printing, hard copy printing. How many offices now are requesting the printed copy of the Code? Mr. WILLETT. I don't have those figures, because we are not involved in the distribution. So I am really not prepared. [The information follows:] SUMMARY OF 1993 U.S. CODE EXPENSES 102 Complete Sets of United States Code $112,648.29 314 Sets of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure at $46 per set 14,444.00 66 Subscriptions of United States Code Service Updates for 1993 at $873 per set 57,618.00 Federal Land Count Rules: 1993 Upkeep Service 355.50 545 Sets of Title 16 at $23 per set (less credit) 12,524.00 228 Sets of Internal Revenue Acts 1991-92 at $14 per set 3,192.00 228 Sets of Title 11 (less credit) 14,124.60 226 Sets of 1993 Pocket Parts Title 1-25 at $341 per set 77,066.00 229 Sets of 1993 Federal Tax Regulations at $168 per set 38,472.00 229 Sets of 1993 Internal Revenue Code at $49.50 per set 279 Sets of 1993 General Index and Popular Name Table at $62.50 per set 11,335.50 292 Sets of Judiciary & Judicial Procedures at $69 per set USCA The United States Code and various related publications are distributed to new Members and any Member, Committee or other office requesting such publications. In FY 93 the above United States Code expenses were charged to Supplies, Materials, Administrative Costs and Federal Tort Claims. Mr. PACKARD. Our office is going to be using the CD-ROM almost exclusively and will probably not request or even want to have a hard copy. That is a lot of volumes. It takes up a lot of space, especially if it is available on a CD-ROM to pull up-but only on the basis that the CD-ROM is updated. If the CD-ROM is not updated, then it defeats a significant part of its useful purpose. And that is why I was inquiring whether it will be as current as the Code in print or the updated Code that will come into the office on line. That would make the hard copy almost obsolete, a huge cost, incidentally, to the printers. There is some contention right now on the Hill over whether we ought to continue with the hard copy or whether we ought to discontinue it, except in special cases. And so I would like your response on that, if you will. U.S. CODE ON INTERNET Mr. WILLETT. I would be delighted. I think that the CD-ROM has served a purpose which may-we may discover it has served its purpose and will be replaced by the Internet. Because we now have the U.S. Code on the Internet. Mr. PACKARD. It is on line? Mr. WILLETT. It is, through the World Wide Web. Mr. WILLETT. Well, the point I am making is if we can get the computer system to replace the system we have now where we can have daily updating, I would foresee that as soon as we get something updated on a daily basis, it could replace what is on the Internet almost on a daily basis or maybe a weekly basis, so that the Internet version would be available almost immediately. Resorting to the CD-ROM might be something that one didn't do unless one wanted to see how the Code read two years ago in which case one would put up the CD-ROM from two years ago to see how the law read. In terms of library management, can you imagine what it would be for libraries not to have to stock books, if they had the CDROMS on the shelf? Mr. PACKARD. Well, will you be in a position to give us recommendations on that? Because we will be very interested. It is one of a multitude of candidates for using CD-ROM or on-line informational services to eliminate a lot of printing that goes on, including the Journal and other things. The transition may be met with some resistance in specific areas, but overall I think that is a direction we are certainly going to want to look at carefully, and your recommendation in particular on the Code itself, may be a prototype that we could use in other areas. Mr. WILLETT. I really wonder if we will ever be able to get away from books. I don't think so. Mr. PACKARD. I don't think that is our intent. Mr. WILLETT. With respect to the official United States Code not the commercial code services, the law provides that the Code is legal evidence of the laws in the United States courts. I am not sure that the courts have addressed the issue of admissibility of CD-ROMs and printouts and Internet materials. Mr. PACKARD. I totally agree that there will be a reason for hard copies. But for $2,500 for a set for my office, it may not be necessary, even the Journal. I would not suggest that we will ever reach the point where we won't have a hard, printed copy of the Journal. It is just that we may not have 39,000 of them. We may have 2,000 of them or less. Yet, the Journal may be widely available in our office on-line. Those are things in your area that interest me and the committee. Any further questions of Mr. Willett? EXPLANATION OF LAW REVISION Mr. MILLER. I am new to this committee. Explain to me exactly what law revision is. I know what revision of