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TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM J. BOARMAN, 26TH PUBLIC PRINTER OF THE UNITED STATES
HON. STENY H. HOYER
of Maryland
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, today I urge all Members to join in
commending William J. "Bill" Boarman, who honorably and skillfully
led the Government Printing Office (GPO) as the 26th Public Printer
from January 3, 2011, to January 3, 2012.
Bill slashed agency spending dramatically by eliminating nonessential
hires, cutting needless travel, restricting use of overtime and
reducing the GPO's annual spending plan for 2011 by 15 percent. He held
the line on salary increases consistently with the President's
government-wide pay freeze. Bill created a specialized task force to
collect funds owed to GPO and within months collected over a third of
the money due, some outstanding for seven years.
To avoid potential lay-offs in the future, Bill authorized a buyout
of up to 15 percent of his workforce, but excluding from eligibility
employees in mission-critical positions. Together with his restrictions
on new hires, the buyout plan achieved 94 percent of its goal and
reduced the GPO's staffing to its lowest level in a century. This
achievement will save GPO and taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in
future years.
Bill also worked with the two appropriations committees to provide
GPO with funding 15 percent below the prior year but which nonetheless
assures GPO's ability to perform its essential functions. To address
questions about the work GPO performs for Congress, Bill provided
persuasive testimony on the value of the printing services that the GPO
performs while at the same time ordering the first-ever survey of
Congress's printing requirements. This precedent-setting work, which
was commended by the House Appropriations Committee, resulted in the
largest single-year percentage reduction in the number of printed
Congressional Records delivered to Congress since the GPO began to
transition to online versions in 1994.
As a result of these and other efforts, Bill's annual report to
Congress reported that the GPO ended the year with a net income of $5.6
million, a positive result validated by an external auditor. Yet Bill's
leadership at the GPO was about more than cutting costs and improving
financial returns. He made customer service GPO's primary strategic
goal, a direction that earned the agency applause in a government-wide
agency survey. He put GPO on Facebook and ordered the development and
release of the GPO's first mobile Web application. While continuing the
development of GPO's online Federal Digital System and the GPO's plan
for a new automated composition system, he emphasized efficiency and
agency control over the GPO's digital systems rather than ceding
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