Printing Office Wins Budget Contract; OMB Pushes Competition Rule The Government Printing Office has won the contract to print President Bush’s 2004 budget, after underbidding private contractors in a controversial competition orchestrated by the Office of Management and Budget. OMB said GPO’s winning bid of $387,000 was 23% below what it charged for printing the budget last year. By accepting the GPO bid, OMB bypassed a potential showdown with Congress, which ordered the administration to have GPO print the budget. OMB had put the job out for bids as part of its campaign to end what it calls GPO’s monopoly on government printing. The administration says a law requiring executive-branch agencies to submit all their printing jobs to GPO is unconstitutional. OMB published a proposed rule in November that would permit each department and agency to contract directly for printing services, bypassing GPO. (SAA, 11/15/02) The General Accounting Office threw a potential roadblock in the way of that plan. In a December 16 decision, GAO said the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management was prohibited from paying a $21,000 bill for photocopying legal documents at a Kinko’s store because bureau employees did not first ask GPO to do the work. GAO said agencies are required by law to seek a waiver from GPO before hiring a private printing contractor. OMB Director Mitch Daniels contends that bypassing GPO would save the government $50 million to $70 million a year, because agencies would no longer pay fees to the printing office for its services as a middleman. GPO contracts out more than 80% of the government’s printing work, but contends Daniels is vastly overestimating the potential savings. A GPO spokesman said, under the OMB plan, the government would lose the benefit of GPO’s expertise in printing and agencies would incur additional costs in administering the contracts. The proposed rule would require agencies to post all printing opportunities worth more than $2,500 on FedBizOpps. For other services, only contracts above $25,000 must be solicited through FedBizOpps. Under the Federal Acquisition Regulation, all contracts between $2,500 and $100,00 would be set aside for small businesses. The General Services Administration is considering establishing a GSA schedule contract for printing, the announcement said. GPO would be permitted to compete with vendors for agency printing contracts. “The ability to work directly with agencies on printing jobs of all types and sizes will give small business printers many new opportunities to demonstrate their abilities for future work,” the announcement said. (The proposed rule is FAR Case 2002-011 in the Nov. 13 Federal Register.) Printing Industries of America, a leading trade association, originally opposed the OMB proposal. But Benjamin Cooper, the group’s executive vice president, said the proposed rule answered many of the industry’s concerns by ensuring that small firms have a chance to bid. Both GPO and the industry had warned that agencies would handle many of their printing jobs in-house, using high-speed copiers or desktop publishing technology, but the proposed rule would sharply limit that practice. “In short, OMB will not permit agencies to use this new policy to make or continue costly investments in printing equipment when more cost-effective solutions are available,” the announcement said. In his May memorandum, Daniels wrote, “The time has come for the Executive Branch to liberate its agencies from a monopoly that unfairly penalizes both taxpayers and efficient would-be competitors.” (SAA, 5/17) Both the Reagan and Clinton administration had proposed similar policies on printing, but the changes were blocked by Congressional opposition.