of the executive branch of government or whether that is a legitimate function only of the Congress.

I guess, beyond that, the reason that you are warned against micromanagement, of course, is that there is an army of bureaucrats in this city who do not answer to anyone, sometimes not to the President. The Federal Government has simply vastly exceeded its power and we have 18 enumerated powers for the Congress and we have a Congress that disregards the enumeration.

So when the government tries to do too much, it does what it does not particularly well. But, on the other hand, it is no wonder people would want to be paid more if they are going to take on the role of State legislature and the local city council. But I would urge restraint not only with respect to your own powers but also with respect to the powers of the President.

I hope that wasn't too uppity.

Mr. Goss. No. I heard you.

Ms. Pryce, questions?

Ms. PRYCE. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be here for most of the hearing. I think it is a fascinating subject and certainly one which I hear a lot about from my constituents. And I don't know if that is due largely to the efforts of people like you or what, but I think it has an incredible amount of momentum behind it, and I think I just want to congratulate the chairman on bringing it forth here in the Rules Committee.

I don't really have any questions. I just want to thank you for your testimony and your activism in this regard, and from where you sit activism is a good thing, maybe not so much from other perspectives.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Goss. Thank you, Mr. Olson. I want to thank you very much. I think you have said very succinctly the pieces that we needed to fill out the balance piece on this, and I consider that extremely helpful to the committee's work.

I would also like to reserve the right to have further dialogue in writing with you, if you would be agreeable to that.

Mr. OLSON. I would be honored.

Mr. Goss. It would be our pleasure. Thank you very much, sir. We wish you well.

At this point I would dismiss the second panel and invite the third panel, Mr. Ray Mosley, Director, Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration. Come to the witness table.

I understand, with Mr. Mosley, Mr. Michael White will be joining you to be available for questions, illumination, further clarification, micromanaging or whatever might come up.

Mr. Mosley, welcome. Your prepared remarks will be accepted without objection into the record, and we welcome you. We appreciate your patience for waiting. You have now had the benefit of hearing all of this. You know what is left of value for this committee to hear. Please proceed.

STATEMENT OF RAY MOSLEY, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL REGISTER, NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION; ACCOMPANIED BY MICHAEL WHITE, GENERAL COUNSEL

Mr. MOSLEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to testify today.

As you indicate, with me is Michael White, who is the General Counsel of the Office of the Federal Register; and Mr. White can help me provide some institutional perspective. He has served with the Federal Register since the 1980s. I have been there since-approximately 3 years now, since 1996.

I will offer a summary of my written statement provided earlier to the committee and then be happy to answer your questions.

The Office of the Federal Register was established in 1935 for the purpose of creating a centrally located system for filing and publishing presidential documents, as well as agency regulations and administrative notices. The Federal Register Act governs the operations of the Federal Register publication system.

The statute specifically requires that executive orders and presidential proclamations must be published in the Federal Register, except for those that do not have general applicability and legal effect or those that only affect Federal agencies, officers, agents or employees. In practice, however, most executive orders are published in the Federal Register, regardless of subject matter.

The on-line edition of the Federal Daily Register is available at 6:00 a.m. Eastern time, making new executive orders accessible to the American public on a very timely basis. We compile each year's executive orders in Title III of the Code of Federal Regulations as required under the Federal Register Act. 1997 through 1999 editions of the CFR are available on-line on the Government Printing Office access service.

Some of the Presidential memoranda and determinations that are not published in the Federal Register and CFR are released by the White House Press Secretary and carried in the Federal Register's weekly compilation of presidential documents and the public papers of presidents of the United States. These Federal Register publications are available in printed editions and on-line formats that we have recently developed for the GPO access service.

To help the public sort through these various sources of information, we use our National Archives and Records Administration Web site to direct customers to the text of executive orders and other presidential documents, and I have provided the Web site address to the committee, Mr. Chairman.

We also provide other information services, such as our historical codification of proclamations and executive orders and an on-line index of executive orders which tracks dates of issuance, amendments, revocations and dates of publication in the Federal Register. During the first 9 months of calendar year 1999, our customers have retrieved a total of almost 560,000 documents from these pages.

The Federal Register publication system also depends on its partnership with the Government Depository Library Program to ensure that all citizens have equal access to government information. More than 1,350 depository libraries throughout the United States

and its territories provide free public access to Federal Register publications in print and on-line via the GPO access service.

The Superintendent of Documents at GPO reports that Federal Register publications are among the most frequently used databases on the GPO access service, accounting for almost 79 percent of total usage. In fiscal year 1998, the public retrieved more than 102 million individual documents from our publications. At the end of the third quarter of this fiscal year, 1999, that figure had already been surpassed by 9 million and was headed for projected year end total of 145 million retrievals of information.

About one-third of those retrievals are from the daily on-line Federal Register and two-thirds are from the 200 volume Code of Federal Regulations. During the same period, our customers have retrieved 138,000 individual documents from the weekly compilation of presidential documents and 367,000 from the United States Government manual. Overall, public use of on-line Federal Register publications has increased by more than 1,000 percent since free on-line service began in late 1995.

I believe these figures demonstrate that Federal Register publications and information services are helping to build a digital democracy by providing the American people with direct access to essential government information and the opportunity to express their views on the various programs and policies of Federal agen

cies.

This concludes my summary. I thank the Chairman for this opportunity to address the subcommittee and would be pleased to take your questions.

