RENTAL OF PRESENT QUARTERS Chairman HAYDEN. In the event that the present quarters are vacated, what agency of the Government would dispose of the space? Mr. HARRISON. The General Services Administration, Mr. Chair man. Chairman HAYDEN. What do they tell you about the need for space in the District of Columbia that they are renting now that they could move in? Mr. HARRISON. Would you be willing to have Mr. Schmidt speak on that? He is the Commissioner of Public Buildings Service of the General Services Administration. Mr. SCHMIDT. Senator, we have over 40 million square feet of space in the metropolitan area of Washington, over 7 million square feet of space leased. We still have over 4 million square feet of space in temporary buildings. We would attempt to use the Government Printing Office buildings to rehouse agencies. We would attempt to put in these buildings operations that could use the space with a minimum of alterations. We have plenty of demands for the space. Chairman HAYDEN. There is no question about the willingness of people who now occupy rented space to move into this building if it were properly equipped? Mr. SCHMIDT. We would select operations to be put into these buildings that would minimize the cost of altering the buildings, try to use the buildings as it. Chairman HAYDEN. I am trying to get at the idea; there are plenty of that kind of transfer to be made. Mr. SCHMIDT. Senator, there are plenty of tenants for the four buildings. Chairman HAYDEN. Thank you. COMPETITIVE NATURE OF GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE FIELD PRINTING PLANTS Senator MONRONEY. Could I ask another question of the Public Printer? You said how many Government printing offices are located outside of Washington, D.C. You gave a figure earlier. Mr. HARRISON. I think the field plants that are located outside of Washington are in excess of 300. Senator MONRONEY. You are aware, of course, of the violent opposition of the printing industry to this projected building. Would it not be more appropriate for the needs of the competitive work that is being done by Government for them to concentrate their fire on these auxiliary printing units which do a type of printing more nearly corresponding to that which they might possibly supply? Mr. HARRISON. I would think that would be right, sir; yes, sir. Senator MONRONEY. In other words, this is a printing office for specialties and specializations, in a special location, a cheaper cost of doing business might adversely affect a few Washington printers; but the average printer out across the country would be or should be more concerned with the competition from many of the smaller Government printing offices and other facilities for duplicating and processing books and pamphlets that are contained in many of the normal appropriation bills for Government agencies; is that not correct? Mr. HARRISON. That is right, sir. We have five field plants outside of Washington that come directly under the Government Printing Office. We have a small one in New York, a small one in Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, and Seattle. One of the first things I did when I assumed office was to authorize the managers of these offices to be procurement agents, and now they are buying a great deal of printing from commercial printers in these five cities. It is my understanding that the study which the Joint Committee on Printing has underway now of these field operations is pointed in that direction-to determine how much of what is being produced in these 300 plants could be purchased and still maintain the plants that have to be maintained for the service of the departments. Senator MONRONEY. The smaller printshop in Oklahoma would have very little opportunity to low bid any Government work that was needed for sale or use or allocation to a department in Washington, D.C. Mr. HARRISON. No; transportation costs would lick them right from the start. CONGRESSIONAL PRINTING AND BINDING COSTS Senator MONRONEY. I think you said the printing of Government documents, I think out of the congressional mill of $16.5 million, that the Congressional Record costs $3,120,000 a year, the hearings $3.8 million; miscellaneous publications $2.5 million, none of which would perhaps be capable of being low bid and it must have a Washington distribution point. To me that would be $9.5 million worth of work there out of the $16.5 million business that Congress is doing. I imagine the forms, I believe you testified, last year that the various forms and various types of materials that Government departments need and require also does not lend itself very aptly to low bidding and to delivery dates that are compatible with the needs of the Government departments. COMMERCIAL PRINTING CONTRACTS Mr. HARRISON. Well, the urgent requirements certainly do not lend themselves. Take the income tax forms program. I think we purchased 60 percent of the income tax forms last year from commercial printers all around the country. Senator MONRONEY. That would probably be one of the big blocks of printing that would be purchased by the Government, would it not? Because this has to go to some 40 or 60 million taxpayers, I presume. What is some of the other large-scale work contracted out on that basis? Mr. HARRISON. We contract in excess of 70 percent of our periodicals from commercial concerns. This is the type of thing that we can buy very readily, because it is a planned publication on a predetermined schedule and the commercial plants can then afford to bid on it. The National ZIP Code Directory, 1,800 pages—if you have not seen it, it is an enormous thing-we purchased that. SPECIALTY PRINTING Senator MONRONEY. Contracted it out? Mr. HARRISON. Contracted out, yes, sir; anything we have sufficient leadtime for or anything over and above the requirement for filler work that we need in our plant. If it lends itself at all, and if the time element would allow us, then we buy it. We buy all of our specialty work, marginally punched forms, interleaved carbon forms, multicolor work. We buy 99 percent because they are specialty items and we do not acquire specialty equipment to compete with the industry. The thing we are trying to do, as I repeated over and over, is to do the basic work we have to do by law and then to keep enough work in the plant to give us a well rounded operation. Senator MONRONEY. No one has ever urged that the Government get out of the printing business, as I understand it, though apparently they do not wish the lower cost operations to be possible which they in their new plants insist upon; is that correct ? Mr. HARRISON. I would think so, Senator. PERCENTAGE OF CONTRACTED WORK Senator YARBOROUGH. Well, I think the question was covered, Mr. Chairman, before I got here. I believe you have testified as to the percentage of the Government printing that is done by the Government plants and the percentage contracted out, did you say it was about 50-50? Mr. HARRISON. Pretty close, and I have for the record, if you would like, a breakdown on this from 1940 (The breakdown referred to appears on p. 432.) Senator YARBOROUGH. What percentage was contracted out in 1940? Mr. HARRISON. In 1940, about 29 percent was contracted out. Senator MONRONEY. How much does that come to in dollars? Mr. HARRISON. That came to about $1.8 million. Senator MONRONEY. What is your last year that you have now? Mr. HARRISON. It amounts to 45.7 percent. Senator MONRONEY. For what year? Mr. HARRISON. That was 1964. Senator YARBOROUGH. I have received some protests that too much printing is done in the Government Printing Office, not enough contracted out. I think these figures utterly refute that, and the percentage, the constantly increasing percentage being contracted out, shows that the private segment of printing is getting at least their fair share, if not more. Certain printing, I think, should be done by the Government Printing Office, and I personally am not in favor of putting such impediments in the way of the Government Printing Office that they cannot do a good and competent and fair job, and print that portion of the Government printing that ought to be Government printing. |