Offset Division in Fiscal Year 1978 and the photopolymer plate room has been completed in the Letterpress Division. Photopolymer plate production has been increased to enable us to accept photocomposition or repro copy on the Congressional Record which provides increased flexibility and will permit conversion from hot metal to photocomposition. The development and use of photopolymer plates will extend the useful life of several expensive web presses thus precluding the necessity of purchasing replacement equipment costing approximately $10 million.

The Binding Division in fiscal 1979 will continue its efforts to modernize the equipment in the Congressional Record room which will increase productivity and reduce costs for the Congressional Record and Federal Register. The benefits for these improvements will not be realized for approximately three years.

On August 18, 1978, GPO graduated its last class of graphic arts apprentices. The graduation of that class brought to an end an era of formal apprentice training which began in 1922. Over a span of 56 years, GPO's apprentice training system turned out several thousand skilled craftsmen and we are sorry to have to discontinue this program but we have a reduced requirement for additional workers in the crafts. GPO is making every effort to deal with the human problems stemming from the impact of new technology. To insure that positions created by new technology are made available to the current workforce, we instituted a cross training program and stopped hiring journeymen from the outside more than two years ago. We are committed to retraining the maximum number of employees affected by technology and we believe that we can reduce the workforce and make the transition to the new processes through the use of attrition.

QUALITY ASSURANCE THROUGH ATTRIBUTES PROGRAM

We have begun implementating the Quality Assurances through Attributes Program by including measurable quality provision in all of our printing and binding specifications. This program, when fully implemented, is expected to improve quality and reduce the overall cost of Government printing. The program is proving to be successful and will be expanded to the Regional Procurement Offices and Field Printing Offices during Fiscal Year 1979.

Improvements have been made in many of our administrative areas. GPO is now participating in the Treasury Department's Simplified Intergovernmental Billing and Collecting (SIBAC) which provides for rapid collection of payments from customer agencies. We have expanded the Production Reporting for Operations, Budgeting, and Expenditures (PROBE) system so that more than 80 percent of the Cental Office labor and production statistics are collected on terminals which transmit the data automatically to computers. This technique has eliminated the need for timekeepers and has reduced costs. Managers are receiving assistance through formal presentations which analyze and tie together financial, budgetary, productivity and management by objectives data. Additional emphasis has been placed on automation of reporting systems to provide needed data while simultaneously reducing administrative personnel.

In fact, throughout the entire Government Printing Office we are handling more work with fewer people. As of September 30, 1978 there were 7,574 employees on the rolls which is a decrease of 340 people from a year earlier and a decrease of nearly 1,000 employees within the past three years. We have the fewest number of employees at GPO since January 1967. The decreases are occurring across the board in all areas of production, administration, and documents.

AUTOMATION OF CONGRESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS

GPO is also participating on the Congressional Record Task Force of the Joint Committee on Printing which prepared a comprehensive report during the past fiscal year on automation alternatives for the Advisory Committee on Automation and Standardization of Congressional Publications. This committee was established in April 1977 by the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing, and membership from GPO includes the Public Printer, and the Deputy Public Printer, the Production Manager, and the Deputy Production Manager (Electronics). The committee's goals include the acceleration of automation in the production of congressional publications, the development of flexible software and standardized formats, and the promotion of technology-sharing within the Legislative Branch. We anticipate that the efforts of this task force will reduce costs in the future.

On January 9, 1978, the daily Federal Register was completely converted from traditional hot metal production to photocomposition. The conversion of this publication to photocomposition has led to a study by the Office of the Federal Register and the GPO of ways to improve the appearance and readability and reduce the cost of the daily Federal Register by possibly changing the type face and/or page format.

An interactive system was developed by the GPO and installed at the Office of the Federal Register to facilitate updating the text data base of the Code of Federal Regulations from the daily Federal Register text files. Electronic text processing techniques allow repetitive segments to be stored for reproduction in the daily Federal Register issues, thereby savings thousands of keystrokes and many hours of labor each day thus reducing cost. In addition, the Rules portion of the daily Federal Register issues is stored for retrieval and incorporation in the Code of Federal Regulations, for further savings.

The conversion of the entire text of Code of Federal Regulations, consisting of approximately 70,500 pages in 141 volumes, to an electronic text data base was completed this past year. Approximately 100 CFR volumes, totaling 56,148 pages, were updated during the past fiscal year for reprinting. About a fourth of the total volumes are reprinted and reissued every three months, so the complete text is updated annually. As you are aware, the Federal Agencies are now required to pay for printing, binding and distribution costs of the daily Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations in accordance with Public Law 95-94.

SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS PROGRAMS

I would like to address the programs of the Superintendent of Documents, for which we are requesting $23,037,000 for Fiscal Year 1980. This is a decrease of $1,428,000 from the original and supplemental 1979 requests.

