Full Committee Hearing: “Oversight of the Government Publishing Office in a Digital-First Era”

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

The Committee on House Administration will come to order. The title of today's hearing is Oversight of the Government Publishing Office in the Digital-First Era. I note a quorum is present. Without objection, the chair may declare recess at any time. Also, without objection, the hearing record will remain open for 5 legislative days so members may submit any materials they wish to be included therein. Thank you, Ranking Member Morelle, members of the committee, and our witness for participating in today's hearing. This is the first full committee oversight hearing for GPO since 2020. Our purpose here today is twofold: first, to examine the current work of GPO, including successful initiatives and ongoing challenges, and second, to discuss how the agency is adapting to the digital-first era and evaluate what statutory reforms may be necessary. Over its 165 years, the Government Publishing Office has effectively delivered on its mission to provide trusted information from the federal government to the American people. Its vision is America Informed. When it first opens its doors, coincidentally the same day President Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861, GPO was directed to carry out printing authorized by Congress, federal agencies, and the courts. Today, their role is broader. Today, 1,600 employees at GPO operate distribution centers nationwide to fulfill the publishing needs of every branch of government. One great example is the passport book, which GPO has produced for the State Department for 100 years. It also produces credentials for agencies and products used for presidential inaugurations and the State of the Union address. As the agency develops plans to use the latest technologies, we'll explore how GPO is adapting its business operations to meet customer needs. Another example of GPO's expanded mission is the Federal Depository Library Program. Formally established by Congress in 1962, this program provides nationwide public access to government information by sharing published resources with a web of libraries across the country. On top of that, in recent decades, GPO has transformed its digital operations to continue meeting the needs of people where they're at. One notable example is the website GovInfo, which GPO maintains to provide permanent public access to government information online. At the start of the year, GPO announced they'd surpassed 15 billion retrievals of government information through govinfo.gov. Finally, as a legislative branch agency, GPO also ensures lawmakers can effectively do their job of representing the American people. Some of their services to Congress include printing and publishing committee reports, reviewing and editing legislative text prior to online publication, and daily publication of the Congressional Record, which documents the proceedings and debates of this body for history. While GPO has effectively performed and adapted to needs over its 165-year history, changes are undoubtedly necessary to keep pace with the private sector, to ensure we meet the evolving needs of our government, and to continue serving the American people. In today's digital-first era, the work of the GPO has become more critical than ever, both for the institution and for government as a whole. Thank you for being here today, and I look forward to hearing your testimony, Director Halpern. With that, I'll yield to the ranking member, Mr. Morelle, for his opening statement.

