▶ 0:04:32House administration will come to order. The title of today's hearing is oversight of the government publishing office in the digital first era. I know the quorum is present. Without objection, the chair may declare recess at any time. Also, without objection, the hearing record will remain open for five legislative days, so members may submit any materials they wish to be included therein. Thank you, ranking member morelli, 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.
▶ 0:05:00Our purpose here today is twofold. First, to examine the current work of gpo, including successful, successful initiatives and ongoing challenges. And second, to discuss how the agency's adapting to the digital first era and evaluate what statutory reforms may be necessary. Over 165 years, the government publishing office has effectively delivered on its mission to provide trusted information from the federal government to the american people.
▶ 0:05:29Its 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, 1600 employees at gpo operate distribution centers nationwide to to fulfill the publishing needs of every branch of government.
▶ 0:05:58One 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 is the agency developed, develops plans to use the latest technologies, will explore how gpo adapting its business operations to to meet customer needs. Another example gpo's expanded mission is the federal depository library program, formally established by congress in 1962.
▶ 0:06:27This 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 gov info, which gpo maintains to provide permanent public access to government information online.
▶ 0:06:55The story of the gpo announced that it surpassed 15 billion retrievals of government information through gov info. Gov. Finally, as legislative branch agency, gpo also ensures lawmakers can effectively do their job of representing the american people.
▶ 0:07:13Some of their services to congress include printing and publishing committee reports, reviewing and editing legislative text prior to online publications, and daily publication of the congressional record, which documents the proceedings and debates of this body for history.
▶ 0:07:27While gpo is 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.
▶ 0:07:55Director halperin, with that, I'll yield to the ranking member, Mr. morelli, for his opening statement. >> thank you very much, Mr. chairman, for, uh, for your opening comments. And thanks for calling this hearing together. And again, welcome back to your old stomping grounds. Director halperin, it's nice to see you. Uh, once again, um, 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.
▶ 0:08:24Let me make a few comments. I was going to begin my remarks by talking about march 4th, 1861, the consequential day not only abraham lincoln's inauguration, but I've been scooped on that, the, uh, the beginning of the congressional, uh, printing office. And, uh, and so, uh, appreciate that the long history, um, and one of our true institutional treasures, I think we believe that and appreciate all the comments by the chair that I agree with, uh, relative to the incredible work you do.
▶ 0:08:53And, and we have relied for that 165 years on gpo to carry out our article one responsibilities and and duties and ensuring, uh, 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, um, 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.
▶ 0:09:23Um, but it does recognize it's a modern digital first publishing, uh, service, uh, for all three branches. And it is also, remarkably, a largely self-funded agency, um, which is, uh, something I think most taxpayers would be happy to hear.
▶ 0:09:38Um, you continue to produce, as the chair mentioned, essential printed materials like the congressional record, federal registry and a register in the us passports, and now provides ebooks, uh, digital publishing services, mobile access, and so much more indicative of the way that americans get their information now. So and you've kept with the times and continue to adapt to that. Um, and those innovations have lowered costs, uh, increased efficiency and strengthened public access.
▶ 0:10:07Still so vital public access to government information, uh, all saving taxpayers money while enhancing that transparency and that accountability. And in 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.
▶ 0:10:33Um, the chair mentioned the federal depository library program. Uh, and, um, how important that is to the more than a thousand, I think, depository libraries across the country that you serve, uh, which includes, um, 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.
▶ 0:11:00Um, and those are are two of those libraries that provide the public in my community with a vast and constantly evolving, uh, body of information from the government, uh, newly issued and revised documents, uh, to resources on health, uh, careers, military science and and so much more.
▶ 0:11:19Um, in addition, the fdlp plays a critical continuity of government role by ensuring federal information is preserved and available in dispersed locations. So this distributed information, uh, so I'm interested in hearing today about the challenges you may face in administering the program. As digital materials become predominant.
▶ 0:11:42Uh, difficulties, uh, depository libraries may encounter in managing, uh, 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.
▶ 0:11:56Um, and I look forward to, uh, 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.
▶ 0:12:13Um, the committee, particularly the subcommittee on modernization and innovation, which my good friend miss 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, um, such as allowing members to waive gpo proofreading, have been effective.
▶ 0:12:36Um committees also spent a and I'll close with this, have spent a significant time examining the impact of the, uh loper bright uh, decision on institutional capacity. And as congress is required to draft legislation that is more specific, more technical, more complex, more detailed, needing, uh, more and more information, I'd welcome your perspective, Mr. director, on the challenges that may pose for the gpo as we go through and enter into that sort of new era.
