Budget

Bill would reduce GPO printing costs

Two Senators have proposed a bill reducing the number of printed copies of the Congressional Record in order to reduce the overall deficit.

Federal News Network Staff

March 30, 2011 3:50 pm

< a min read

John Buckner
Federal News Radio

A new bill introduced today would reduce the number of Congressional Records printed daily saving the Government Printing Office up to $8 million annually.

The Congressional Record is the official record of the debates and proceedings done by Congress.

Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) proposed the bill, saying the GPO prints more than 4,500 copies of the Congressional Record each day, most of them unnecessarily.

“With the majority of today’s documents available online, the time for Congress to put an end to its arcane printing habits is long overdue,” said Coburn in a release Wednesday.

The bill would reduce the number of Congressional Record copies from 4,551 to 111. This would cut the costs of printing the record from more than $8.1 million to only $198,000.

The bill allows the printing of the Congressional Record only for the Vice President, Members of Congress, and the archives. Additional copies can be requested.

The Congressional Record has been available online since 1994.

John Buckner is an intern with Federal News Radio.