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Statement on Signing the Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993

June 08, 1993

It is with great pleasure that I sign into law S. 564, the "Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993," which will enhance electronic access by the public to Federal information. Under this Act, the public will have on-line computer access to two of the major source documents that inform us about the laws and regulations that affect our daily lives: the Congressional Record and the Federal Register. With recent advances in information technology, we can go beyond the costly printing of tons of paper documents without diminishing the quick and accurate delivery of important information to the public.

As Vice President Gore and I announced in our February 22nd statement, Technology for America's Economic Growth, A New Direction to Build Economic Strength, we are committed to working with the private sector to use technology to make Government information available to the public in a timely and equitable manner. Federal agencies can make Government information more accessible to the public, and enhance the utility of Government information as a national resource, by disseminating information in electronic media.

For many years, Vice President Gore has been a leader in this area. He introduced the Senate version of this Act last year and worked closely with Chairmen Charlie Rose and Wendell Ford and others on both sides of the aisle to refine the Act.

This important step forward in the electronic dissemination of Federal information will provide valuable insights into the most effective means of disseminating all public Government information. The system to be established by the Government Printing Office (GPO) will complement, not supplant, commercial information services and Federal agency information dissemination programs. Likewise, it should not supplant existing GPO mechanisms of information dissemination to the private sector. Indeed, the lessons learned from this program will be used by Federal agencies to develop the most useful and cost-effective means of information dissemination. To do this, the GPO initiative must be coordinated with related projects in the Executive branch.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

The White House,

June 8, 1993.

NOTE: S. 564, approved June 8, was assigned Public Law No. 103-40.

William J. Clinton, Statement on Signing the Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act of 1993 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/220223

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