Ranking Member Joseph Morelle (D-NY)SPEAKER_01

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for your opening comments, and thanks for calling this hearing together. And again, welcome back to your old stomping grounds, Director Halpern. It's nice to see you once again. Under the heading—we used to say this in Albany all the time—under the heading of everything's been said, but not by everybody, let me make a few comments. I was going to begin my remarks by talking about March 4th, 1861, that consequential day, not only Abraham Lincoln's inauguration, but I've been scooped on that, the beginning of the Congressional Printing Office, and so appreciate that, the long history, and one of our true institutional treasures. I think we believe that, and appreciate all the comments by the chair that I agree with relative to the incredible work you do. And we have relied for that 165 years on GPO to carry out our Article I responsibilities and duties. And ensuring over the decades that it has grown into the world's largest and most celebrated information organization takes the support and the partnership with Congress. So—and I think, as you noted, the Government Publishing Office now. I don't know why we still say Printing Office. I apologize for that. I should get more with the 21st century. But it does recognize it's a modern, digital-first publishing service for all three branches, and it is also remarkably a largely self-funded agency, which is something I think most taxpayers would be happy to hear. You continue to produce, as the chair mentioned, essential printed materials like the Congressional Record, Federal Register, and a register in the U.S. passports, and now provides ebooks, digital publishing services, mobile access, and so much more, indicative of the way that Americans get their information also. And you've kept with the times and continue to adapt to that. And those innovations have lowered costs, increased efficiency, and strengthened public access, still so vital, public access to government information, all saving taxpayers money while enhancing that transparency and that accountability. And particularly, I think, in an era marked by misinformation, by fractured media, coordinated efforts to distort public record, the role of trusted government authoritative information is indispensable, which is why your mission, keeping America informed, has never mattered more. The chair mentioned the Federal Depository Library Program and how important that is to the more than 1,000, I think, depository libraries across the country that you serve, which includes—I'll just make a public service announcement for the Rochester Public Library that I'm privileged to represent, as well as the Rush Rhees Library at the University of Rochester. And those are two of those libraries that provide the public in my community with a vast and constantly evolving body of information from the government, newly issued and revised documents to resources on health, careers, military, science, and so much more. In addition, the FDLP plays a critical continuity of government role by ensuring federal information is preserved and available in dispersed locations, sort of this distributed information. So I'm interested in hearing today about the challenges you may face in administering the program as digital materials become predominant, difficulties depository libraries may encounter in managing tangible collections that have outgrown their physical space, obviously something to be concerned about, and recommendations to further modernize the programs that you may have. And I look forward to discussing, I think, some of the broader challenges you may face. Workforce, I assume, is skewing older, and I'm interested in hearing about plans to ensure critical skills and institutional knowledge are successfully passed on and preserved to the next generation. The committee, particularly the Subcommittee on Modernization and Innovation, which my good friend Ms. Bice leads, has spent time discussing how increasing the volume of legislation introduced each Congress strains legislative capacity. I'm curious whether or not efforts to alleviate that strain, such as allowing members to waive GPO proofreading, have been effective. The committee has also spent a—and I'll close with this—has spent a significant time examining the impact of the Loper Bright decision on institutional capacity. And as Congress is required to draft legislation that is more specific, more technical, more complex, more detailed, needing more and more information, I'd welcome your perspective, Mr. Director, on the challenges that that may pose for the GPO as we go through and enter into that sort of new era. But once again, thank you to you and your staff. Thank you for being here today. Thanks for all that you do. And certainly thank you to the chairman for holding this important hearing. I yield back.

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

always a Rochester plug, but a Rochester Library plug today. That was well done. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. Without objection, all members' opening statements will be made part of the hearing record if they're submitted to the committee clerk by 5:00 p.m. today. As our witness today, we have Hugh Halpern, Director of GPO. Director Halpern was nominated by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate in December 2019. Prior to that role, he was Director of Floor Operations for then-Speaker Ryan and served on half a dozen committees during his 30 years of service to the House. We're pleased to have you back with us today in the House. Director Halpern, you're now recognized for 5 minutes to provide your opening statement.

