ACT!/ Urgent Action Needed on Threats to Public Access and the
FDLP
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Peter Suber
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Dec 04, 2002 16:44 PST
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ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 11, Number 98
December 4, 2002
In This Issue: URGENT! Comments Needed by December 13th on OMB's
Proposed Amendments to the FAR That Threaten Public Access and the
Federal Depository Library Program.
BACKGROUND:
Director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. of the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) issued Memorandum No. M-02-07 entitled "Procurement of Printing
and Duplicating through the Government Printing Office" (GPO) on May 3,
2002. The memorandum calls for amendments to the Federal Acquisition
Regulations (FAR) that will allow agencies to procure their printing
outside of GPO. The proposed amendments were published in the Federal
Register, Vol. 67, No. 219, November 13, 2002, 68914-8. The deadline for
comments is Friday, December 13, 2002.
Accessible government information is an essential principle of a
democratic society and a valuable public good created at taxpayer
expense. ALA believes that government should provide for equitable,
effective, no-fee, efficient and dependable access to and dissemination
of government information in permanent and readily accessible formats.
ALA further believes that a strong, centralized, coordinated and managed
federal information dissemination and access program, such as the
Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), is necessary to achieve this
important goal.
CURRENT CRISIS:
OMB's efforts to have agencies procure printing outside of GPO are not
new. Congress, demonstrating full support of public access and the FDLP,
successfully thwarted efforts in 1987 and 1994. Recently, Members of
the 107th Congress, on a bicameral and bipartisan basis, included
provisions to prevent agencies from using any appropriated funds to
procure publications outside of GPO in their continuing resolutions that
fund government operations (most recently, in H.J.Res. 124). These
provisions indicate Congress' strong opposition to OMB's proposed
amendments to the FAR.
The following talking points will be useful in your comments on the
proposed FAR:
1) The proposed amendments, which authorize agencies to procure their
printing outside of GPO, are a clear violation of 44 U.S.C. §501.
2) In addition to violating 44 U.S.C. §501 (which OMB and a Department
of Justice memo have claimed is unconstitutional), the proposed changes
to the FAR violate
other Title 44 provisions that neither OMB nor the Department of
Justice have ever challenged as unconstitutional:
· §1903 that requires agencies who procure outside of GPO to bear the
costs of
printing and binding the necessary copies for depository libraries.
The FAR proposal that the Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) would
bear these costs is contrary to current law.
· §1710 that requires agencies to supply a copy of all publications to
the SuDocs
for cataloging purposes.
The specifics of how this might be achieved on a comprehensive and
cost-effective basis under the proposed FAR change are very unclear.
3) While attempting to solve the fugitive documents problem, agency
responsibilities
in the proposed FAR change are left so vague that the result will be
more fugitive publications, not fewer. Today, the SuDocs, working with
its professional library personnel, provides a strong, centralized,
coordinated and managed Federal information dissemination and access
program through the FDLP.
4) A strong system of coordination, including an effective and
transparent system to
bring Government publications into the FDLP, is as necessary in the
electronic environment as it is in the print world to ensure that agency
publications in all formats
are permanently accessible by the public. The FAR amendment does not
create such a system, choosing instead to leave a void in the place of
the current effective structure.
5) The proposed FAR does not take into account the need for an
effective enforcement mechanism, with Congressional oversight, to ensure
that agencies meet their legal obligations to provide tangible and
electronic publications to the SuDocs. This change
will negatively impact the FDLP and the public's ability to locate,
use, and have permanent access to agency publications in all formats.
6) Today, the SuDocs is able to ride agency procurement orders to
obtain publications for the FDLP and the Sales Program at low cost.
Libraries and members of the public depend on GPO's Sales Program to
acquire print Government publications. The proposed FAR does not
adequately provide for a continued cost effective Sales Program.
ACTION NEEDED:
Please submit electronic comments on the proposed FAR to
farcase.-@gsa.gov by Friday, December 13th, citing "FAR Case
2002-011" in the subject line and the text. Base your comments on a few
of the talking points above, and be sure to talk about the needs of your
patrons to have timely, comprehensive and permanent access to Federal
government information in print and electronic formats.
Please also fax a copy of your comments to your Senators and
Representative at their Capitol Hill and local offices with a brief note
of explanation. Go to http://capwiz.com/ala/dbq/officials/ for a link
to fax numbers for your Members. (Fax is preferable to e-mail because it
provides staff with a tangible version of your comments.)
If you have a newly elected representative, this is a good time to
introduce yourself while explaining the negative impact of OMB's action
on public access.
We are in a crisis situation! Members of ALA have been very
instrumental in helping to ward off previous efforts that would harm the
FDLP and diminish the public's right to access Government information.
We would also appreciate it very much if you would send a copy of your
comments along to us via e-mail at: mailto:pmcde-@alawash.org .
Thanks to Mary Alice Baish (AALL) for her work on this alert.
******
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ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403,
Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478
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