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Heads up: Preventing Additional Printing of Electronic Records Act of 2018 or the PAPER Act of 2018
[UPDATE 1:30pm 09122018: The bill going forward in the Senate is S. 2944, NOT 2673. And S.2944 includes reference to the depository library program! I’ve updated the link below to the correct Senate bill. JRJ]
Heads up! There’s a bill at the beginning of the legislative process called “Preventing Additional Printing of Electronic Records Act of 2018″ or the PAPER Act of 2018. Don’t you just love how Congress has to acronymize their bill titles?! This bill seeks to limit the printing of the Congressional Record, one of our most important Congressional publications, the official record of the proceedings and debates of the US Congress. It’s important to the Federal Depository Library Program to keep publishing the CR in paper for research utility and preservation purposes.
The House version mentions the FDLP, but the Senate version does not:
(d) Depository libraries
The Director of the Government Publishing Office shall furnish to the Superintendent of Documents as many daily and bound copies of the Congressional Record as may be required for distribution to depository libraries.
This bill is at the very beginning of the process, so it’s not time to get nervous. But the depository community ought to keep an eye on this bill in case it gathers momentum in the House and/or Senate.
McCaskill amendment to H.R. 195 set to gut Congressional printing. Act now!
The Federal Register is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices. There’s a particularly damaging bill, H.R. 195: Federal Register Printing Savings Act of 2017, winding its way through Congress, having already passed the House, reported out of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and is pending action and vote on the Senate floor. If passed, the bill — “To amend title 44, United States Code, to restrict the distribution of free printed copies of the Federal Register to Members of Congress and other officers and employees of the United States, and for other purposes” — would restrict the printing of copies of the Federal Register only to Members of Congress and Government officials.
What’s even worse, FGI sources say that Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is set to propose an amendment to HR 195 that would eliminate the printing not only of the Federal Register, but of copies of congressional hearings, committee reports, and bills, resolutions, and amendments in both the Senate and the House.
If enacted, the amendment would prohibit the printing of these legislative documents for the use of both the Senate and the House. The dollar value of hearings, reports, and bills represents approximately 33%, or $26.3 million, of GPO’s total Congressional Publishing Appropriation of $78.5 million for FY 2018. As a result, the amendment would increase the cost of other congressional printing that remains with GPO, since GPO’s mandatory overhead costs — such as its Office of the Inspector General, police security, and other costs, which will still have to be recovered — will have to be spread over a smaller revenue base.
FDLP libraries needing access to print copies of hearings, reports, and bills for their patrons, including those in Missouri, won’t get them automatically anymore. Instead, the FDLP will have to requisition their printing, and the program will have to absorb all printing costs, which will result in a reduction of other services unless the appropriation for the Public Information Programs of the Superintendent of Documents is increased.
CONTACT SENATOR MCCASKILL NOW AND TELL HER TO KILL HER AMENDMENT AND VOTE NO! ON HR 195. And if you’re not from Missouri, please contact your Senators, ESPECIALLY those on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs!!
There was some very positive discussion about Title 44, Chapter 19 at last week’s DLC meeting. And nearly 1000 people have signed our petition in support of Title 44 and the FDLP (have you?!). But the FDLP community needs to be vigilant that positive FDLP updates to title 44 Chapter 19 do not provide cover for damaging movements of privatization and commercialization of govt information provision and GPO funding in other parts of title 44. Budgetary and operational impacts on GPO other than on chapter 19 — like HR 195! — can directly affect the FDLP program, libraries and public access just the same.
How a complex network of bills becomes a law: GovTrack introduces new data analysis of text incorporation
Here’s a fascinating new way to look at US Congressional legislation from our friends at GovTrack.us. As Josh Tauberer explains, GovTrack’s new service “Enacted Via Other Measures,” their new data analysis of text incorporation, will now provide connections between bills — when a bill has at least about 33% of its provisions incorporated into one or more enacted bills — in order to show “how a complex network of bills becomes a law.”
No longer will legislative trackers be limited to the 6 stages in becoming a law described on Congress.gov, or even the 13 steps described by this handy infographic by Mike Wirth and Suzanne Cooper-Guasco (“How Our Laws Are Made”, First place award in the Design for America contest, 2010). Now we’ll be able to see the various pieces of bills that make it into other bills.
This is an amazing new looking glass into the legislative process. Thanks GovTrack.us!
This new analysis literally doubles our insight.
Only about 3% of bills will be enacted through the signature of the President or a veto override. Another 1% are identical to those bills, so-called “companion bills,” which are easily identified (see CRS, below). Our new analysis reveals almost another 3% of bills which had substantial parts incorporated into an enacted bill in 2015–2016. To miss that last 3% is to be practically 100% wrong about how many bills are being enacted by Congress.
And there may be even more than that, which we’ll find out as we tweak our methodology in the future.
There are so many new questions to answer:
- Who are the sources of these enacted provisions?
- How often is this cut-and-paste process cross-partisan?
- What provisions were removed from a bill to be enacted?
- Is cut-and-paste more frequent today than in the past?
Announcement: Bulk Download Access to Bill Status Information
Press Release:
GPO And Library Of Congress Make Senate And House Bill Status Information Available For Bulk Download
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 24, 2016 No. 16-04
GPO AND LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAKE SENATE AND HOUSE BILL STATUS INFORMATION AVAILABLE FOR BULK DOWNLOAD
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has partnered with the Library of Congress (LOC) to make bill status information in XML format available through GPO’s Bulk Data repository on govinfo (www.govinfo.gov) for the 113th and 114th Congresses. Bill status information, which is created by LOC and Congress, describes the activities and status steps for each legislative measure. This project commenced at the direction of the House Appropriations Committee, and is in support of the Legislative Branch Bulk Data Task Force.
https://www.govinfo.gov/features/featured-content/bill-status-bulk-data
Making Government information available in XML permits data to be reused and repurposed not only for print output but for conversion into ebooks, mobile web applications, and other forms of content delivery, including data mashups and other analytical tools by third party providers, which contributes to openness and transparency in Government. In addition to the files made available through the govinfo Bulk Data Repository, GPO ensures the authenticity of all information provided on govinfo by making available digitally signed copies in PDF format, which is the official, authentic version that matches the printed document.
“GPO is once again honored to partner with the Library in supporting a congressional initiative that furthers openness and transparency in Government,” said GPO Director Davita Vance-Cooks.
“The Library of Congress is working closely and continually with GPO, the House and the Senate to improve access to timely, authoritative, free legislative information using modernized platforms,” said David Mao, Acting Librarian of Congress. “These efforts have resulted in Congress.gov and govinfo. We are pleased to have the opportunity to work closely with Congress and GPO to make legislative information that is aggregated and enhanced for Congress.gov also available in this new format and applaud GPO’s work on its govinfo platform.”
PDF copy of complete press release:
GPO AND LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAKE SENATE AND HOUSE BILL STATUS INFORMATION AVAILABLE FOR BULK DOWNLOAD
Bill Statuses in XML format
GPO will beging making bill status information available in bulk through FDsys starting in early 2016. For sample files and user guide see github.com/usgpo/bill-status.
Announcement:
At the direction of the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, in support of the Legislative Branch Bulk Data Task Force, the Government Publishing (GPO), the Library of Congress (LOC), the Clerk of the House, and the Secretary of the Senate are planning to make Bill Statuses in XML format available through the GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) Bulk Data repository starting with the 113th Congress. At launch in early 2016, the FDsys Bulk Data repository for Bill Status information will be available at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS.
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