Inking Out the Government Printing Office

The Government Printing Office, which is responsible for printing the multitude of documents produced by the federal government, may be abolished according to an order by the White House Office of Management and the Budget. The OMB describes the order as a cost-saving measure, but critics say it may cost more money than the present system. Worse, it threatens public access to information. "Patrice McDermott, an associate director of the Washington office of government relations for the American Library Association, said that if the GPO were not in charge, fewer government documents would be publicly available," reports the Washington Post. According to OMB Watch, a nonprofit watchdog organization, "It is possible that the decentralization of printing and management of federal documents will make it even more difficult to trace government documents."