Government Printing Office to offer buyouts

The Government Printing Office announced Tuesday that it plans to offer buyouts and early outs to employees in response to government cutbacks and projected reductions in appropriations.
 
The agency will send a request to Congress and the Office of Personnel Management for authority to offer the buyouts to its 2,200 employees, according to a June 7 press release.
 
{mosads}The GPO aims to achieve a reduction of 15 percent – or 330 positions – including a reduction in management and supervisory levels of 25 percent.
 
“Once GPO is given authority, employees can be offered lump-sum payments up to $25,000 as an incentive to voluntarily separate from the agency,” the release stated. The actual amount of the payout will be formula-based.
 
The agency will use current funds to conduct the buyout program, which needs to be concluded by the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2012 to achieve the needed savings for the coming year, the release outlined.
 
The proposed buyouts are just the latest measure introduced by the GPO to cut costs. Last month, lawmakers were given the choice to opt out of receiving print copies of daily and permanent editions of Congressional and Federal publications as the agency looked to reduce unnecessary printing and wasteful spending.
 
The agency’s fiscal year 2012 budget request now stands at more than $148 million, a reduction of $5.2 million from the amount requested last year.
 
In testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch in May, William Boarman, Public Printer of the United States, said that GPO overhead has increased by almost 50 percent over the last four years.
 
Maintaining the agency’s aging buildings and funding the GPO police force have been a large financial drain, and an estimated 33 cents of every dollar in GPO funding goes towards other duties including unfunded requirements.
 
The proposed reduction in personnel – in combination with a “careful workforce restructuring plan” – will allow the agency to carry out mission critical operations, according to the release.
 
“These challenging economic times have no boundaries and are forcing many Federal agencies to seek ways to survive,” wrote Boarman. “We are an agency with a dedicated workforce that will continue to reengineer itself in the 21st century.”