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Morelle, all of the members of the committee. I am pleased to appear back in my old stomping grounds here in the House. I'm here on behalf of GPO's 1,625 craftspeople and professionals, all of whom work to support Congress and our vision of an America informed. As the Chairman mentioned, this is a big year for GPO. Along with the nation's 250th birthday, GPO turns 165, and we celebrate a century of producing the U.S. passport. As you know, GPO runs like a business, and we charge our customers for the work we do. I'm pleased to announce that we have just successfully completed our annual financial statement audit, and that shows that we ended fiscal year 2025 with total revenue of just over $1.3 billion. While we have a diverse portfolio of products supporting all three branches of government, I'm focusing my remarks today on the work we do for Congress. When people think of GPO, they often picture us as a building filled with printing and binding equipment. While we are, most of the work we do for Congress is essentially document conversion. We receive paper documents, typically with a basic electronic file, and we need to convert them into easily accessible, structured data files that can be distributed both digitally and in print. That's where our work is. It's not in the printed output. Unfortunately, GPO's software stack, which Congress also uses to produce its own official documents, has not kept pace. Replacing our legacy composition engine with our new Xpub product will allow us to round-trip electronic files in the legislative branch's native XML format. We're making progress with this transition. Now, when I worked in the House, I was always told that Xpub was two years away. That was more than eight years ago. And at the risk of being my own punchline, I'm pleased to report that we're in the user testing phase of our release for bills, resolutions, and amendments, and we hope to move to production by the end of the calendar year. It is a very complicated project with multiple House and Senate dependencies, but everybody's working together to bring it in for a landing. One area where I'm pleased to report that we have a new product available today is our Model Context Protocol server for GovInfo, our trusted digital repository for government information. Our MCP server, which is today in public preview, will allow LLMs and other AI models to access GovInfo without having to separately train on it. That means when it's integrated with these services, you can ask Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini your question, and it can respond with up-to-date, accurate government information. We believe that this is a far better approach than building our own chat interface for GovInfo. We're really excited to see what the community can do with these new capabilities. GPO's single biggest challenge is the age of its workforce. Our median age is 54. The federal average is 47. When I started at GPO at the end of 2019, almost half of the agency was eligible to retire in 2027. The good news is we've already pushed that cliff back to 2030 through targeted recruiting, apprenticeships, on-the-job training, and a recent graduate program. We're going to continue investing in our next generation to ensure that we have the people we need to deliver for our customers. That also means we've got to work smarter with the people we have. Let me give you one example related to our chronic backlog in processing bills. With the support of the Modernization and Innovation Subcommittee, under the leadership of Chair Bice and Ranking Member Torres, we created a partnership with the Clerk and provided members with the option to opt out of having their bills proofread by GPO. While I still believe that our proofreading process yields a higher-quality product, we have seen that we can produce these bills much more quickly if a member is willing to accept that risk. Only about 9% of our bills are processed using this option, but among those that are, we can generally batch process them in as little as 20 minutes and quickly move them into production, often making them available on the next day. Lastly, just a brief note that GPO's statutes need to be updated. They were written for the world of print, not our digital present, and I look forward to working with the committee to ensure that our statutes facilitate and don't impede our work. Since I last appeared here, a great deal has changed. In that time, we've seen nearly a 400% increase in monthly GovInfo retrievals, and our annual passport production has nearly doubled. Our gross revenue is up over $392 million in that same period. None of that would have been possible without the support of this committee. Chairman Steil, Ranking Member Morelle, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I am open to whatever questions you may have.

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

Thank you very much, Director. I'll begin our questions, followed by the ranking member. I recognize myself for 5 minutes. I want to start off with GPO's role for 100 years in the passport operation. As we look back a handful of years ago, there were significant delays as it relates to passports. Obviously, there's a role of the State Department, GPO. Was part of that delay the result of GPO technology? Could you provide a little bit of color as to what that delay was and how some of that has already been solved and ways that GPO is analyzing a potential future increase in the demand for passports?

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

Absolutely. So it's important to remember GPO produces the blank passports that State Department then adjudicates and personalizes. During my tenure, supply has never been a real issue in backlogs. That said, the State Department keeps increasing their orders. This year it's a record 27 million. We are on track to provide that that number of passports this year to the State Department. We have boosted our capabilities to deliver passports to the processing centers in timely fashion. So, for instance, we just opened up a new distribution facility adjacent to our Pueblo distribution facility where we can ensure that West Coast processing facilities will be within one day's delivery time for passports, much like East Coast and southern processing centers. So we continue to work with our State Department customer to make sure that we deliver the supplies they need.

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

So I'm going to bring you all the way down. You think you, from the supply side at GPO, you think you can meet the demand?

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

We believe we can. We're continuing to hire folks. We need to make sure that we've—

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

Understood. Only in cognizance of the time, we could go for probably 5 hours talking about it, but that's helpful to know, as I think making sure that these are processed quickly is really important.

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

Absolutely.

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

Let me shift gears a little bit into the business model. Uniquely, GPO is largely self-funded, about a 90/10 ratio, 10% appropriated by Congress, 90% billing your customers, if you will. As you look out at the change in the business model from printing into more of a digital framework, do you think you can maintain that balance? Can you improve upon that balance? How do you look out in the future?

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

Absolutely. So, the short answer is is that our pricing structure is focused on on what it takes for us to produce the entire item. So let me give you an example. The Congressional Record is a good example. We bill that at several hundred dollars per page, and that includes everything from doing the document conversion to laying it out to ultimately producing it online and in its tangible format. One price covers everything. That has worked really, really well for us. We adjust those prices as we need to. We realize that both Congress and some of our executive branch customers are increasingly price-conscious. So we're looking for new investments in technology and other things to to drive those costs down.

