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with the services and additional meetings of this working group.

In March, 1985, the Joint Committee on Printing concluded an in-depth study of the Air Force printing plant located at Gunter Air Force Station, Montgomery, Alabama. It was found that the vast majority of the printing work retained for in-house production at this facility could readily be procured by the Government Printing Office from the private sector. It was found that the work does not require security handling and that the average lead time from requisition to requested delivery is 34 days. Placing the work in the private sector generally realizes a 50 percent reduction in cost and at Gunter this could translate to a five-year savings of 4.3 million dollars.

The Joint Committee on Printing's report following the study recommended to the Air Force a number of significant actions. These included management improvements, the gradual phase down of this facility's production operations, and increased reliance on the private sector. The JCP strongly objected to the Air Force plans to purchase a $225,000 web printing press and related equipment for operation at the Gunter AFS printing plant. Such a press would have significantly increased the already inflated production capabilities of the Gunter AFS printing plant and would have destroyed all incentives to rely upon the private sector. The Air Force failed to implement the JCP's recommendations and proceeded to purchase the web press.

The Joint Committee on Printing brought this matter to the attention of the Senate Committee on Appropriations and asked for assistance. As a result, the Air Force has been prohibited by law from using FY 1986 appropriated funds to install, maintain or operate the press. In addition, the Air Force was asked to advise the Appropriations Committees by February 1, 1986, on how it will dispose of this web press. Under Title 44, United States Code, this equipment should be offered to the Government Printing Office where it could better serve the overall interests of the Government.

V.

ESTABLISHMENT OF STANDARDS AND SPECIFICATIONS FOR PRINTING PAPERS PROCURED AND USED BY FEDERAL DEPARTMENTS.

Under Section 509, Title 44, United States Code, the Joint Committee on Printing has the responsibility to "fix upon standards of paper for the different descriptions of public printing and binding...". Unless waived by the JCP, these paper quality standards are mandatory for use by all Federal Government departments

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documents for paper stocks and in specifying paper stocks to be used for Government printing, binding, copying and duplicating.

Title 44 also requires that the Public Printer compare every lot of paper and envelopes delivered by a contractor with the standards of quality set by the Joint Committee. If a difference of opinion occurs between the Public Printer and a paper contractor regarding a paper's quality, the Joint Committee is, by law, the arbitor in the dispute, and its decision "is final as to the United States".

The JCP meets its obligation to set standards

by publishing the Government Paper Specification Standards, which define minimum standards for the paper that

the Federal Government uses for normal public printing, and paper used in printing procured from the private

sector. The standards also explain testing and acceptance criteria and indicate the availability of standard paper samples from the Government Printing Office.

It is the responsibility of the JCP's Committee on Paper Specifications to make policy recommendations to the Members of the Joint Committee as to the need for particular standards. The Paper Committee, which is composed of experts in the field of paper from the JCP staff and various Federal departments, has a Technical Subcommittee. The Subcommittee, along with GPO's paper laboratory, performs technical analysis and evaluations in the development of standards. In addition, the Paper Committee actively consults with and solicits advice on needed changes in the specifications from the commercial paper industry, private printers who do Government printing, and Federal agency users of paper. Existing JCP paper standards are constantly reviewed and updated depending on changing needs in Federal printing, within the graphic arts industry, or in the paper industry.

The last edition (No. 9) of the Government Paper Specification Standards was published in December 1981. This 9th edition contains specifications for approximately 80 types of paper. The major changes incorporated in the 9th edition were aimed at reducing government costs, clarifying the specifications, and conforming to industry standards or norms.

VI. OVERSIGHT OF THE PUBLIC'S RIGHT OF ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS BY MONITORING THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS' DEPOSITORY LIBRARY PROGRAM, SALES PROGRAM AND CATALOGING AND INDEXING PROGRAMS

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Program to make government publications available free for use by the public in libraries across the country. The Joint Committee on Printing is responsible for the oversight of this program. Over the last year the Committee has taken several steps to help improve the program. Specifically, the JCP has:

(a) Worked with GPO staff to develop guidelines for identifying what publications should be provided to GPO by government agencies for the depository library program. A final draft should be available in April 1986 for comment by interested parties.

(b) Worked with the appropriate agency staff and GPO to develop a reasonable plan to provide the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decisions and indexes, the Merit Systems Protection Board decisions and the Office of Technology Assessment's Contract reports to depository libraries.

(c) Held an open forum in conjunction with

the Joint Committee's Advisory Committee on Depository Library Access to Federal Automated Data Bases to let concerned parties comment on the report of the Ad Hoc Committee and to solicit suggestions for possible pilot projects that can test the feasibility of the proposal.

(d) Worked with GPO to redesign the Joint Committee print listing of depository libraries, in order to cut the cost of printing and to improve its readability. As a result, the number of pages was reduced from 148 to 46. This resulted in reducing the cost of supplying copies to depository libraries and foreign exchange libraries by 50%.

(e) Directed GPO to produce the daily Congressional Record in microfiche, thereby making it possible to offer the Record in fiche to depository and foreign exchange libraries. This may mean a 50% cut in the cost of distributing the Record to these libraries.

(f) Authorized purchase of 18 facsimile machines for use by the Printing Procurement Department and the Superintendent of Documents. These machines were installed in the 15 regional printing procurement offices and in main GPO, in order to enable field offices to send copies of requisitions to the GPO Library. In this way, publications which are appropriate for depository distribution can be identified rapidly and the proper number of copies ordered by field personnel.

2. Sales Program.

The Committee has taken the following specific

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(a) Authorized the GPO to purchase equipment to improve the sales program at the GPO (e.g., purchase of an automated microfilm retrieval system, fork lift trucks, mail inserting machine).

(b) Concurred with the interagency agreement between GPO and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission which transfers the sales and reimbursable distribution of NRC publications from NRC to GPO. This agreement was the result of several years discussion between JCP, GPO and NRC about how transferring the program to GPO would enable NRC to cut staff work and improve public access. The JCP and GPO anticipate that the successful implementation of this program will make it possible for GPO to assume the sales programs of a number of other agencies.

(၁)

Authorized GPO to close the GPO Bookstore at the Department of Health and Human Services. employees have been transferred to the main GPO bookstore.

The

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE JCP'S BUDGET REQUEST FOR FY-1987 AND THE APPROPRIATION RECOMMENDED/APPROVED BY THE CONGRESS FOR FY-1986

The FY-1987 request contains no increase over the FY-1986 authorization. As has been the practice in previous years, I will elaborate in greater detail in the Committee's next statement supporting our FY 1987 appropriations request.

Respectfully submitted,

Charles McC. Mathias, Jr.