▶ 0:13:05But once again, um, thank you for 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. >> always a rochester, but the rochester library plug today. That was well done. Um. 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 p.m. Today. Uh, is our witness today. We have, uh, hugh halperin, director of gpo. Director.
▶ 0:13:35Halperin was nominated by president trump and confirmed by the senate in december 2019. Prior to that role, he was director of 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. Uh, director halperin, you're now recognized for five minutes to provide your opening statement. >> thank you so much, Mr. chairman. Ranking member morelli, all of the members of the committee, I am pleased to appear back in my old stomping grounds here in the house.
▶ 0:14:03Um, I'm here on behalf of gpos 1625 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 us passport.
▶ 0:14:29As 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. Well, 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.
▶ 0:14:58When 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.
▶ 0:15:29That's where our work is. It's not in the printed output, unfortunately. Gpo software stack, which congress also uses to produce its own official documents, has not kept pace. Replacing our legacy composition engine with our new product will allow us to round trip electronic files in the legislative branches native xml format. We're making progress with this transition now.
▶ 0:15:53When I worked in the house, I was always told that was two years away. That was more than eight years ago, and at the risk of being my own punch line, um, we 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.
▶ 0:16:17It is a very complicated project with multiple house and senate dependencies, but everybody is 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 gov info, our trusted digital repository for government information.
▶ 0:16:37Our mcp server, which is today in public preview, will allow llms and other ai models to access gov info without having to separately train on it. That means when it's integrated with these services, you can ask copilot or chatgpt claude or gemini your question, and it can respond with up to date, uh, accurate government information.
▶ 0:17:05We believe that this is a far better approach than building our own chat interface for gov. 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.
▶ 0:17:32The 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 to deliver for our customers. That also means we've got to work smarter with the people we have.
▶ 0:17:58Let 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 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.
▶ 0:18:27If 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 the gpo statutes need to be updated.
▶ 0:18:55They were written for the world of print, not our digital present. 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 gov info retrievals, and our annual passport production has nearly doubled. Our gross revenue is up over $392 million in that same period.
▶ 0:19:24None of that would have been possible without the support of this committee. Chairman, chairman, style ranking member morelli and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I am open to whatever questions you may have. >> thank you very much. Uh, director, I'll begin our questions, followed by the ranking member. I recognize myself for five minutes.
▶ 0:19:45Um, I want to start off with gps role, uh, for 100 years in the passport operation is well looked back a handful of years ago. Uh, there were significant delays as it relates to passports. Obviously, there's a role of the state department gpo. Um, was part of that delay the result of of gpo technology. Could you provide a little bit of color, uh, as to what that delay was and how, uh, some of that has already been solved in ways that gpo is analyzing a potential future increase in the demand for passports.
▶ 0:20:17>> absolutely. So it's important to remember gpo produces the blank passports that state department then adjudicates and personalizes. Um, during my tenure, supply has never been a real issue in backlogs. Um, that said, the the state department keeps increasing their orders this year. It's a record 27 million.
▶ 0:20:42Um, we are on track to provide that that number of passports this year to the state department. Um, we have boosted our capabilities to deliver passports to the processing centers and timely fashion. So, for instance, we just opened up a new distribution facility adjacent to our pueblo distribution facility, where, um, we can ensure that west coast, uh, processing facilities will be within one
▶ 0:21:13Day's delivery time for passports, much like east coast and southern southern processing centers. So we continue to work with our state department customer to make sure that we, uh, we deliver the supplies they need. >> so I'm going to bring you all the way down. You think you you from the supply side of gpo, you think you can meet the demand? We we. >> believe we can. Um, we're continuing to hire folks. We need to make sure that we've, uh. >> understood only on campus at the time.
▶ 0:21:41We could go for probably five hours talking about it. But that's helpful to know is, I think making sure that these are processed quickly is really important. Absolutely. Let me shift gears a little bit into the business model. Uniquely, gpo, uh, is largely self-funded, about a 9010 ratio, 10% appropriated by congress, 90%. Uh, billing your customers, uh, if you will. Um, is you look out at the change in the business model from printing into more of a digital, uh, framework. Do you think you can maintain that balance? Can you improve upon that balance?
