TAP Criticism of GPO Access Pricing and Product Line

[James Love <love@essential.org>]

Distributed to TAP-INFO, a free Internet Distribution List
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TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
CROWN JEWELS CAMPAIGN - federal register and congressional record
June 12, 1994

-    GPO begins its GPO Access Online Service, which provides
     online access to the Federal Bulletin Board, the Federal
     Register, the Congressional Record, "enrolled" bills, and a
     locator service.

-    On June 8, 1994 GPO announced a price of $375 per year for
     annual subscriptions to the Federal Register and the
     Congressional Record ($750 for both), and $60 for access to
     the "enrolled" bills.

-    TAP writes the Public Printer lodging bitter protest over
     the pricing of the Federal Register, the Congressional
     Record, and other items, and asks that the general public be
     given a greater role in discussions over the GPO Access
     product line and prices.



June 9, 1994

Michael DiMario
Public Printer
Government Printing Office
Washington, DC  20401
by fax 202/512-1347

Dear Mr. DiMario:

I am writing to express our surprise, alarm and anger at the new
pricing schedule announced for the GPO Access Program.  It is
astounding that GPO has announced a pricing scheme that would
require ordinary citizens to pay $750 per year for online access
to the Federal Register and the Congressional Record, or $60 per
year for access to the "enrolled" bills.  By only offering these
publications under pricing schemes which are attractive to
libraries and businesses, GPO is turning its back on millions of
ordinary citizens who expected to use the GPO Access program to
better monitor and influence the activities of the federal
government.  I cannot overstate our anger at this decision as
well as the general failure of GPO to work more closely with data
users in developing its product line and pricing policies.  The
fact that GPO receives taxpayer funding does not entitle the
agency to ignore and insult individual data users.

As you know, the Taxpayer Assets Project (TAP) and the American
Library Association (ALA) were the first supporters of
legislation to require GPO to provide public online access to
government information.  TAP provided testimony on this topic to
the Joint Committee on Printing hearings on "Government
Information as a  Public Asset," and we were active proponents of
the GPO WINDO (HR 2772), and GPO Gateway to Government (S.  2813)

bills that were considered in the 102nd Congress, and which were
the basis upon which the GPO Access program was enacted.

Anyone at all familiar with the debates over these bills knows
that the legislation was intended to broaden public access to
government information, and to give ordinary citizens
opportunities to more fully participate in public policy debates. 
While the legislation provides a mechanism for GPO to provide the
public with online access to a wide range of publications and
databases, the Federal Register and the Congressional Record were
singled out as products which were particularly important for our
democracy.  Indeed, despite several differences between the
republican and democratic members of the House Rules committee,
there was always broad support for inclusion of these two
publications.

When the GPO Access/WINDO legislation was debated, the
Information Industry Association (IIA) wanted to limit access to
the federal depository library program.  This approach was
rejected, and GPO was required to provide the general public with
online access to the service, at prices that would not exceed the
incremental cost of dissemination.  However, by requiring the
public to buy a subscription service that is really designed for
libraries and intensive data users, GPO is creating an
unsurmountable barrier for episodic users of these databases, and
thus frustrating years of efforts to give ordinary citizens
convenient and ready access to these materials.

Yet another example of GPO's disdain for ordinary citizens is the
disappointing program for providing online access to the bills. 
The GPO Access announcement says that you will only provide
access to the "enrolled bills," which are bills that have already
passed Congress, and that these will only be available for a fee
of $60 per year.  First of all, GPO knows that the public wants
access to all bills pending before Congress, in their most recent
form, and it makes no sense to start with the bills that have
already passed Congress, since the public then has almost no
opportunity to influence the outcome of the legislation.  Since
GPO prints the bills, you have the data, and could easily
disseminate the bills through the GPO Federal Bulletin Board
(FBB), by simply creating ascii files with names identical to the
bill title.  We sent a letter to the Joint Committee on Printing
in August of 1992 with more than 150 signatures asking that this
be done, and now nearly two years later we get the "enrolled"
bills, for $60.  How many ordinary citizens do you know that want
to pay $60 for the opportunity to get online access to bills
which have already passed Congress?  Who is this service supposed
to serve?

GPO could be launching this program with a great new product
line.  As a result of several FOIA requests to the Department of
Justice, it is now possible to obtain on magnetic tape decades of
"public laws."  GPO could spend less than $150 to obtain this
data and add these products the GPO Access program in a few days. 
GPO could include the CRS issue briefs that are now available to
members of congress through the House LEGIS system, and it could
provide any number of other products that the public really
wants.  GPO could also provide online access to ERIC and other
important federal databases of bibliographic research.

We have asked on many occasions that GPO establish an Internet
electronic mail "listserve" devoted to discussions of the GPO
Access product line and pricing policies.  I've been told that
GPO thinks it has addressed this problem by its occasional
participation in the GOVDOC-L list, but I disagree completely. 
GOVDOC-L is an important list for discussion of government
documents issues, but it servers a relatively narrow audience
made up primarily of 700 government documents librarians.  GPO
should provide a mechanism for a broader public to discuss these
issues.  

I urge you to take steps to work with data users to change GPO's
pricing policies and to expand your product line.  There are many
easy steps that can be taken.  For example, GPO could adopt a fee
for a single document from the Federal Register or Congressional
Record, so that a citizen would not need to spend $750 per year
for a subscription to these products.  We have also asked GPO to
provide a system of off-peak discounts, as are now available on
the Department of Commerce Economic Bulletin Board (EBB) and by
several commercial vendors, such as DIALOG.  As Public Printer
you have a responsibility to see that your programs are being run
for the benefit of the public.  No Public Printer has ever been
willing to regularly engage the public in discussions over GPO
product lines and prices.  I urge you to make some history and do
so.  Many of us are anxious to support any federal agency that is
willing to take aggressive actions to broaden public access to
the government's vast storehouse of documents and other data. 
Give us a reason to do so.


Sincerely,


James P. Love
Director, Taxpayer Assets Project
P.O. Box 19367
Washington, DC 20036
voice:  202/387-8030; fax: 202/234-5176


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