Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2012--Continued

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I certainly understand that my friend from Missouri is doing this on behalf of other Senators. I want to express my disappointment that these Senators are objecting to the confirmation of William J. Boarman, an individual who is eminently qualified to be our Nation's 26th Public Printer and head of the Government Printing Office.

President Obama nominated Bill Boarman 18 months ago. The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration reported the nomination favorably in July of 2010. The nomination languished because of Republican objections so President Obama made a recess appointment on January 3, 2011, and renominated Mr. Boarman on January 27, 2011. Again, the Senate Rules Committee reported the nomination favorably by voice vote this past May.

The Public Printer is not a controversial position. Previous Printers have been confirmed without controversy or delay. This obstruction is unprecedented.

Bill's career in the printing industry spans 40 years. He started as a practical printer, trained under the apprenticeship program of the International Typographical Union and served his apprenticeship at McArdle Printing Company in Washington, DC.

In 1974, he accepted an appointment as a journeyman printer at the GPO. Mr. Boarman was elected president of his home Local 101-12 when he was 30 years of age. He later served as a national officer with the ITU, where he was a key architect of the merger between the ITU and the Communications Workers of America. He was elected ITU president shortly before the merger and has been reelected to seven successive terms since.

He has served as an unpaid consultant to several Public Printers and has testified before various congressional committees regarding GPO programs and policies. He is an expert in this field. He is eminently qualified. I think the Members of this body know that.

Mr. Boarman served as chairman of the $1 billion CWA/ITU Negotiated Pension Plan and the $125 million Canadian Negotiated Pension Plan. He has experience in management. He was among the union leaders who spearheaded the creation of the AFL-CIO Capital Stewardship Program and the Center for Working Capital in the Federation.

Because of his experience in the field of pension administration, he was chosen to represent CWA on the Council of Institutional Investors, serving 12 years as a member of the CII Executive Board and three terms as its cochairman. He has also served on the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities and as cochair of the Taft-Hartley Northern American Study Group educational investment conference.

He has served as president of the Union Printers Home, a 122-bed skilled nursing facility in Colorado Springs, CO. I mention his extensive background to underscore the point that Bill Boarman is, perhaps, uniquely qualified to serve as the Nation's Public Printer, and there is absolutely no good reason to hold up his confirmation.

All we are asking is, let's bring this nomination forward for a vote--a person who has eminent qualifications. There is no substantive objection to his confirmation. I hope my colleagues who have raised the objection will allow us to move forward.

The Public Printer serves as the chief executive officer of the GPO, the agency charged with keeping the American people informed about the work of the Federal Government.

GPO is one of the world's largest printing plants and digital factories and is one of the biggest print buyers in the world. GPO disseminates the Congressional Record and the Federal Register and a number of other products and services in both print and digital form.

The agency has been tasked to build its digital capability into a state of the art operation to improve transparency and citizen access to government documents and reports.

We hear all the time about making this system more transparent. Mr. Boarman knows how to do that. Let's give him a confirmed position so we can help bring the public more into what we do here in Congress.

Bill Boarman faces the challenges of maintaining the traditional printing skills of an aging workforce while helping a 150-year-old organization adapt to a world in which most documents are ``born digital.''

As Bill has said:

Few Federal agencies can count as their heritage the scope of the work GPO has performed, ranging from the first printing of the Emancipation Proclamation to providing digital access to the Government's publications today. The men and women of GPO are responsible for that heritage.

It is past time that Bill Boarman--a man with over 40 years of experience in the printing industry--be considered and confirmed as the Nation's 26th Public Printer.

I urge my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle: Let the Senate do what it is legally responsible to do: advise and consent on these nominations. Let us vote so we can confirm this position that was first brought forward over a year and a half ago.

With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source