▶ 0:22:11How do you look out in the future? >> absolutely. So, um, the the short answer is, is that our pricing structure is, uh, 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.
▶ 0:22:31We, um, we build 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, um, that has worked really, really well for us.
▶ 0:22:52We adjust those prices as we need to, um, 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. >> with my 90s remaining, I want to touch base on that technology. Some of what you talked about earlier, I think was, was quite interesting about how your your converting hard text into digital format.
▶ 0:23:22Um, obviously ai has a huge opportunity and is broadly technology writ large. And we think about that conversion process. What it looked like even 5 or 10 years ago is we're light years ahead of where we were. Um, do you do you utilize ai? Do you think you have the technology needed? How do you think that will transform gpo? >> we we use. >> machine learning and associated technologies in a variety of different, different places. Um, we are looking very closely at solutions.
▶ 0:23:49So one thing that we have deployed recently, it's is a technology called schematron, which can figure out if our structured data files are internally consistent and flagged problems before they become bigger problems. We still haven't found a good, um, substitute for gpo proofreader. Um, they've been doing this work for years. They know how you talk, and they know what that's supposed to look like.
▶ 0:24:18And their job is to make sure that, uh, they're faithfully, uh, presenting your remarks in the congressional record or in your bill or whatever. Um, and we haven't found a machine that can do that as well as our, 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, uh, more routine scut work.
▶ 0:24:49>> for good. Thank you very much, director. Thanks for being here. Welcome back to the house. Thank you. I yield back. I now recognize the ranking member, Mr. o'malley, for questions. >> thank you. Thank you, Mr. chairman. I, um, in your testimony, you talked about title 44, um, which governs much of gpo's activity, uh, which I think, as you said, was written for the age of print, uh, and no longer reflects how gpo operates today.
▶ 0:25:13So with much of our publications, uh, needing to move to digital formats, are there statutory printing obligations that you currently have which you think are no longer serve the your mission or customers that we should be thinking about? >> 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.
▶ 0:25:40But, um, uh, you know, in the past, it alternates between the house and the senate, the jcp working with, with gpo has, um, found ways to sort of, as I like to put it, operate in the liminal spaces of our statute, uh, so that we can usually find ways to get around some of the more rigid parts of title 44.
▶ 0:26:06But a good example is, you know, the the number of printed copies we're supposed to make, uh, is written in statute. That doesn't make any sense anymore. Um, so addressing what we call the usual number, uh, is to, 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 over producing things
▶ 0:26:36That people don't need. Um, so I would we've submitted to this committee and to the senate, uh, series of legislative proposals, uh, some big, some very small. And we're happy to talk with you all about what the right package there looks like. >> well. >> I would certainly defer to, uh, the subcommittee chair on modernization, uh, and the ranking member, miss torres, to, uh, to take those up.
▶ 0:27:01But I think it is interesting, uh, 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? I mean, you know, when you think about it over time, it's like 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 there's probably better ways to do it. So I would I would certainly, uh, Mr.
▶ 0:27:28Chair, look forward to working with you in the subcommittee chair and ranking member. Uh, to make that easier, um, if you if you're asked what's one legislative change for the committee to prioritize as it relates to gpo, is there is there any thoughts that you have about ways we can. >> um. >> 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?
▶ 0:27:54>> there are there are a number of changes, um, one of which a good example is. >> I think, a good example. >> I a bad one, but. >> a good example would be, um, the fact that 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.
▶ 0:28:21Um, 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. Um, but that is not the number one thing we do anymore.
▶ 0:28:52>> got it, got it. Okay. Those are that's very helpful. And I think, again, I defer to my colleagues, but, um, 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, um, the information is made available to taxpayers and to citizens so that they can continue to feel like they have transparency and access to, to the government.
▶ 0:29:14So and it's no, there's no secret that when abe lincoln was inaugurated 165 years ago today and the not today, this the next month, march, um, and the government printing office was on. It was just different, done differently. And it's, you know, you couldn't foresee the world as it is today. But we want to make sure we keep, uh, keep present and keep active.
▶ 0:29:38I have other questions, um, that related to your comments to bolt on to digital capabilities, um, 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 six 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. >> thank you. The gentleman yields back. The gentleman from virginia, Mr. griffith, is recognized for his five minutes.
▶ 0:30:09Thank you very much, Mr. chairman. I greatly appreciate it. Um, Mr. halpern, good to see you. >> you too, sir. >> hope you're doing well. >> thank you. >> so, earlier this congress, I introduced h.r. 6028, the legislative branch agency's clarification act. One of the things that the bill does is it transfers the power to appoint the director of the 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.
