Congressman Russell's Federal Register Printing Savings Act Passes Out of OGR

Press Release

Congressman Steve Russell's (OK-5) Federal Register Printing Savings Act of 2016, passed by unanimous consent out of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

In his continuing effort to cut federal spending, Congressman Russell authored legislation to prohibit the mandatory printing and distribution of the Federal Register, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. The register is provided digitally and is also printed each day whether members want it or not. Under the Russell legislation, all members of Congress and committee offices will no longer receive automatic printed copies of the Federal Register. They can still request to receive a hard copy by exception, and a small number of hard copies of each Federal Register will still be printed and maintained for archival purposes.

An annual subscription to the Federal Register costs $929, but members of Congress receive their copies for free, costing taxpayers more than a half a million dollars each year. Most of these printed copies end up in the trash because the register is online and can be searched as a database. Congressman Russell's measure will save hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars every year.

"When I think of how many Americans it takes to earn the money to waste on this mandatory printed register, it gives me motivation to fight waste even more," Congressman Russell said. "We got into our national debt one wasteful practice at a time, and we will get out of it one sensible measure at a time. Every time we can save money, no matter how much, it begins to make our nation stronger."

In 2016, Congressman Russell, author of Waste Watch, introduced measures that would save more than $21 billion dollars, with more than $4 billion worth of cost cutting measures signed into law.

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