On the recordJuly 21, 2011
I yield myself 3 minutes. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Chairman Dreier and the entire Rules Committee for ruling this amendment in order and for allowing it to be heard today. This amendment asks the Government Printing Office to take an additional 4.3 percent cut that, if passed, would bring the total reduction of the GPO for fiscal year 2012 to 20 percent. The additional 4.3 percent cut would mean a total reduction of nearly $5 million. This may not seem like a lot here in Washington, but the American people demand government to make the same sacrifices at our offices and here in Washington as the families and small business owners make at their homes and places of work. It is our duty to manage our own House in a fiscally prudent manner. Let me lay out some numbers that may put this amendment's small reduction to the GPO in proper perspective. The GPO spends over $28 million a year on the Congressional Record program alone. Over $8 million of that amount goes to the printing, binding and distribution of our Congressional Record. This includes payment for 4,551 copies of the Congressional Record despite the documents having been available digitally since 1994. I don't know about you, Mr. Chairman, but spending $28 million to see and print what is said in Congress seems to be a raw deal. It really seems like a subsidy for a magazine that no one really wants to read.…
