Congress orders White House to print budget through GPO

In a move that ratchets up a surprising separation-of-powers battle between the executive and legislative branches, Congress on Thursday ordered the White House to go through the Government Printing Office to print the 2004 budget.

Lawmakers included the order in the stopgap funding measure that will keep the government running through next Friday. The order builds upon a provision included in a previous funding bill, which instructed executive branch agencies to use the printing office rather than seek out printing services directly from the private sector. The printing office is a legislative branch agency.

Office of Management and Budget spokeswoman Amy Call said the White House would ignore the new order, just as she said the last one would be ignored. She pointed to a 1996 Justice Department opinion that held Congress could not force executive branch agencies to procure printing services through the printing office.

"We think this clause, like the last one, will be found unconstitutional by the Justice Department," Call said.

By law, the Government Printing Office has been the primary source for printing goods and services for federal agencies for more than a century. The printing office contracts out much of the government's printing work to private contractors. Some agency buyers would prefer to contract directly with printing firms, complaining this year to the Office of Management and Budget that the printing office is slow and the quality of some jobs is low. In May, OMB Director Mitch Daniels issued a directive saying executive branch agencies would be able to avoid the printing office and directly contract printing work.

Some lawmakers, including Joint Committee on Printing Chairman Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., have said they don't think the executive branch can declare laws unconstitutional. In two hearings this year, lawmakers have defended the printing office and urged OMB not to push their fight to end the printing office requirement. Observers said this week that the latest funding measure's provision ordering the White House to use the printing office for the 2004 budget is lawmakers' way of sending a message to the Bush administration.

"The [provision] is trying to make it quite clear who's in charge," said Fred Antoun, a Chambersburg, Pa.-based attorney who specializes in government printing matters. "It is a shot closer to the bow."

Lawmakers included the provision after OMB officials told printing office officials that the White House would look to other sources for printing the 2004 budget. The budget is issued in February, with much of the printing work done in mid-January. Government Printing Office spokesman Andrew Sherman said OMB has submitted two requisitions for the 2004 budget, one for file maintenance and one for Web hosting. But OMB may only ask the printing office to print the appendix to the 2004 budget and go its own way on the rest of the budget printing work, Sherman said.

OMB spokeswoman Call said OMB is in the process of putting together the budget, and that there's been some discussion about printing. But she wouldn't comment further.

The two agencies tussled over last year's budget as well. In February, the president's 2003 budget was initially printed with several pages that were missing minus signs, forcing GPO to publish errata to accompany the massive budget books. OMB officials say the error was the fault of GPO and its contractor, while GPO says the mistake was made by OMB when OMB transmitted files directly to the printing contractor.

While OMB continues to publicly stick by its plans to end the printing office requirement, the office failed earlier this fall to issue a promised revision to printing rules in the Federal Acquisition Regulation. The revision would have made the printing change official.

Representatives of libraries across the country have complained about the change. They said letting agencies go their own way on printing would make it less likely that government documents would wind up in libraries for the public to review for free. The Government Printing Office sends documents to libraries.

In addition, printing industry lobbyists have said the printing office makes it easier to deal with the government because of standard procedures and established business practices that executive branch agencies have little to no experience following.