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SUMMARY OF ELECTRONIC PUBLIC INFORMATION NEWSLETTER
VOL. 5, NO. 4; February 24, 1995
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INDEX:
1. HOUSE MOVES TO ELIMINATE THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING
2. DIMARIO: CONGRESS SHORT-CHANGES GPO ON PRINTING RATE
3. XEROX'S DOCUTECH IS DRIVING PRINTING DEBATE IN HOUSE
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1. HOUSE MOVES TO ELIMINATE THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING: The
Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee last week (2/24)
approved a recission bill that eliminates all further funding for
the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP) for the current fiscal year.
The bill provides for part of the funds to be distributed to the
House Oversight and Senate Rules Committee to accommodate the
remaining JCP staff. The action came after Rep. Bill Thomas, R-CA,
Chairman of the House Oversight Committee and the JCP, called for
zero funding for the JCP for Fiscal 1996. He was careful to clarify
that the decision to elminate the JCP had received the go ahead by
House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Thomas had met with Gingrich the night
before the hearing, after receiving a letter from all the Senate
members of the JCP protesting the Thomas's action.
2. DIMARIO: CONGRESS SHORT-CHANGES GPO ON PRINTING RATE: The
Congress is short-changing the Government Printing Office (GPO) and
then attacking it for losing money, according to Public Printer
Michael DiMario. Testifying last week (2/22) before the House
Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, the Public Printer
even said that House Speaker Newt Gingrich insisted that GPO supply
THOMAS, the new online congressional information service, with the
"Congressional Record" and House and Senate bills for free. Dimario
said that by law GPO is suppose to charge costs for the services it
provides. Under questioning from Rep. Vic Fazio, D-CA, DiMario
said, "I'm required (by law) to charge the cost (of providing
THOMAS with the online "Record"), but there was a furor; the House
said they wanted it free." DiMario quoted Rep. Bill Thomas,
Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, at the THOMAS
inauguration as saying "some people even had the audacity to charge
for the information." DiMario said he understood that Thomas was
talking about GPO.
3. XEROX'S DOCUTECH IS DRIVING PRINTING DEBATE IN HOUSE: The
electronic printer, or specifically Xerox Corporation's Docutech,
to provide on-demand copies of electronically stored government
information was a major "presence" at last week's hearing by the
House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee on the
appropriations for the Joint Committee on Printing and the
Government Printing Office. Much of the debate before the
Subcommittee was on the power of the electronic printer to replace
traditional off-set printing and the need to make and store printed
copies of documents. Subcommittee Chairman Don Packard, R-CA,
although confused about the relationship between the Library of
Congress and the federal depository library system, nevertheless
knew that the General Service Administration had purchased 30
Docutechs, and that the House has an unused Docutech in the
Capitol's basement.
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James McDonough, Editor
Electronic Public Information Newsletter
epin@access.digex.net; Tel:/Fax: (301) 365-3621
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