Director of the U.S. Government Publishing Office

Head of the US Government Printing Office From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The director of the U.S. Government Publishing Office, formerly the public printer of the United States, is the head of the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO). Pursuant to 44 U.S.C. § 301, this officer is nominated by the president of the United States and approved by the United States Senate. The title was changed to "Director" when in December 2014, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law H.R. 83, which consolidated and continued appropriations for FY 2015.^[1] Section 1301 of that act changed the name of the Government Printing Office to the Government Publishing Office and the title of public printer to director.^[2] Thus, Davita Vance-Cooks was the last public printer of the United States and the first director of the U.S. Government Publishing Office.

William J. Boarman

Davita E. Vance-Cooks

Hugh N. Halpern

The director is responsible for the administration of the GPO. The GPO, a legislative agency of the government, provides electronic access to and produced most printed matter for government, including the Congressional Record, Supreme Court decisions, passports, tax forms, internal government documents, and agency publications. The GPO did not print money, as that is a duty of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

History

Benjamin Franklin served as Public Printer for several of the American colonies prior to the establishment of the United States. The House and Senate had separate printers until 1861, when the GPO was established; its first superintendent was John D. Defrees. The first man with the title Public Printer of the United States was Almon M. Clapp.^[3]

List of leaders

Superintendents (1861–1876)

The follow persons served as superintendent of the General Printing Office:^[4]^[5]

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No.	Superintendent	Term start	Term end	Refs.
1	John D. Defrees	March 4, 1861	1866	^[4]
2	Cornelius Wendell	September 1, 1866	February 28, 1867	^[4]
3	John D. Defrees	March 1, 1867	April 14, 1869	^[4]
4	Almon M. Clapp	April 15, 1869	July 31, 1876	^[4]

Public printers (1876-2014)

The follow persons served as public printer of the General Printing Office:^[4]^[5]

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No.	Public printer	Term start	Term end	Refs.
1	Almon M. Clapp	August 1, 1876	May 30, 1877	^[4]
2	John D. Defrees	June 1, 1877	1882	^[4]
3	Sterling P. Rounds	April 15, 1882	September 12, 1886	^[4]
4	Thomas E. Benedict	September 13, 1886	May 6, 1889	^[4]
5	Francis W. Palmer	May 7, 1889	May 2, 1894	^[4]
6	Thomas E. Benedict	May 3, 1894	March 30, 1897	^[4]
7	Francis W. Palmer	March 31, 1897	September 8, 1905	^[4]
8	Charles A. Stillings	November 1, 1905 February 5, 1908	^[4]
9	John S. Leech	June 9, 1908	November 30, 1908	^[4]
10	Samuel B. Donnelly	December 1, 1908	June 25, 1913	^[4]
11	Cornelius Ford	June 26, 1913	1921	^[4]
12	George H. Carter	April 5, 1921	1934	^[4]
13	Augustus E. Giegengack	July 2, 1934	March 9, 1948	^[4]
14	John J. Deviny	May 6, 1948	February 28, 1953	^[4]
15	Raymond Blattenberger	April 28, 1953	January 20, 1961	^[4]
16	James L. Harrison	March 17, 1961	March 31, 1970	^[4]^[6]
17	Adolphus N. Spence	April 1, 1970	January 11, 1972^[a]	^[4]
18	Thomas F. McCormick	March 1, 1973	October 31, 1977	^[4]
19	John J. Boyle	November 1, 1977	February 29, 1980	^[4]
20	Danford L. Sawyer, Jr.	1981	1984
21	Ralph E. Kennickell, Jr.	1984	1988
22	Robert Houk	1990	1993	^[7]
23	Michael F. DiMario	1993	2002	^[8]
24	Bruce James	2002	2006	^[9]^[10]
Acting	William H. Turri	January 2007	November 5, 2007	^[11]
25	Robert C. Tapella	November 6, 2007	December 29, 2010	^[12]^[13]^[14]^[15]
Acting	Paul Erickson	December 30, 2010	January 4, 2011
26	William J. Boarman^[b]	January 5, 2011	January 2, 2012	^[16]^[17]
Acting	Davita E. Vance-Cooks	January 3, 2012	August 21, 2012	^[18]
27	Davita E. Vance-Cooks	August 21, 2012	December 17, 2014^[c]	^[19]^[20]^[21]

