Federal Manager's Daily Report

Federal agencies that still maintain their own operations for printing that need not be done internally would be better off relying on GPO for their needs, that agency’s director, Davita Vance-Cooks, said at a House Administration Committee hearing.

“We have long advocated that where federal agency printing is required, our partnership with the private sector printing industry is the most cost-effective way of producing it. Multiple studies have shown that it is more cost-effective for agencies and the taxpayer to contract out for printing that it deemed to be procurable (i.e., printing not immediately required for agency use or otherwise not sensitive or classified) than it is to produce in agency printing plants,” she said.

She pointed to a 2013 GAO report that identified some 80 printing plants still in operation government-wide, saying that “additional savings for taxpayers could occur if the work these plants are producing is transferred instead to GPO’s partnership with the private sector printing and information product industry.”

Cybersecurity is another main issue for GPO, she said, since it faces the same issue as other agencies “in terms of determined and advanced capability threat actors, from a variety of sources such as nation states, cybercriminal elements, hacktivists, and others, who are constantly evolving their tactics and methods in attempts to gain unauthorized access to and/or disrupt our IT operations. This results in the constant need to invest in the latest preventative and detective technologies and to continually invest in training and competent personnel to operate and manage these technologies and processes.”