history is. This is different. Explain to me what you do. Mr. WILLETT. The Law Revision Counsel has two primary functions: one is the classification to the Code of all the laws that Congress passes; in other words, determining what is going to appear in the Code. The criteria is, is it permanent in general? The Code is not cluttered up with appropriation bills and name changes and things like this, because that appropriation bill is for the fiscal year. The Code only contains what is called the general and permanent laws of the United States. We will read every single statute that is enacted and determine whether it is something that belongs in the Code because it is considered permanent and general, or something that affects material that is already in the Code. We then do all of the editorial work necessary to produce the United States Code in written form in the books or on the CD-ROM. The Code database is used for multiple purposes, including the research and retrieval system. The second function of the office is to continue with the revision and recodification of the various titles of the Code. The Code, when it was put together 40 or 50 years ago, was only prima facie evidence of the law, because it was an editorial compilation of the laws. And as such was prima facie evidence in the courts. For legal evidence of the laws, one would have to go back to the statute books. The Congress embarked on a recodification effort after the Second World War to enact the various titles of the Code into positive law. Our office is the successor to that function. We select a particular title of the Code that has not been recodified, and so far 23 or 24 have been enacted, to restudy all of the law that is in that particular title, prepare a bill for introduction that is introduced by the Judiciary Committee, to seek the enactment of that title into positive law. A title so enacted is legal evidence of the law. That bill repeals all the statutes that are on the books that are being restated in the bill, it repeals deadwood, material still on the books, but is obsolete, superseded or whatever, and we have a restatement of a particular title as positive law. Thereafter, changes in the law are direct amendments to that particular title of the United States Code, rather than an amendment to the Social Security Act or the Clean Water Act or the various acts. We just completed within the last session the restatement and the recodification of Title 49, the transportation laws. We are currently working on Title 8 containing the immigration laws. We will have a bill ready for introduction very shortly. Whether action will be taken this year or not, we don't know, because we understand the Judiciary Committee is considering a number of changes in that area. But we are working closely with them in coordinating the recodification effort. So to summarize two main efforts, the actual preparation of the United States Code and then the recodification of the various titles of the Code seeking their enactment into positive law. Mr. MILLER. So then you are not into the distribution of it? AVAILABILITY OF CLASSIFICATION OF NEW LAWS TO COMMERCIAL HOUSES Mr. MILLER. Then is it made available to commercial houses? Mr. WILLETT. The commercial houses get from us immediately our classification of the new laws. Because if they are going to be consistent with us, they have got to know where the law is being assigned in the Code. So we make that available to the publishing companies: Lawyers Cooperative, Shepard's Citation, anybody that wants the classifications can get them immediately from us. We also put the classifications up on a bulletin board system at the Office of the Federal Register. They are the ones that receive the statutes as soon as the President signs them and prepare the statute slip laws. Thus, information is available from the statutes branch of our classifications to the Code the next day after we have established them. Anybody can get those classifications immediately, so as to tell them first where each section of the new law is being classified. The second portion of the bulletin board will tell you, if you want to know, has 26 USC 3304 been amended. They can go into that and see if it has been amended and if it has, there will be a citation to tell them where it has been amended, and that has been kept up on a daily basis. GPO PRINTS AND DISTRIBUTES U.S. CODE Mr. MILLER. So does the Government Printing Office print this? Mr. WILLETT. Yes. We send a data tape to GPO, get page proofs, review them, make sure that all is correct, and give GPO an okay to print. They actually do the printing and the distribution is handled by them. I am not quite sure how that is JCP, I guess. Mr. MILLER. Is it the Government Printing Office or one of the private commercial places? Is that the way it works? Mr. WILLETT. If you want to buy the commercial, you would