These programs are:

1. The sale of Government publications produced by or through the Government Printing Office.

2. The distribution of Government publications to designated depository libraries.

3. The compilation of catalogs and indexes of Government Publications, and 4. The mailing of certain Government publications for Members of Congress and other Government agencies, either in accordance with specific provisions of law or on a reimbursable basis.

I am going to briefly cover the highlights of the Documents operation as I will ask the Superintendent of Documents to provide a more detailed statement.

The sale of Government publications is the largest activity within Documents. The program operates_through_the_mail order processing in Washington, D.C.; Laurel, Maryland; the Distribution Center in Pueblo, Colorado; 26 bookstores; and 118 consigned agents in other Government agencies.

Public Law 95-94 required the payment of most expenses associated with the sale of publications directly from the revenue generated by the sales. The only funds included in the Documents Appropriation request pertaining to the sales of publications are those required to make up the deficit from the sale of the few publications which the Public Printer does not have control over the price. These are the "Special Sales" items. Sales of the remaining 25,000 titles which Documents inIcludes in the General Sales program were self sustaining in Fiscal Year 1978 and will continue to be financed by the revenue received.

In January 1979, we began accepting credit cards as a method of payment for sales. The use of credit cards may minimize problems with foreign customers thus reducing administrative expenses, and is expected to increase sales. Many of the automation projects initiated in prior years were completed providing better control over order processing and overall visibility of the sales operation. Automation has

brought about increased efficiency and productivity as evidenced by a reduction of employees in the Sales program.

As inflation continues, we are constantly looking for ways to minimize the effects of higher costs on our sales prices. Documents will soon be using the cheaper third class bulk rates for some mail, as a way to partially offset the latest postal rate increase.

DEPOSITORY LIBRARY PROGRAM

The Depository Library Program is the largest program funded by the Salaries and Expenses appropriation. This program was expanded on October 1, 1978, by Public Law 95-261 which provided for the designation of accredited law school libraries as depositories of government publications. We are requesting supplemental funds amounting to $980,000 for Fiscal Year 1979 to cover the increased costs for the additional libraries. Our 1980 request provides for this anticipated increased volume.

The continuing growth of the Depository program cannot be efficiently accommodated with the current labor intensive operation, which is rapidly growing more expensive as all costs increase. This situation has led us to explore several possibilities for applying the computerized data processing techniques and more merchanized material handling facilities for the Depository Distribution program. The FY 1979 budget included funds for the one-time expenses of this effort.

Our request for 1980 also reflects the impact of our efforts in the field of micropublishing. In the past year, 4,800 Government documents were converted to a microfiche format and more than 2.8 million microfiche were forwarded to depository libraries. Action has also been initiated to convert 45 additional categories of documentation to a microfiche format for offering to depository libraries in lieu of more expensive traditional paper copies.

The second largest program funded by the Salaries and Expenses appropriation is By-Law Distribution. Workload in this program, combined with the mailing we do for other agencies on a reimbursable basis, is expected to increase by 12 percent in FY 1980, over planned FY 1979 levels. The increase in workload for these activities can be attributed to the elections that year, and to the increased effort by GSA to promote their Consumer Information publications.

During Fiscal Year 1978, the International Exchange Service distribution was transferred from the Smithsonian Institution to the Superintendent of Documents. GPO is reimbursed for this service. Responsibility for distributing file-copies of Government Documents to the Congress, Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Service and other official depositories was also transferred to the Superintendent of Documents, from other points in the GPO. These additional responsibilities have increased Documents workload by about 15,000 titles and 1 million publications or 5 percent.

PROGRESS ON THE NEW BUILDING

Last year this committee offered its support with regard to a new GPO plant. I am pleased to report that the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation has given approval to this project. The matter is now pending before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and we are hopeful that approval will be received prior to mark-up. Therefore, we are requesting $19,396,000 for acquisition of site and general plans and design of the new GPO plant. The $19.4 million is the latest estimate of the General Services Administration and includes a $1.4 million increase over our withdrawn 1979 appropriation request due to escalating costs. Coopers & Lybrand completed a broad study of GPO operations for the Joint Committee on Printing in October 1978. Their report touched on significant technical and administrative issues and provided several recommendations. I am pleased to report that Coopers & Lybrand concluded that no sweeping changes are warranted at GPO. All pertinent issues were raised, and between the Coopers & Lybrand comments and our response, it appears that all areas of concern are under active consideration and will be satisfactorily resolved and no further effort is required. This concludes my general statement. I will be happy to respond to your questions.

REQUEST SUMMARIZED

Mr. BOYLE. Mr. Chairman, the Government Printing Office is requesting a total appropriation of $138,186,000 for fiscal year 1980 to cover the costs of congressional printing and binding; printing

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