From: Reynolds, Camille (creynolds@Nossaman.com)
Date: Wed Dec 04 2002 - 11:34:11 PST
Message-ID: <1167DF5724AAD211B93B0008C7B189010242BB2F@EXCHGSF01> From: "Reynolds, Camille" <creynolds@Nossaman.com> Subject: FW: CA LIBRARIANS: IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED ON PROPOSED OMB AMENDM ENT Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 11:34:11 -0800
-----Original Message-----
From: Goldman, Ava [mailto:Ava_Goldman@CalPERS.CA.GOV]
Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 11:30 AM
To: 'ncal-lib@ucdavis.edu'
Subject: CA LIBRARIANS: IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED ON PROPOSED OMB
AMENDMENT
cross-posted.
Ava Goldman, Senior Librarian, Planning and Research Division, California
Public Employees' Retirement System, 400 P Street, Lincoln Plaza,
Sacramento, CA 95814-5345, 916-658-1533, fax 916-658-1279,
ava_goldman@calpers.ca.gov
-----Original Message-----
From: Joan Allen-Hart [mailto:jallen-hart@sdcll.org]
Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 11:02 AM
To: 'sandall@aallnet.org'; scall-list; nocall-list
Subject: [Nocall-list] CAL LAW LIBRARIANS: IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED ON
PROPOSED OMB AMENDMENT
NOCALL, SCALL & SANDALL MEMBERS: AALL Associate Washington Affairs
Representative Mary Alice Baish has asked that the following message be
distributed as widely and as quickly as possible, due to the short time for
response.
The usual apologies for duplication on multiple listservs, but I am sending
it to all 3 Cal chapters because some of our members may not be on law-lib.
AALL ACTION ALERT:
URGENT! Comments Needed by December 13th on OMB's Proposed Amendments to the
FAR That Threaten Public Access and the Federal Depository Library Program.
BACKGROUND:
Director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. of the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) issued Memorandum No. M-02-07 entitled "Procurement of Printing and
Duplicating through the Government Printing Office" (GPO) on May 3, 2002.
The memorandum calls for amendments to the Federal Acquisition Regulation
(FAR) that will allow agencies to procure their own printing outside of GPO.
The proposed amendments were published in the Federal Register, Vol. 67, No.
219, November 13, 2002, 68914-8. The deadline for comments is Friday,
December 13, 2002.
Accessible Government information is an essential principle of a democratic
society
and a valuable public good created at taxpayer expense. AALL believes that
Government should provide for equitable, effective, no-fee, efficient and
dependable access to and dissemination of Government information in
permanent and readily accessible formats. AALL further believes that a
strong, centralized, coordinated
and managed Federal information dissemination and access program, such as
the
Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP), is necessary to achieve this
important goal.
CURRENT CRISIS:
OMB's efforts to have agencies procure printing outside of GPO are not new.
Congress,
successfully thwarted similar efforts in 1987 and 1994 thereby demonstrating
their full support for public access and the FDLP. Members of the 107th
Congress, on a bicameral and bipartisan basis, strongly opposed OMB's
proposed amendments to the FAR by including provisions in their continuing
resolutions funding government operations (most recently, in H.J.Res. 124)
that would prevent agencies from using any appropriated funds to procure
publications outside of GPO.
The following talking points will be useful in your comments on the proposed
FAR:
1) The proposed amendments are a clear violation of 44 U.S.C. §501 since
they authorize agencies to procure their printing outside of GPO.
2) In addition to violating 44 U.S.C. §501, the proposed changes to the FAR
violate
other Title 44 provisions that neither OMB nor the Department of Justice
have ever challenged as unconstitutional:
* §1903 that requires agencies who procure outside of GPO to bear the costs
of
printing and binding the necessary copies for depository libraries.
The FAR proposal that the Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) would bear
these costs is contrary to current law.
* §1710 that requires agencies to supply a copy of all publications to the
SuDocs
for cataloging purposes.
How this might be achieved on a comprehensive basis under the proposed FAR
is very unclear.
3) While attempting to solve the fugitive documents problem, agency
responsibilities
in the proposed FAR are so vague that the result will be more fugitive
publications, not fewer. Today, the SuDocs, working with its professional
library personnel, provides a strong, centralized, coordinated and managed
Federal information dissemination and access program through the FDLP.
4) A strong system of coordination, including an effective and transparent
system to
bring Government publications into the FDLP, is as necessary in the
electronic environment as it is in the print world to ensure that agency
publications in all formats
are permanently accessible by the public. The proposed FAR does not create
such a system, choosing instead to leave a void in the place of the current
effective structure.
5) The proposed FAR does not take into account the need for an effective
enforcement mechanism, with Congressional oversight, to ensure that agencies
meet their legal
obligations to provide tangible and electronic publications to the SuDocs.
This change
will negatively impact the FDLP and the public's ability to locate, use, and
have permanent access to agency publications in all formats.
6) Today, the SuDocs is able to ride agency procurement orders to obtain
publications
for the FDLP and the Sales Program at low cost. Libraries and members of
the public depend on GPO's Sales Program to acquire print Government
publications.
Law libraries especially depend on the Sales Program to purchase print
Federal primary legal materials that may be provided to depository libraries
only in an unofficial electronic version. The proposed FAR does not
adequately provide for a continued cost effective Sales Program.
ACTION NEEDED:
Please submit electronic comments on the proposed FAR to
farcase.2002-011@gsa.gov
by Friday, December 13th, citing "FAR Case 2002-011" in the subject line and
the text.
Base your comments on a few of the talking points above, and be sure to talk
about the needs of your patrons to have timely, comprehensive and permanent
access to Federal government information in print and electronic formats.
Please also fax a copy of your comments to your senators and representative
at their Capitol Hill and local offices with a brief note of explanation.
If you have a newly elected representative, this is a good time to introduce
yourself while explaining the negative impact of OMB's action on public
access. (Fax is preferable to e-mail because it provides staff with a
tangible version of your comments.)
We are in a crisis situation! Members of AALL and our state chapters have
been very instrumental in helping to ward off previous efforts that would
harm the FDLP and
diminish the public's right to access Government information. I urge all
law librarians
to submit comments on this very important issue by the December 13th
deadline.
I would also appreciate it very much if you would send your comments along
to me via
e-mail at: baish@law.georgetown.edu.
Thank you very much,
Mary Alice Baish
Associate Washington Affairs Representative
American Association of Law Libraries
202-662-9200
http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/aallwash/
<http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/aallwash/>
Date: December 4, 2002.
-- Joan Allen-Hart, AALL GRC & SANDALL GRC Assistant Director for Branch Services San Diego County Public Law Library http://www.sdcll.org <http://www.sdcll.org> Mailto:jallen-hart@sdcll.org <Mailto:jallen-hart@sdcll.org> 760-940-4351 voice 760-724-7694 fax
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