Directors (since 2014)

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No.	Director	Term start	Term end	Refs.
1	Davita E. Vance-Cooks	December 17, 2014^[c]	November 1, 2017	^[21]^[22]
Acting	Jim Bradley	November 2, 2017	March 6, 2018	^[23]^[24]
Acting	Andrew M. Sherman	March 6, 2018	June 30, 2018	^[25]
Acting	Herbert H. Jackson, Jr.,	July 1, 2018	March 31, 2019	^[26]
Acting	John Crawford	April 1, 2019	December 10, 2019	^[27]
2	Hugh Nathanial Halpern	December 11, 2019	present	^[28]^[29]^[30]

Table notes

[a]
Died in office
[b]
Unconfirmed recess appointment
[c]
December 17, 2014, is the date when the public printer of the Government Printing Office became the director of the Government Publishing Office.

References

[1]
"H.R. 83 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act 2015" (PDF). govinfo.gov. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-08-22. Retrieved 2016-07-11.
[2]
"U.S. GPO press release". December 17, 2014. Archived from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
[3]
"A Short History of GPO Part 1". Federal Library Deposit Program. U.S. Government Publishing Office. November 22, 2017. Archived from the original on September 3, 2021. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
[4]
MacGilvray, Daniel R. (1986). A Short History of GPO. GPO.
[5]
"Portraits of past Public Printers". GPO. Archived from the original on 2010-07-07.
[6]
"James L. Harrison, 94, Dies; Public Printer of the U.S." The Washington Post. October 10, 2000. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
[7]
Cross, Lisa (June 1, 2001). "PIA Backs a Nominee For Public Printer Post.(Printing Industries of America, Robert Houk)". Graphic Arts Monthly. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
[8]
ALAWON, Volume 2, Number 51, November 13, 1993. bubl.ac.uk
[9]
"BRUCE R. JAMES". United States Public Printer. Archived from the original on May 22, 2014. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
[10]
Morrison, Jane Ann (March 29, 2002). "Nomination Planned: Bush to tap Nevadan for top printing post". Las Vegas Review-Journal (Las Vegas, NV). Retrieved December 20, 2009.
[11]
"Deputy Public Printer To Retire". WhatTheyThink. May 21, 2008.
[12]
"GPO - Public Printer's Biography". Archived from the original on 2009-03-25. Retrieved 2009-03-16.
[13]
"Presidential Nominations Sent to the Senate, 4/19/10". whitehouse.gov. April 19, 2010. Archived from the original on February 16, 2017. Retrieved October 6, 2013 – via National Archives.
[14]
"Tapella Resigns to Allow Recess Appointment of Boarman as Public Printer". In-plant Impressions. December 29, 2010.
[15]
Sherburne, Cary (November 6, 2007). "Education Week: First Interview with Public Printer Bob Tapella: Discusses education, the death of offset, and more". WhatTheyThink.
[16]
"GPO'S STATEMENT ON PUBLIC PRINTER BOARMAN'S NOMINATION" (PDF). U.S. Government Printing Office. December 18, 2011. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 August 2021. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
[17]
"William J. Boarman Sworn In as 26th Public Printer". In-plant Impressions. January 5, 2011. William J. "Bill" Boarman has been sworn in as the 26th Public Printer of the United States.
[18]
"Senate Confirms Vance-Cooks as Public Printer". In-plant Impressions. August 2, 2013. After serving as Acting Public Printer for the past 19 months, Davita Vance-Cooks can finally drop "Acting" from her title. The U.S. Senate has unanimously confirmed her as the 27th U.S. Public Printer, the first African-American and the first woman ever to lead the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). With more than 30 years of private sector and Government experience, Vance-Cooks has served as the Acting Public Printer since January 3, 2012, the day previous Public Printer Bill Boarman was forced to step down when the Senate failed to confirm his recess appointment.
[19]
Hicks, Josh (August 2, 2013). "Davita Vance-Cooks confirmed as first female and African American public printer". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 10, 2015. Retrieved October 6, 2013.
[20]