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

With my 90 seconds remaining, I want to touch base on that technology. Some of what you talked about earlier, I think, was quite interesting about how you're converting hard text into digital format. Obviously AI has a huge opportunity and just broadly technology writ large. And we think about that conversion process, what it looked like even 5 or 10 years ago is we are light years ahead of where we were. Do you utilize AI? Do you think you have the technology needed? How do you think that'll transform GPO?

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

We use machine learning and associated technologies in a variety of different places. We are looking very closely at solutions. So, one thing that we have deployed recently is a technology called Schematron, which can figure out if our structured data files are internally consistent and flag problems before they become bigger problems. We still haven't found a good substitute for a GPO proofreader. They've been doing this work for years. They know how you talk, and they know what that's supposed to look like. And their job is to make sure that they are faithfully presenting your remarks in the Congressional Record or in your bill or whatever. And we haven't found a machine that can do that as well as our well-trained folks yet. So, I think we are open to looking at a mix of technologies that can really let our people do the work they do best and try and clear out some of that more routine scut work.

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

Very good. Thank you very much, Director. Thanks for being here, and welcome back to the House. Thank

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

you.

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

I yield back. I now recognize the ranking member, Mr. Morelle, for questions.

Ranking Member Joseph Morelle (D-NY)SPEAKER_01

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In your testimony, you talked about Title 44, which governs much of GPO's activity, which I think, as you said, was written for the age of print and no longer reflects how GPO operates today. So with much of our publications needing to move to digital formats, are there statutory printing obligations that you currently have which you think no longer serve your mission or customers that we should be thinking about?

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

So, the way GPO is structured and the way Title 44 is structured is GPO is governed by the Joint Committee on Printing, which this year is chaired by the Senate, but in the past, it alternates between the House and the Senate. The JCP, working with GPO, has found ways to sort of, as I like to put it, operate in the liminal spaces of our statute so that we can usually find ways to get around some of the more rigid parts of Title 44. But a good example is the number of printed copies we're supposed to make is written in statute. That doesn't make any sense anymore. So addressing what we call the usual number to reflect the current practice where we work closely with JCP and the Clerk and the Secretary of the Senate to make sure that we're not overproducing things that people don't need. So I would—we've submitted to this committee and to the Senate a series of legislative proposals, some big, some very small, and we're happy to talk with you all about what the right package there looks like.

Ranking Member Joseph Morelle (D-NY)SPEAKER_01

Well, and I would certainly defer to the subcommittee chair on modernization and the ranking member, Ms. Torres, to take those up. But I think it is interesting, not only here in Washington, but my prior life in the state legislature in New York, how many things get written into statute that make no sense. When you think about it over time, every time we have to change a number, we have to go back and rewrite or change the law, and it does become outmoded. There's probably better ways to do it. So I would certainly, Mr. Chair, look forward to working with you and the subcommittee chair and ranking member to make that easier. If you were asked, what's one legislative change for the committee to prioritize as it relates to GPO? Is there any thoughts that you have about ways that we can continue to serve the mission, but make it easier, more effective, more efficient, or things that you just think, okay, why do we have to do it this way?

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

There are a number of changes, one of which—a good example is I'd —

Ranking Member Joseph Morelle (D-NY)SPEAKER_01

like a good example. Let's go. Don't give me a bad example.

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

I've got plenty of bad ones. Give me a good one. But a good example would be the fact that our statutes don't spell out the fact that we can provide publishing services in addition to printing services for a lot of our customers. So, the addition of just that one word vastly expands what we can provide our personnel to our— whether it's our congressional customers or our executive branch customers, because we aren't doing as much printing anymore. Really, what we're doing is helping folks prepare these documents. At the end of the day, if you need a set number of printed copies, we've got the machinery to do that. But that is not the number one thing we do anymore.

Ranking Member Joseph Morelle (D-NY)SPEAKER_01

Got it. Okay, that's very helpful. And I think, again, I defer to my colleagues, but I think we're all looking for ways to continue the mission, make sure that at the end of the day, the most important thing is that the information is made available to taxpayers and to citizens so that they can continue to feel like they have transparency and access to the government. So, and it's no There's no secret that when Abe Lincoln was inaugurated 165 years ago today, and the—not today, next month, March—and the Government Printing Office was on that, it was just done differently. You couldn't foresee the world as it is today, but we want to make sure we keep present and keep active. I have other questions that related to your comments to bolt on to digital capabilities in the absence of reform to the law, but I think I'll defer. We can have further conversations. But in the interest of time and the fact that I have 6 seconds left, let me just conclude by thanking you again for being here, for your leadership, your team. And thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to ask some questions. And I yield back.