buy the West Publishing version from the West Publishing Company. In terms of price, I understand that Superintendent of Documents has priced the new edition of the Code at around $750, and it is my understanding the commercial services are in the vicinity of about $1,000 to buy the initial set. Then you have to buy the pocket parts every year. Mr. MILLER. Thank you. Mr. PACKARD. So my $2,500 figure was way out of line. That is what I read, though. Mr. Fazio? Mr. FAZIO. Mr. Chairman, I first of all want to commend Mr. Miller for asking these questions, because I think sometimes the impression is that all of these lawyers that come before us are interchangeable, and actually they have very specific, highly specialized roles that need to be, I think, perpetuated in order to perform a task that at this point is not fully appreciated because it has been done so well and routinely for so long. And you know, amalgamating them or putting them under some sort of streamlined administrative leadership role I think is probably, you know, reorganizing the deck chairs unnecessarily, but we may have that debate later. I do think that we are all aware of the additional costs every time we get new formats. Nobody gets rid of the old ones, we only get new ones. We have the print, the CD-ROM and we used to have microfiche and I mean we just continue to add new formats and never get rid of the old one, which is a continuing cost that we all have to think about. I happen to agree with Mr. Packard. There is no reason for Members to get a copy of the Code every Congress; is there? DISCUSSION ON FREQUENCY OF CODE DISTRIBUTION Mr. PACKARD. They get the update every Congress. Mr. FAZIO. But we are given something far more frequently, and it is really I think an antiquated concept. I don't think they would have gotten one in our office for a number of years. And so I hope that we can begin individually to set an example as to how we could reduce some of the costs of providing these. But I don't think we could do without, you know, the Mr. PACKARD. Well, if they are personalized they take them with them when they leave the Congress, too. Mr. FAZIO. I think every Member should get one on arrival and then get the updates. Their office needs to have access. Beyond that, I don't understand why the edition need be perpetuated. But you know, some Members may have a different need than I do. But the ability to get these now in our district offices and in our offices on the Hill through the computer I think is a major step forward, and this is where most of the Members really access this information now. Most people don't go to the bookshelf either, they go right to their computer terminal. I guess those people who carry around their bumper strips, you know, "kill your television", may have actually been superseded. You don't want to kill your computer screen or you won't be able to read anymore. But I do want to commend Mr. Willett for the work that is done. I do think they perform a tremendous service to the country. It is fair to say, though, that the people who purchase from you each have a niche market, don't they? There isn't much competition out there. They all have kind of established their role; West Publishing certainly has. Mr. WILLETT. Although, obviously each is trying to increase their customer base. Mr. FAZIO. They are all dealing with different formats typically, too, aren't they? Mr. WILLETT. To an extent. Mr. FAZIO. Why do you think this has occurred? Why have we seen what seems to be individual monopolies over the way this information is dispersed to the private sector? PUBLISHERS WITH SPECIFIC INTERESTS Mr. WILLETT. Well, there is really a proliferation of people who are getting into the business. We are getting requests periodically for access to the database for a particular portion of the Code. For example, a publisher may have an association that he serves and would like to get information out, if they can do it cheaper than resorting to a commercial service. We are finding a proliferation of small publishers who have a little niche for something, they maybe want to get out the environmental laws or clean water laws or something like this to a constituent group. So I think the competition basically is growing for the niches, not for the main groups getting out a complete edition of the Code. Mr. FAZIO. Specialized newsletters and sections of the Code. Mr. WILLETT. Or may want to publish Mr. FAZIO. Do you think that is ultimately going to reduce costs to the general public? Mr. WILLETT. I think going on the Internet is going to take away the advantage that some of these small people may have who think they can get something special for a small group, because now it is available to everybody for nothing, basically. Mr. FAZIO. So if you are not going to be interpretive, you are not going to have anything to add to what is available? |