Reinstate XML Tagging for Federal Register Documents

For several years prior to FY 2011, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has enjoyed substantial discounts on Federal Register printing due to our use of XML tagging for submission of documents to GPO. On July 2, 2010, GPO announced in GPO Circular Letter No. 777 that Federal Register document tagging would no longer be accepted – effective date October 1, 2010 GPO also established a new per page rates which are 31.4% higher than the tagged rate we enjoyed in FY 2010.

Our Bureau has seen an adverse budget impact of over $350K in increased Federal Register printing costs for FY 2011. We had budgeted this money for mission-critical activities.

Per Jim Hemphill, the special assistant to the director of the Federal Register, in 2010, the register totaled 81,405 pages. Using that number, and extrapolating the rates for one year of printing for the entire Federal Register, with XZML tagging and without tagging, we find the following:

FY 2011 costs: $38,380,185

XML tagged costs: $26,619,435

Lost XML Savings: $12,210,750

Recommendation: Reinstate XML tagging for GPO printing of the Federal Register. Encourage all Agencies to use XML tagging in FY 2012.