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

Thank you. The gentleman yields back. The gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Griffith, is recognized for his 5 minutes.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)SPEAKER_06

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I greatly appreciate it. Mr. Halpern, good to see you.

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

You too, sir.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)SPEAKER_06

Hope you're doing well.

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

Thank you.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)SPEAKER_06

Earlier this Congress, I introduced H.R. 6028, the Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act. One of the things that the bill does is it transfers the power to appoint the director of the GPO from the president to a congressional commission consisting of House and Senate leadership, as well as chairs of House Administration Committee and the Senate Rules Committee. Do you agree with me that these changes would help strengthen transparency, continuity, and accountability at GPO compared to the current appointment process?

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

Absolutely. So the GPO provisions in your bill actually do three things, and they're all very important. First is, as you mentioned, it addresses the constitutional issues surrounding the appointment of the director. There are two other constitutional issues where we've been sort of operating in that liminal space between the executive and legislative. One is what we call the print mandate, the requirement that people use GPO. The executive branch has said that's unconstitutional since the mid-1980s. We've sort of skirted around that, and we kind of ignore it these days, but it's still on the books. The last place, which in my opinion is just as important as the appointment of the director, is our personnel system. Through sort of a fluke from President Harding, I believe it was President Harding, maybe it was President Cleveland, but by executive order they placed GPO's personnel system under what today is OPM. I think that provides the same kinds of constitutional conflicts that we get from the print mandate and others. So I believe that the series of reforms you've got in your bill would serve GPO well into the future, both with respect to our obligation to the legislative branch, but to all of the other work we do as well.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)SPEAKER_06

I appreciate that. And we're going to blame it on Harding, because Coolidge's secretary, which would now be the chief of staff, was a former congressman from the 9th Congressional District of Virginia. So it's going to be Harding's fault, not Coolidge's. I'm just saying. That said, let me show my ignorance on something, because I'm always trying to learn stuff. I heard and was interested in your testimony and where you said that the processing bills without proofreading. So is that before it comes to me for me to file?

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

No, sir.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)SPEAKER_06

It's after that.

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

So what happens today for a bill that goes through the normal process is we receive from the clerk the—

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)SPEAKER_06

after passage,

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

after, after introduction.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)SPEAKER_06

After introduction. Okay.

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

We receive the paper version, the manuscript, from the clerk. We also usually, but not always, get an electronic file that goes with it. If you went to Legis Counsel, that's great for us, because we get a really good electronic file. But sometimes we only get a Word file, which doesn't help us all that much. But my team's job is to make sure that that paper, because that's the official document of record, matches that electronic file.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)SPEAKER_06

Okay.

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

And we often have questions. Sometimes there's a discrepancy between the two, or sometimes because my folks look at literally thousands of bills a week, they're pretty good at going, did you actually mean to leave off 3 zeros in this figure?

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)SPEAKER_06

So if we use the AI concept, is there some way that if there is a glitch, 'cause every now and then there will be, that we can catch that?

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

I hope so. I know that I've got high faith in my team that we're going to catch stuff. There's a lot of stuff like capitalization or how you structure some of these typographic styles. That stuff we can probably get through some sort of automated system, but it's that more refined view where the guys who proofread— guys and gals who proofread bills, they're kind of like well-trained paralegals. They know what they're looking at and free them up to see if they can spot the bigger mistakes.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)SPEAKER_06

My time's running out, but the— so would you go back and double-check AI? Every so often we would

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

have them do a first, first cut on low-level stuff and then have our people.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)SPEAKER_06

and I'm sure Ms. Bice is much better versed on this. But I think it's a good plan. I just wanted to make sure that I understood exactly what it was, because if it's before it's introduced, I'm proofreading it,

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

right? Absolutely.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)SPEAKER_06

I yield back.

