Stephanie I. Bice

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Mr. Speaker, first of all, I thank my colleague, Mr. Morelle, for his support of this very important piece of legislation. I rise today in strong support of H.R. 9342, the GPO Modernization Act of 2026. As the chair of the Subcommittee on Modernization and Innovation, I am pleased to have introduced this legislation to both modernize and encourage innovation at the Government Publishing Office by helping bring them into the 21st century. The GPO first opened its doors in 1861 and served as the printing office for Congress, Federal agencies, and the judiciary. Later, its mission expanded to include management of the Federal Depository Library Program and the GovInfo website, which serve as public repositories for government information. Through roundtable conversations with institutional staff and leaders, we learned that this 19th century institution operates under 20th century rules in the 21st century. Earlier this year, GPO Director Halpern testified before the Committee on House Administration and said the agency operates in the liminal spaces of its statute to meet the needs of Congress and Federal agencies. This bipartisan legislation hopes to address this need and seeks to change the outdated statutes, helping GPO meet its needs and helping us better serve the American people. The bill gives GPO greater flexibility to continue its business operations, which already funds 90 percent of its operations. It allows the Superintendent of Documents to meet customer demand by setting competitive and realistic prices for the sale of documents. It also allows the agencies to strategically dispose of excess publications for which there is little public interest. Specifically, this legislation will repeal antiquated printing provisions and require future editions of the annotated Constitution, or CONAN, to be published online. Producing CONAN is costly, costing taxpayers roughly $1 million a year. Furthermore, the bill will also require future editions of the Congressional Directory to be published online, saving additional taxpayer dollars. It will expand the digital presence of the Federal Depository Library Program and ensure government public information remains accessible for free use by the American public, mimicking a finding by the GPO's task force on a digital Federal Depository Library Program. This bill is simple. It brings GPO up to par with other legislative branch agencies, giving them the desperate statutory updates the Office has continually asked Congress for. Mr. Speaker, I thank GPO Director Halpern and the CHA staff for their work on this, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bipartisan commonsense legislation.