United States Government Publishing Office

• 1. Introduction

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  The United States Government Publishing Office prints U.S. passports, publishes Supreme Court opinions, and keeps the official record of every law Congress passes. It is a single agency serving all three branches of the federal government, and most Americans have never thought about it for a single moment. That gap between its reach and its obscurity is worth closing.

  On the 23rd of June, 1860, Congress created the agency by joint resolution. It opened its doors on the 4th of March, 1861, with 350 employees on staff. Over the following century, it grew into one of the largest printing operations in the country, reaching a peak workforce of 8,500 people in 1972. Then it began to shrink, as paper gave way to screens and printing presses gave way to servers.

  In December 2014, Congress quietly changed the agency's name from the Government Printing Office to the Government Publishing Office. That single-word swap, buried in an omnibus funding bill, signals a deeper question: what is the role of a government agency built around ink and paper in an age of digital information? The chapters ahead trace how this institution has answered that question, from its red brick headquarters in Washington to the electronic chips now embedded in every American passport.

• 2. A Building Unlike Any Other

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  At the corner of North Capitol Street NW and H Street NW in the District of Columbia stands a large red brick building that has housed the GPO since 1903. In a city of marble and granite, it is conspicuously different. The Smithsonian Castle and the Pension Building, now known as the National Building Museum, share that distinction, but most federal structures do not.

  The GPO has occupied this corner for its entire history, never relocating. A second structure was added to the building's north side in later years, expanding the complex as the agency's workload grew. The choice of red brick was not a minor aesthetic decision; it gave the GPO a presence that set it apart from the temples and monuments surrounding it, looking less like a shrine and more like a working industrial facility.

  The building's character reflects the agency's function. This was never a place built for ceremony. It was built to produce things, millions of them, day after day, for a federal government that runs on official documents.

• 3. What the GPO Actually Makes

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  The Congressional Record, the Federal Register, the United States Code, Public and Private Laws, the House Journal, the Senate Journal, the Statutes at Large: the GPO prints all of these in-house rather than contracting them out. The Federal Register is the official daily publication for federal agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices.

  Beyond the official journals, the agency's publication history runs deep. Foreign Relations of the United States, a series documenting American diplomacy, has been published by the GPO for the Department of State since 1861. The Statistical Abstract of the United States was published by the GPO for the Census Bureau from 1878 all the way to 2012. Public Papers of the Presidents covers every administration from Herbert Hoover forward, with the notable exception of Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose papers were printed privately.

  The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, published between 1870 and 1888, and the Official Records of the American Civil War round out a catalog of publications that spans American history from its most turbulent periods onward. The GPO also publishes its own style manual, which governs writing and editing across the federal government.

• 4. Passports and Trusted Traveler Cards

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  GPO has been producing U.S. passports since the 1920s. In 2006, the Department of State began issuing e-passports, which contain an electronic chip embedded in the cover. That chip holds the same data printed on the passport's biographical page: name, date and place of birth, sex, issuance and expiration dates, passport number, and a photo of the bearer.

  The division of labor between the two agencies is precise. The GPO produces the blank e-passport booklet; the State Department receives applications, adjudicates them, and issues the finished document. In May 2007, GPO ceased production of legacy passports entirely and shifted all output to the e-passport format.

  In March 2008, the Washington Times published a three-part investigation into the outsourcing of electronic passport components to overseas companies. One of those companies, based in Thailand, was identified as having been subject to Chinese espionage. Beyond passports, the GPO also designs, prints, encodes, and personalizes Trusted Traveler Program cards, including NEXUS, SENTRI, and FAST cards, for the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection.

• 5. Dissemination and the SuDocs System

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  Adelaide Hasse founded the Superintendent of Documents classification system, which organizes federal publications in a way that librarians across the country rely on. The Superintendent of Documents, known by the shorthand SuDocs, oversees all information dissemination at the GPO.

  That dissemination reaches the public through several channels. The Federal Depository Library Program, the Cataloging and Indexing Program, and the Publication Sales Program each serve different audiences. The Federal Citizen Information Center in Pueblo, Colorado, is another arm of this effort, connecting everyday citizens with government information.

  Environmental considerations have also shaped GPO operations. The agency first used 100 percent recycled paper for the Congressional Record and the Federal Register between 1991 and 1997, under Public Printers Robert Houk and Michael DiMario. After a gap, GPO resumed using recycled paper in 2009.

• 6. Going Digital

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  In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the GPO Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act. It was the legal foundation that let the GPO put government information online for the first time. One year later, the agency began making documents publicly available on the internet.

  In 2009, the GPO replaced its earlier online platform, known as GPO Access, with the Federal Digital System, branded as FDsys. Seven years after that, in 2016, the agency launched GovInfo, a mobile-friendly successor designed for a public increasingly using phones rather than desktop computers. GovInfo provides free public access to the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, Public Papers of the Presidents, the U.S. Code, and other materials.

  The name change that took effect on the 17th of December, 2014, following President Barack Obama's signature, made the shift official at the institutional level. Davita Vance-Cooks became the first person to hold the new title of Director, succeeding the long-standing designation of Public Printer. That older title traces its lineage to Benjamin Franklin, who served as publick printer for Pennsylvania and other colonies before the American Revolution, producing official government documents in the era before the United States existed.

• 7. The GPO Police

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  Inside GPO facilities, law enforcement is handled by a dedicated force called the Government Publishing Office Police. In 2003, that force numbered 53 officers. Officers are appointed under Title 44 USC Section 317 by the Public Printer or their delegate.

  The mission is defined narrowly: to protect persons and property in premises and adjacent areas occupied by or under the control of the Government Printing Office. Officers hold concurrent jurisdiction with local agencies wherever GPO facilities are located. In Washington, that means a cooperative agreement with the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, which grants GPO officers authority to enforce city laws including the Traffic Code.

  Officers are authorized to carry and use arms, make arrests for violations of federal and state law, and remove individuals who violate GPO regulations. The existence of a sworn law enforcement agency inside a printing and publishing operation reflects how seriously the federal government treats the security of the documents produced here, from passports to laws of the United States.