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

The gentleman yields back. The gentlewoman from California, whose home district will be about 100 degrees warmer than mine this weekend, Representative Torres is recognized.

Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA)SPEAKER_03

Come to my district. Always invited. Chairman, I think this is one of the best meetings that we have had where there's, you've already asked all my questions, and it's really great. I want to follow up on the passport question that the chairman asked. If we have a surge, all of us are encouraging our constituents to apply for their American passport. So if we have a surge, are you prepared to deal with that?

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

We believe we are. Okay We are. So we manufacture passports in two locations, one here in D.C., right on the other side of Union Station, and the other in Stennis, Mississippi. Both of those facilities run most of the week. Stennis runs basically all day, every day. We've found it's more efficient to run four 10-hour days with our folks. We run two of those shifts a day. And then in Stennis, we also run a weekend shift, a Friday, Saturday, Sunday shift. So

Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA)SPEAKER_03

that could be scaled up if needed.

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

Right, right. And we can hire more people to do that. At some point, we'll just run into our machines will have a top-level capacity, but we're in the process of replacing some of those machines with more modern equipment that'll have better uptime, better processing speeds, all in preparation for the next version of the passport when State is ready to move forward with that.

Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA)SPEAKER_03

Okay. As you know, Modernization Chair Bice and I are working on how to best modernize the legislative branch systems, including GPO. I'm concerned that Congress is asking you to serve the public with a budget that hasn't kept pace with how people access information anymore. Fiscal year 2026 funding level for GPO is $800 million. Can you talk a little bit about your budgetary needs and what is it that you need?

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

So as I mentioned, we're— we are largely self-funded. So for Congress, you give us about $80 million a year for those programs.

Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA)SPEAKER_03

And the price for the passports went up.

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

price for passports went up. And, yeah, just to give you an idea of the cost structure, depends on the year and it depends on quantity, but we charge the State Department someplace between $23 and $25 per book. Sometimes they'll give us a supplemental order, you know, an extra million at the end of a year. We will have already recouped all of our overhead costs, so we can drive that that individual piece down to basically the cost of materials and a little bit of labor. In terms of the work we do for Congress, we we are within the budget that that you all have have given us. It's a it's a difficult estimating process for us. We need to, based on historical data, we estimate what your volume will be in a particular year and try and match that with with the appropriated level we get for that. Where we actually run into a much tighter budgetary situation is with the Federal Depository Library Program. That's a purely appropriated program. The good news is we have driven down the costs of that program because it's now largely digital, so it's just feeding off of the files we're creating every day. With that said, we still have librarians and other really highly skilled professionals in that unit, and those personnel costs continue to increase. But

Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA)SPEAKER_03

I'm going to stop you there because we're running out of time, and I really want you to tell our members, or at least to say it out loud once, once more, how many amendments members of Congress filed?

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

So, I apologize. I actually don't have up-to-date numbers, but in terms of bills, we are well up over 7,000. Last Congress, it was almost 23,000 measures between the House and the Senate, and each one of those my team needs to read. It's a little different this year. And make sure that we're accurate. It is difficult work, and I can give you a small recent example, less with a bill, but with the work we do on legislation. There was a large there was a large insert into the Congressional Record just a couple of weeks ago, and we didn't get the underlying Word document; all we got was a scanned version. So we actually had to do that We had to read that document twice. Once was convert that scanned document into a text file and make sure that that translation was accurate, and then engross all of the handwritten changes and things like that with that scanned document. So if we if we're getting good files on the front end, that can help us speed up that process. But

Rep. Norma Torres (D-CA)SPEAKER_03

thank you. And thank you, Chairman, for your generosity and time. Thank you very much.

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

The gentlewoman yields back. The gentlewoman from Oklahoma, who is the chair of the Subcommittee on Modernization, who's been ingratiated in this issue, is recognized for 5 minutes.

Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK)SPEAKER_02

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Director Halpern, it's great to see you again. Glad to have you with us. I want to also thank you for your work with the Modernization Subcommittee and the Clerk's Office to pilot the waiving proofreading option for bill introductions. I was able to have a little sidebar with my colleague from Virginia to explain sort of the reasons for the waiving of proofreading. And I think it's been, I would say, successful in trying to help reduce the number of bills that you're having to to proofread, but also getting things through the pipeline a bit quicker. So thank you for your work on that issue. Last year, I also introduced legislation to remove the printing requirement for the Constitution Annotated, CONAN, and replace it with a digital-only version. And according to the CBO, replacing the print version of CONAN with the digital version, which is already publicly available and out there, would reduce the Library of Congress's operating costs by $4 million over the next several years. The Library has actually hosted CONAN on their website since 2019. It's easily searchable, accessible, and provides links to the Supreme Court decisions, and it's being updated real time by CRS, which is incredibly important. Despite this, we are still spending a tremendous amount of money on producing hard copies of it because it is required by statute. And you addressed previously, there are many of these areas that have been codified in statute that you are required to print, and I would love the opportunity to work with you to find some ways to reduce that burden. My assumption would—and this is the first question—be that many of the printed documents or books that you are currently producing are available online. Is that

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

correct? Absolutely. Almost everything is available online, either through GovInfo or some other fashion. But yes.

Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK)SPEAKER_02

Great. I think there's an opportunity for us to be able to scale that back, still providing transparency for the American people if they want to read these documents, but saving taxpayer money because they are available digitally. And when the original statutes were written, that wasn't an option. So

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

Absolutely. And if I can just sort of fill in there just a hair, one of the changes—and I can't take credit for this; this was happening as I arrived at GPO—but one of the changes we made was shifting from traditional offset printing to digital inkjet technology for a lot of our more routine documents. Offset printing requires large quantities to be economical. That first copy that comes off of the press costs you thousands of dollars, and everything else is just pennies. Whereas digital inkjet, it is a per-copy cost. You are paying for ink and materials and that machine. So, as a result, a digital inkjet press doesn't care whether we're printing 10 copies of something or 10,000 copies of something. That allows our process to be a lot more economical, a lot more automated, and really help drive down those costs. And we're always looking for technologies that will enable us to do things like that.

Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK)SPEAKER_02

What would you say is the percentage of documents that are now being printed using digital rather than offset?

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

I can get you that exact number. It is most of our daily publications, so the Congressional Record, Federal Register, CFRs. We are getting ready to retire one of our big offset presses that we purchased about 10 years ago because we can supplement all of the work that we were doing. That machine gets used for hearings, big reports, that kind of thing. We can do all of that through digital inkjet and the cost is a lot lower.

Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK)SPEAKER_02

I like saving taxpayer money, so it's great to hear that. Let me pivot, if I may, to your website talks about 10 different use cases for AI that are being utilized, piloted, or currently under review. And as the Subcommittee on Modernization, that's something that we are looking at. How do we properly and responsibly bring AI into the legislative discussion here and be able to utilize it? Our offices are actually adopting Microsoft Copilot to be able to allow for speedy access to information through email or calendar review and utilizing AI. Talk a little bit about what

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

It's probably not a lot different than what the House is doing sort of on the administrative side. So, for instance, we are using Copilot to help draft contract terms for our acquisitions professionals. Again, need a human being on the other side of that to make sure you're doing it right. I got a lot of lawyers who don't want to

Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK)SPEAKER_02

lose their job.

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

Exactly. But they also need to make sure we're getting this right, because the cost on the other side if we don't get it right can be big. Things like that, using it for internal administrative stuff. I will fully tell you when it comes time for annual reviews and I get pages and pages and pages of stuff, I'm like, Hey, Copilot, can you put this into a couple of paragraphs for me to stick in the form so that we capture this? And it does a pretty good job of that. We are also looking to use AI tools to help with our cataloging activities with the Federal Depository Library Program. We still need good, experienced librarians and catalogers to get that work done. But if we can, just like I was talking about with bills, if we can get the machine to do the more rudimentary, the sort of initial tasks, and then free up our people to do the work that they need to do, that's really the best use of this technology.

Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK)SPEAKER_02

Thank you so much for being with us this afternoon, Director Halpern. And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

The gentlewoman yields back. We believe one more member is literally outside the door, so we're going to— we're going to pause for 30 seconds with the— with the blessing of the ranking member. If he's here, we'll continue. If he's not, we'll wrap up. So we'll just hold for just a moment.

