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TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
CROWN JEWELS CAMPAIGN - Congressional Record and Federal Register
July 8, 1994
- GPO's June announcement that it will price the new
online version of the Congressional Record and the
Federal Register at $375 per year for an individual
subscription for each product draws criticism from TAP
and other citizen groups.
- Under the GPO pricing plan, individuals must pay $375
for an annual subscription for the Record or the
Register, but large corporations can obtain annual
subscriptions for as little as $9.40 per user, or about
2.5 percent the cost to an individual.
- Michael DiMario, the GPO Public Printer, met with TAP
and other groups on July 5 to discuss pricing of the
Federal Register and the Congressional Record.
- Taxpayer Assets Project (TAP), OMB Watch, and
Congressional Accountability Project (CAP) propose
several changes in GPO pricing policy, including a
reasonably priced hourly rate for peak time usage, for
persons who do not purchase the $375 unlimited
searching option, and a new "free after six" program,
of free public access to GPO's entire online product
line in off-peak hours (6pm to 8am on weekdays and all
day on weekends).
- GPO is also asked to create online discussion group to
engage the Internet community in discussions about the
GPO Access product line and prices.
- DiMario agrees to consider the "free after six" and
hourly pricing options and the online discussion group
proposals.
- Citizens who support the "free after six" proposal or
the online discussion group, or who have views
regarding the $375 per year subscription cost, are
encouraged to write, fax, or email their views to
Michael DiMario (fax 202/512-1347) and members of
Congress.
- Key legislators include Senators Wendell Ford (D-KY)
and Ted Stevens, and Representatives Charlie Rose
(D-ND) and Bill Thomas (R-CA). Representative Rose can
be reached by email at crose@hr.house.gov. Senators
Ford and Stevens and Representative Rose can be reached
by fax via the Joint Committee on Printing
(202/224-1176). Representative Thomas can be reached
by fax at 202/225-2908. All members of Congress can
reached by voice through the Congressional switchboard
at 202/224-3121.
The following is the text of a July 6, 1994 letter sent to
DiMario from TAP, OMB Watch and CAP making the "free after six"
proposal.
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July 6, 1994
Michael DiMario
Public Printer
Government Printing Office
Washington, DC 20401
by fax: 202/512-1347
Re: GPO Access - free after six
Dear Mr. DiMario:
Thank you for the opportunity to meet with you and your
staff on July 5, regarding the pricing of GPO Access services.
To reiterate our concerns, we do not think that the current
pricing method used by the GPO Access program allows this program
to serve its purpose, which is to provide opportunities for
ordinary citizens to obtain access to important public documents.
Certainly a policy of charging a minimum of $375 per year
for individual subscriptions to the Federal Record or the
Congressional Record, while allowing large corporations to
purchase the same information for prices as low as $9.40 per
user, will only increase the growing gap between the special
interests who can follow government actions, and the ordinary
citizens who now exercise very little power in Washington, DC.
Fortunately, we believe that in the course of our meeting we
were able to identify several steps which can be taken almost
immediately to resolve many of our concerns.
First of all, we are asking GPO to greatly expand the types
of purchase plans that are available, so that different user
groups can find plans that make the most sense for them. The
current pricing options are designed to serve only the most
intensive users of the data. We need to supplement these pricing
options with a program that allows a user to search and retrieve
data from all of the GPO Access libraries based upon a reasonable
hourly rate, such is done now for the Department of Commerce's
Economic Bulletin Board (EBB). Moreover, the prices charged for
hourly searching should vary by the time of day, as is also done
for the EBB.
As you know, the EBB charges as little as $3 per hour for
searching and retrieving data after 6 pm and on weekends. We
believe the GPO should offer a similar deep discount for off peak
hours, which are very practical for individual citizens, as well
as small businesses, who are often willing to wait, in order to
save money.
However, since the GPO program is so new, and since the
information on the GPO Access program is so important to
democratic discourse, we urge GPO to take a more enlightened
position for its off-peak pricing. Specifically, we urge you to
offer all GPO Access products to the public for free from 6pm to
8am on weekdays plus weekends.
We believe that this "free after six" program will not only
vastly expand access to these important documents, but that it
will also act as an important promotional program for the peak
period (8 am to 6 pm) sales program. By providing free access to
these services in the off peak hours, thousands of individuals,
small businesses, newspapers and non-profit groups will become
more familiar with the GPO Access service. We believe this will
lead to increased sales in the peak periods, as users become more
accustomed to the product line, and began to use the information
in their jobs. This will be particularly true if GPO provides,
as we are asking, a program for peak hour access to all GPO
Access products through a reasonably priced hourly online charge.
We also urge GPO to offer a number of special pricing
programs for schools and public libraries. Primary and secondary
schools cannot benefit from the off-peak hours, and yet it is
clearly in the public interest to make these important documents
available to school children. A deeply discounted subscription
is in order for passwords given to schools. After all, large
corporate users are allowed to obtain subscriptions to the
Congressional Record or the Federal Register for as little as
$9.40 per user. Why should a school in the South Bronx or Nome
Alaska be required to pay 40 times as much for a single account?
Last, but not least, we want to remind you that we encourage
GPO to create an Internet discussion group devoted to discussions
of the GPO Access product line and pricing policies. GPO needs
to use the Internet to identify product lines and to engage the
online community in a dialogue about GPO's policies. As was
discussed in our meeting, the online community is also a
potentially vast source of support for GPO's efforts to promote
democratic and informed public discourse.
Thank you again for taking the time to met with us and
discuss our concerns and suggestions.
James Love
Taxpayer Assets Project
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
love@essential.org
Patrice McDermott
OMB Watch
1731 Connecticut Ave , NW, 4th Floor, Washington, DC 20009
patricem@cap.gwu.edu
Gary Ruskin
Congressional Accountability Project
P.O. Box 19446, Washington, DC 20036
gary@essential.org
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