roundtable: GPO Cuts

roundtable: GPO Cuts

GPO Cuts

James Love (love@cptech.org)
Mon, 28 Jul 1997 16:57:05 -0400 (EDT) 

Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 16:57:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: James Love <love@cptech.org>
To: roundtable <roundtable@cni.org>
Subject: GPO Cuts 
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.95.970728165452.27761A-100000@essential.essential.org>


The U.S. House of Representatives will vote later today on a Klug 
Amendment to slash the Government Printing Office's (GPO) budget.  This 
amendment may jeopardize the immensely popular and successful GPO Access 
program, which is the best online source for federal government
documents.

Please call or fax your House Member to oppose the Klug Amendment to the 
Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill (H.R. 2209).  The Congressional 
Switchboard phone number is (202) 224-3121.

Following is a letter to Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) opposing the Klug 
Amendment: 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                        July 28, 1997

Honorable Newt Gingrich
Speaker
U. S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
via the Internet: GEORGIA6@HR.HOUSE.GOV

Dear Speaker Gingrich: 

        We are writing to oppose Representative Scott Klug's (R-WI) 
amendment to H.R. 2209, the Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill, which
would cut 350 staff positions from the Government Printing Office (GPO). 
We assume that any large organization could benefit from greater
efficiencies, including the GPO.  But we oppose the cuts because we
believe the GPO's ability to meet its mission will be compromised by the
cuts.  Indeed, we think the Congress should expand GPO's resources, so
that GPO could expand its popular and successful efforts to provide
citizens with Internet access to government information. 

        The U.S. government has two federal agencies which provide central
access to executive branch documents -- GPO and the Department of
Commerce's National Technical Information Service (NTIS).  GPO is designed
to provide free or low cost access to government information.  NTIS has a
deeply flawed mission, which includes charging extremely high prices for
government documents. Basically, NTIS tries to charge what the market will
bear for many government publications, like a commercial business, while
GPO is committed to the broadest public dissemination of the data. 

        In our view, the digital revolution has created an opportunity to
greatly enhance the public's access to government information.  In order
to take advantage of this opportunity, Congress should allocate more
resources to agencies, like GPO, which are helping to open up the
government and empower citizens. 

Sincerely, James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology 
Gary Ruskin, Director, Congressional Accountability Project


_______________________________________________________
James Love | Center for Study of Responsive Law
P.O. Box 19367 | Washington, DC 20036 | 202.387.8030
http://www.cptech.org | love@cptech.org

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