"Vance-Cooks Confirmed as Public Printer". In-plant Impressions. September 1, 2013. After serving as Acting Public Printer for the past 19 months, Davita Vance-Cooks can finally drop "Acting" from her title. The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed her as the 27th U.S. Public Printer, the first African-American—and the first woman—ever to lead the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). She was officially sworn into office on August 21 by Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, with John Crawford, a GPO employee since 1966, acting as master of ceremonies.
[21]
Williams, Jake (December 17, 2014). "GPO gets name change to reflect digital times". FedScoop.
[22]
"GPO Director Davita Vance-Cooks Departs Federal Service". GPO. November 1, 2017. The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) Director Davita Vance-Cooks has announced her departure from Federal service to accept a job in the private sector. By law, GPO Deputy Director Jim Bradley assumes the duties of Acting GPO Director until a replacement is appointed.
[23]
"Jim Bradley To Be Acting GPO Director--Capitol Hill Veteran to Lead the Agency". GPO. November 2, 2017. Deputy Director Jim Bradley becomes Acting Director for the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO). Bradley assumes his new role effective immediately, following the departure of GPO Director of Davita Vance-Cooks.
[24]
"Acting GPO Director Jim Bradley Retires". GPO. March 6, 2018. Acting U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) Director Jim Bradley has retired after more than 47 years of Federal service, with the past 22 years at GPO. Bradley held numerous leadership positions at GPO, including that of Acting Director since November 2017... With Bradley's departure, GPO's Chief of Staff, Andrew M. Sherman, will serve as Acting Deputy Director, in accordance with GPO's succession directive.
[25]
"Andrew M. Sherman to Retire after 38 Years Of Service". GPO. June 19, 2018. Acting Deputy Director Andrew M. Sherman has announced his retirement following 38 years of Federal service, all at the GPO. Following his departure at the end of June, GPO's Chief Administrative Officer, Herbert H. Jackson, Jr., will become Acting Deputy Director, in accordance with the GPO's succession directive... Following the retirement of Deputy Director Jim Bradley in March 2018, Sherman became the head of the agency as Acting Deputy Director.
[26]
"GPO'S ACTING DEPUTY DIRECTOR TO RETIRE MARCH 31". GPO. March 19, 2019. U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) Acting Deputy Director and Chief Administrative Officer, Herbert H. Jackson, Jr., announced he will retire on March 31, 2019. Jackson has served as Acting Deputy Director since July 2018. He has been at GPO for 38 years. In accordance with GPO's succession directive, Managing Director of Plant Operations John Crawford will become Acting Deputy Director on April 1st.
[27]
"John Crawford". GPO.
[28]
"Hugh Halpern". GPO.gov. U.S. Government Publishing Office. Archived from the original on July 27, 2021. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
[29]
"Senate Confirms Hugh Halpern as GPO Director". GPO. October 16, 2019. He is the 28th person to lead GPO since the agency opened its doors for business on March 4, 1861, the same day Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States.
[30]
"Halpern Sworn in as GPO Director". In-plant Impressions. February 4, 2020. Vice President Mike Pence swore in Government Publishing Office (GPO) Director Hugh Nathanial Halpern on January 29, 2020 in a swearing-in ceremony at the Vice President's Office. Halpern is the 28th person to lead GPO since the agency opened its doors for business on March 4, 1861, the same day Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States... He was confirmed by the full Senate on December 4 and was officially sworn in on his first day at GPO on December 11.

Director of the U.S. Government Publishing Office

History

List of leaders

Superintendents (1861–1876)

Public printers (1876-2014)

Directors (since 2014)

References

External links

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