Senator blasts White House over printing issue

The White House does not have the authority to declare unconstitutional a law requiring federal agencies to go through the Government Printing Office to buy printing goods and services, a U.S. senator said this week.

Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing, said he is disappointed by statements from the White House and the Office of Management and Budget that claim the executive branch can ignore the century-old printing law.

"It might serve [the administration] well to read the Constitution," Dayton told Government Executive Tuesday. "The executive branch doesn't have the right to declare a law unconstitutional. It's a terrible example to set for the country."

The White House and OMB issued statements denouncing the law after Congress included a provision reminding agencies to go through the printing office in the short-term funding measure that kept the government open through Oct. 4. Dayton sponsored the provision in the Senate version of the measure.

In a Sept. 30 statement on the printing office provision of the funding measure, President Bush said the provision "would require executive branch agencies to procure printing from the Government Printing Office, a legislative branch entity. The longstanding position of the executive branch, memorialized in a May 1996 opinion by the Department of Justice, is that this language violates the constitutional principles of separation of powers and therefore is not binding on the executive branch."

Dayton questioned the administration's stance again at a confirmation hearing Thursday for Bruce James, the nominee for public printer. The public printer is head of the Government Printing Office. Dayton said administration officials should be willing to sit down with lawmakers to resolve the disagreement.

The 1895 Printing Act requires most agencies to use the printing office to procure printing goods and services. The office contracts out much of the government's printing work.

In May, OMB Director Mitch Daniels told executive branch purchasers that they could ignore the printing office requirement and contract directly with third parties, citing the 1996 Justice Department opinion. Eliminating the printing office as a mandatory middle-man could save the government up to $70 million a year, Daniels said.

Some federal purchasers complain that the printing office's prices are too high, its service too slow and its quality sub-par, particularly on jobs that require fast turnaround. Other purchasers praise the printing office, saying agencies could not get lower prices anywhere else.

Outgoing Public Printer Michael DiMario said at a hearing this summer that Daniels' directive could cost hundreds of printing office employees their jobs and increase the government's printing costs by hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

Public printer nominee James, who has the backing of Dayton and several Senate Republicans, said he would follow the law if he is confirmed. "As I see it, this is an issue between Congress and the executive," James said. "I'm coming to Washington to follow the law, which I will do until you change it."

James also promised to modernize the printing office. He plans to bring in seasoned private sector printing industry executives and to retrain managers and workers on more modern printing practices. The printing office's mission will change "from strictly putting ink on paper to electronically managing information," James said.

James ran several printing and publishing companies during his career. In 1998, he ran for the Republican nomination for a Senate seat from Nevada, but dropped out of the race against now-Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.

In charting out the printing office's future, James said he plans to gather input from customers, employee unions and others. "My first call should be to Mitch Daniels to ascertain what his problem is," James said.

James noted that librarians across the country are concerned about the effect of Daniels' proposed change on the federal depository library system, which maintains copies of federal documents so that the public can access them for free. Executive branch agencies don't do as good a job as the printing office in ensuring that copies of documents are sent to the libraries, he said.