▶ 0:30:39Do you agree with me that these changes would help strengthen transparency, continuity, and accountability at gpo compared to the current appointment process? >> absolutely. >> so the. >> the gpo. >> provisions in your bill actually do three things, and they're all very important. First is, as you mentioned, it addresses the the constitutional issues surrounding the appointment of the director.
▶ 0:31:03There are two other constitutional issues where we've been sort of operating in that that liminal space between the executive and legislative. One is what we call the the print mandate, the requirement that people use gpo. The the executive branch has said that's unconstitutional.
▶ 0:31:22Since the mid 1980s, we've sort of skirted around that and we 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 a through sort of a fluke. Um, from president harding, I believe it was president harding.
▶ 0:31:46Maybe it was president cleveland, but by executive order, they placed gpo personnel system under what today is opm. Um, I think that provides the same kinds of constitutional conflicts, uh, that we get from the printing, uh, the print mandate and others.
▶ 0:32:04So I believe that the the series of reforms you've gotten your bill would serve gpo well, uh, into the future, both with respect to our obligations to the legislative branch, but to all of the other work we do as well. >> I appreciate that. And we're going to blame it on harding, because coolidge's. >> uh, secretary, which would now be the chief of staff, was a former congressman from the ninth congressional district of virginia. So it's going to be austin scott just saying.
▶ 0:32:33That said, let me let me show my ignorance on something, uh, because I'm I'm always trying to learn stuff. I learned when I 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? >> no, sir. >> it's after.
▶ 0:32:54>> that what happens today for a bill that goes through the normal process is we receive from the clerk the after passage, after after after introduction. >> after introduction. >> okay. 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 want to let council, that's great for us because we get a really good electronic file.
▶ 0:33:25But sometimes we only get a word file, which doesn't help us all that much. Um, but my team's job is to make sure that that paper, because that's the official document of record matches that electronic file. >> okay.
▶ 0:33:41>> 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 three zeros in this? >> so if we use the air concept, um, is there is there some way that if there is a glitch because every now and then there will be that we can catch that? >> we we hope so.
▶ 0:34:09Um, I know that I've got high faith in my, in my team that we're going to catch stuff. There's a lot of stuff like capitalization or how how you structure some of these, uh, typographic styles, that stuff we can probably get through, uh, some sort of automated system, but it's that more, um, refined view where
▶ 0:34:42The guys who proofread, uh, guys and gals who who proofread, uh, bills, they're, 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 mistakes. >> time's running out. Uh, but the, um. So would you go back and double check ai every so often? Question. Do a first first. >> cut on low level stuff and then have our people.
▶ 0:35:12>> and I'm sure miss bice is much better. Right. Much better versed on this. Uh, 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. Right. >> absolutely. >> I yield back. The gentleman yields back. The gentleman from california, whose home district will be about 100 degrees warmer than mine this weekend. Uh, representative torres is recognized. >> come to my district. Always invited.
▶ 0:35:39Um, chairman, I think this is one of the best meetings that we have had where there's, like, you've already asked all my questions, and, uh, you know, it's, uh, it's really great. I want to follow up on the passport question that the chairman asked. Um, if we have a surge, all of us are are, uh, encouraging our, uh, constituents to apply for, you know, their american passport.
▶ 0:36:09So if we have a surge, um, are you prepared to deal with that? >> we believe. >> we are. Okay. Um. 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, uh, run most of the week. Um, stennis runs basically all day, every day.
▶ 0:36:39Uh, we run, uh, we've found it's more efficient to run for ten 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 that could be scaled up if needed. >> right? Right. And we can hire more people to do that.
▶ 0:36:59Um, at some point we'll just run into a, uh, you know, our machines will have have a top level capacity, but we're in the process of replacing some of those machines with more modern equipment. Uh, that will have better uptime, better processing speeds, all in preparation for the next version of the passport. When state, uh, is ready to move forward with that.
▶ 0:37:29>> okay. Um, as you know, a modernization chair by and I are working on how to best modernize the legislative branch systems, including, uh, gpo. Um, I'm concerned that congress is asking you to serve the public with a budget that hasn't, uh, kept pace with how people access information anymore. Um, fiscal year 2026 funding level for gpo is 800 million.