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

I'm used to this from my days running the floor. So

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

as Director of House Operations, this would be called a regular Thursday in your

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

book. I've heard more than one time people yelling, one more, from the back of the chamber. So

Ranking Member Joseph Morelle (D-NY)SPEAKER_01

I'm— and I apologize, I do have to leave, but I do want to thank you again.

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

Absolutely.

Ranking Member Joseph Morelle (D-NY)SPEAKER_01

And look forward to staying in touch. In touch. So thank you, Mr. Chair.

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

Thank you, Ranking Member. Not that any of us have too many things to do on a day where they've moved votes up from yesterday due to the weather, so everybody's getting a little bit double-booked this afternoon. We appreciate everybody bearing with. We will now recognize the gentleman who's probably out of breath from a short jog across campus, Mr. Carey, for 5 minutes.

Rep. Mike Carey (R-OH)SPEAKER_04

Mr. Chairman, and I do appreciate your indulgence. It was there's a little bit of a line outside the Ways and Means Committee, as you can imagine. It has been truly my honor to support our Chairwoman Bice in her initiatives to modernize the House through the efforts of the Modernization Committee. And a significant aspect of our work is the implementation of the AI technologies for congressional offices and administrative staff. Breathe. In this regard, Chairwoman Bice and I are constantly looking to understand how other government offices are incorporating AI and machine learning systems into their daily operations, which bring me brings me to the GPO's Model Context Protocol, or the MCP. The Model Context Protocol is an open-source standard that allows connecting artificial intelligence applications to external systems. So in short, the public can use this protocol to examine the troves of data and better understand government information. Can you share a little bit more about this development? And as you share that, maybe explain kind of in layman's terms so people can understand exactly what that as you're describing what you're doing, describe what it means.

Hon. Hugh HalpernSPEAKER_00

Sure. So the Model Context Protocol—and I will preface this with I am not an expert in constructing APIs and these similar kinds of things, but I'll do my best—the Model Context Protocol is an avenue in for these other kinds of LLMs and other kinds of AI models so that they can utilize our depository of data and use it without having to constantly train on it ahead of time. So it's a lot more efficient, particularly for a data set that changes literally every day, multiple times a day. Every time we upload a new edition of the Congressional Record or a new group of bills that had been introduced the day before, that data set changes. But this enables your AI tool, whether it's Claude or Gemini or ChatGPT or whatever, it gives those tools a route into our data set so that it can effectively query that data set, find the answers it's looking for, and then present that back. Everybody was talking about at the beginning of sort of this AI revolution, what chatbot are we going to adopt for GovInfo? And that's not the best use of our resources because folks on the outside are going to be a lot smarter about this than we can be.

Rep. Mike Carey (R-OH)SPEAKER_04

And I appreciate that. And I know we only have a minute 44, and obviously your role in the processing and publishing of bill texts that are online, and I think, and obviously you worked on the Hill as many of us have over the years, whether in this capacity or in staff level. One of the things that I've found that it's very easy to to get the bill text, but to upload—and I'm sure this is complicated—what what exactly are kind of the synopsis of the bill. And then, I was finding just the other night trying to put together some remarks as it related to blockchain and Bitcoin and the complexities therein, even when you have a breakdown, it gets to be more complicated. So one of the things that I have discussed with our team is the possibility of somehow—and I know most of these are all verbal—but somehow a visual application as it relates to the structure and and the contents of a particular piece of legislation and vis-à-vis also the synopsis of that legislation. And going through some of the things that you've done—and I know I'm cutting into your time—but it is something that I want to continue to work on. My team will be working with you on that, and I appreciate you coming back to your old stomping grounds and look forward to working with you in the future. Again, Mr. Chairman, thank you for indulging me to be in two places at once, and with that, I yield back.

Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI)SPEAKER_05

The gentleman yields back. It's the only thing no one could do, be in two places at one time, although sometimes we wish we could. Appreciate everyone's participation. I want to thank Director, you, for coming before us today. The members of the committee may have some additional questions for you, and we ask that you please respond to those questions in writing. Without objection, each member will have five legislative days to insert additional material into the record, revise and extend their remarks. There being no further business, I thank the members for their participation. Without objection, the committee stands adjourned.