▶ 0:37:59Can you talk a little bit about your budgetary needs? And, um, you know, what is it that you need? >> 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. >> and the price for the passports went up. >> price for passports went up.
▶ 0:38:25And yeah, just to give you an idea of the cost structure, um, depends on the year and it depends on quantity. But at some point we charge the state department someplace between 23 and $25 per book. Um, sometimes they'll give us a supplemental order, you know, an extra million. At the end of a year, we will have already recouped, recouped all of our overhead costs.
▶ 0:38:50So we can drive that, that individual piece down to basically the cost of materials, um, and a little bit of labor. Um, the, uh, in terms of the work we do for congress, we, we are within the budget that that you all have, have given us. Um, it's a it's a difficult, uh, estimating process for us.
▶ 0:39:18Um, we need to based on historical data, we estimate what your volume will be in a particular year and try and match, uh, that with with the appropriate level we get for that, where we actually run into a much tighter, uh, budgetary situation is with the federal depository library program. That's a purely appropriated program. Okay.
▶ 0:39:46The 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. Um, with that said, we still have librarians and other really highly skilled professionals in that unit, and those personnel costs continue to increase. But I.
▶ 0:40:14>> stop you there because we're running out of time. Um, and I really want you to tell our members, um, or at least to say it out loud once, once more. How many amendments? Um, members of congress file. >> so, um, I apologize, I am I actually don't have up to date numbers, but in terms of bills, um, we are well up over 7000.
▶ 0:40:41Um, you know, last congress, it was, uh, almost 23,000 measures between the house and the senate. And each one of those my team needs to read. Um, it's a little different this year. Um, and make sure that we're accurate. Um, you know, it it is difficult work. Um, and, and I can give you a small recent example.
▶ 0:41:09Less with a bill, but with the, uh, work we do, uh, on legislation, there was a large, um, uh, 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 scan document into a text file and make sure that that translation was accurate.
▶ 0:41:42And then engross all of the handwritten changes and things like that with 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 thank you. Um, thank you, chairman, for your generosity and time. >> thank you very much.
▶ 0:42:02>> the gentleman yields back the gentleman from oklahoma, who is the chair of the subcommittee on modernization, who's been ingratiated in this issue, is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, Mr. chairman. And director halperin, 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.
▶ 0:42:27I was able to have a little sidebar with my colleague from virginia to explain sort of the reasons for the the waving 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, uh, to proofread, but also getting things through the pipeline a bit quicker. So thank you for your work.
▶ 0:42:47Uh, 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, um, replacing the print version of conan with the digital version, which is already publicly available and out there, um, would reduce the library of congress's operating costs by $4 million over the next several years. Um, the library is actually hosted conan on their website since 2019.
▶ 0:43:15Um, it's easily searchable, accessible, and provides links to the supreme court decisions. And it's being updated, um, 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, uh, because it is required by statute. And you addressed previously, there are many of these areas that have been codified in statute that you're required to print.
▶ 0:43:43And I would love the opportunity to work with you to find some ways to reduce that burden. Uh, my assumption would and this is the first question that many of the printed documents or books that you are currently producing are available online. Is that correct? >> absolutely. Almost everything is available online, either through gov info or some other other fashion. But yes. >> great. I think there's an opportunity for us to be able to scale that back.
▶ 0:44:11Uh, still providing transparency for the american people if they want to read these documents. But saving taxpayer money because they are, uh, available digitally. And when the original statutes were written, that wasn't an option. So, absolutely. >> and if I can just sort of fill in there just a hair, um, you know, one of the changes and I can't take credit for this, this was happening as I arrived at gpo.
▶ 0:44:36But one of the changes we made was shifting from traditional offset printing, um, 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, it is a per copy cost.
▶ 0:45:06You are paying for ink and materials. And that machine, um, so as a result, a digital inkjet press doesn't care whether we're printing ten copies of something or 10,000 copies of something. Um, 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.
▶ 0:45:33>> what would you say is the percentage of documents that are now being printed using digital rather than offset? >> um. >> it is I, I can get you that exact number. It is most of our daily publications. So the congressional record, federal register cfr, um, we are getting ready to retire one of our big, uh, offset presses, uh, that that we purchased about ten years ago, uh, because we can supplement all of the work
▶ 0:46:05That 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. >> I like saving taxpayer money, so it's great to hear that. Let me pivot, if I may, um, to your website talks about ten 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.
▶ 0:46:31Uh, how do we, you know, properly and responsibly bring ai into the legislative, um, uh, discussion here and be able to utilize it? Our offices are actually adopting microsoft copilot to be able to, uh, allow for speedy access to information through email or calendar review and utilizing ai. Talk a little bit about what you are doing on the ai front.
▶ 0:46:58>> it's probably not a lot different than what, uh, what the house is doing, sort of on the administrative side. So for instance, we are using copilot, uh, to help draft contract terms for our acquisitions professionals. Um, 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 you need to make sure. >> to lose their job. >> exactly.
▶ 0:47:25But they also they also need to make sure we're getting this right. Um, because the cost on the other side, if we don't get it right, can be big. Um, things like that. Using it for internal administrative stuff. I will 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 can you put this into a couple of paragraphs for me to stick in the form so that we capture this?
▶ 0:47:54And it does a pretty good job of that? Um, we are also looking to use ai tools to help with our cataloging, uh, activities with the federal depository library program. We still need good, experienced, uh, librarians and catalogers to get that work done.
▶ 0:48:13Um, 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. >> thank you so much for being with us this afternoon, doctor halperin. And with that, Mr. chairman, I yield back. >> the gentleman. >> the gentleman yields back.
▶ 0:48:40Uh, we believe one more member is literally outside the door. So we're going to we're going to pause for 30s with the with the, uh, the blessing of the ranking member. Uh, if he's here, we'll continue. If he's not, uh, we'll wrap up. So we'll just hold for just a moment.
▶ 0:49:19>> I'm used to this from my days running the floor. >> so as director of house operations called a regular thursday, uh, in your. I heard. >> more than one time people yelling one more from from the back of the chamber. So, um. >> and I apologize. I do have to leave, but I do want to thank you again. >> absolutely. >> and I look forward to staying in touch. So thank you, Mr. chairman. >> thank you, ranking member.
▶ 0:50:10Not that any of us have too many things to do in a day. Uh, where they've moved votes up from yesterday due to the weather. Uh, so everybody's getting a little bit double booked this afternoon. We appreciate everybody bearing with us. Um, we will now recognize the gentleman who's probably out of breath from a short jog across campus. Uh, Mr. carey, for five minutes, Mr. chairman. And I do appreciate your indulgence. >> it was, uh, there's a little bit of a line outside the ways and means committee, as you can imagine.
▶ 0:50:38Uh, it is 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. Okay.
▶ 0:50:57In 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. The model context protocol is an open source standard that allows connecting artificial intelligence applications to external systems.
▶ 0:51:27So 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, uh, maybe explain kind of, um, in layman's terms so people can understand exactly what that what as you're describing, what you're doing, what it means. Sure.
▶ 0:51:56>> so the model context protocol, um, and I will preface this with I, I, uh, I am not an expert in, in, uh, constructing apis and, and these similar kinds of things, but I'll do my best.
▶ 0:52:11Um, the model context protocol is, is a avenue in for these other kinds of llms and other kinds of ai models so that they can utilize our, uh, our repository of data and use it without having to constantly train on it ahead of time.
▶ 0:52:39So 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, uh, group of bills that had been introduced the day before, that data set changes.
▶ 0:52:59But this enables us, uh, this enables your ai tool, whether it's or gemini or chatgpt or whatever. Um, 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.
▶ 0:53:26Everybody was talking about, uh, at the beginning of sort of this ai revolution. Like, what what chatbot are we going to adopt for gov info? And that's not the best use of our, our resources, because folks on the outside are going to be a lot smarter about this than we can be. >> and I appreciate that.
▶ 0:53:45And, um, I know we only have a minute, 44 um, and obviously, your role in the processing and publishing of bill texts that are online and I think, um, and obviously you worked on the hill, as many of us have over the years, um, whether in this capacity or in staff level. Um, one of the things that I found that it's very easy to, to get the bill text, but to upload it and I'm sure this is complicated.
▶ 0:54:13What what exactly are kind of the synopsis of the bill? And then, you know, 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.
▶ 0:54:32So one of the things that I have discussed with our team is the possibility of somehow, um, and I know most of these are all verbal, but somehow a visual application as it relates to the structure and the contents of a particular piece of legislation and vis a 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.
▶ 0:55:00My 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. >> the gentleman yields back. It's the only thing no one can do. Be in two places at one time. Although sometimes we wish we could, um, appreciate everyone's participation. I want to thank, uh, director for you for coming before us today.
▶ 0:55:27The 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.