[The statement of Mr. Mosley follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF RAYMOND A. MOSLEY

Mr Chairman and members of the Subcommittee: My name is Raymond A. Mosley. I am the Director of the Office of the Federal Register, which is a component of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). I have been the Director of the Federal Register since November, 1996. Prior to that time, I worked for NARA in a number of different capacities as a senior manager.

Thank you for inviting me to testify today on the manner in which the Office of the Federal Register processes Executive orders and makes them available in our publications. In my testimony today, I will describe the role of the Federal Register under the applicable law and procedures. My statement will also include a summary of our recent efforts to broaden public access to Executive orders and other Presidential documents.

BACKGROUND

The Office of the Federal Register (OFR) was established in 1935 for the purpose of creating a centrally located system for filing and publishing Presidential documents, as well as agency regulations and administrative notices. The Federal Register Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 15) governs the operations of the Federal Register publication system. The statute specifically requires that Executive orders and Presidential Proclamations must be published in the Federal Register, except for those that do not have general applicability and legal effect, or those that only affect Federal agencies, officers, agents or employees (44 U.S.C. 1505(a)). In practice, most Executive orders are published in the Federal Register regardless of subject matter. The Federal Register Act does not define Executive orders or Proclamations. Under well-established tradition, Executive orders relate; to domestic matters, and Proclamations relate either to foreign and trade matters or to ceremonial functions. The President may also issue certain directives characterized as "Determinations" or "Memoranda." The Federal Register Act does not require publication of these other types of Presidential documents, but the President may direct that they be submitted for publication in the Federal Register.

The President does not submit any classified orders to the Office of the Federal Register. Classified documents, such as Presidential Decision Directives, are maintained at the White House and eventually transferred to the National Archives' Presidential Library system.

PROCEDURE FOR PROCESSING AND PUBLISHING EXECUTIVE ORDERS

The Office of the Federal Register does not currently have any responsibility for reviewing the substance or form of Executive orders prior to issuance. E.O. 11030 of June 15, 1962, as amended (see http://www.nara.gov/fedreg/eos/e11030.html), specifies a standardized format for Executive orders and the procedures for proposal and review within the Executive branch. Those requirements are also codified in Federal Register regulations in 1 CFR part 19. Under these provisions, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the Attorney General review and approve the format and substance of Executive orders prior to signature. The Attorney General also has the option of routing draft Executive orders through the OFR to check for typographical and clerical errors, but has not followed that practice for more than 20 years.

Once the President signs an Executive order, the Office of the Executive Clerk in the White House submits the document to the OFR by messenger. When a messenger delivers an Executive order, our Presidential and Legislative Documents Unit verifies that the Executive order meets the following basic requirements. Our Staff confirms that we have received a signed and dated original, along with two certified copies. We check the order of pages and numbered sections and the continuity of the text to ensure that the document is intact. It is also customary for the Executive Clerk to include a computer disk and a letter certifying the file on the disk as a true copy of the original. Once we have completed our initial review, we sign a receipt and give it to the messenger to return to the White House.

We begin processing the document for public filing and publication in the Federal Register by assigning it the next available number in the Executive order series. A staff member hand writes the series number on the original and certified copies. On the rare occasions when we receive more than one Executive order, we assign the series numbers by signature date, then by relative importance, and then be alphabetical order if the documents are of equal importance. After initial processing, we secure the originals of Executive orders and other Presidential documents in a safe for eventual transfer to the National Archives.

To prepare an Executive order for publication, our editorial staff enters information into our document tracking system, marks up an editorial copy for Federal Register style, converts the word processor file into publishing software, and adds typesetting codes. We print out the typeset file to check the appearance of the document and a review for typographical errors. Very rarely, our editors will find an error or omission in the text of the Executive order. In those instances, we contact the Executive Clerk for authorization to make a correction. When we complete our editorial review, we transmit the finished electronic file to the Government Printing Office (GPO). GPO's production staff complete the processing necessary for the Executive order to appear in the printed and on-line editions of the Federal Register.

Executive orders are published in the Federal Register on an expedited schedule. If the OFR receives an Executive order before noon, we publish it in the next issue of the daily Federal Register. If it arrives after noon, we will publish it within two days. If an Executive order addresses an emergency situation, we will instruct our editors and the Printing Office to include it in the next day's issue regardless of the time we received it during the working day.

Our responsibility for processing Executive orders also includes making a copy available for public inspection. Under the Federal Register Act, documents published in the Federal Register must be placed on file for public inspection during official hours, at least one business day before the date of publication. Executive orders scheduled for the next day's Federal Register are filed as soon as possible. Those scheduled for publication within two days are filed at 8:45 a.m. on the day after submission. Our staff time-stamps the file copy to record the time of day, and files the document in our public inspection area, which is open to any member of the public. To alert our customers to newly filed documents, including Executive orders, we update our "List of Documents on Public Inspection," which is posted on our NARA Web site.

ACCESS TO PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS AND FEDERAL REGISTER INFORMATION

The Federal Register publication system is the product of a unique partnership between our parent agency, NARA, and the GPO. The support of these two institutions helps guarantee the public's right to know about the actions of their Govern

ment. In recent years, the OFR/GPO partnership has developed on-line editions of every major Federal Register publication and posted them on the GPO Access service to make it easier for citizens to gain access to essential legal information.

The on-line edition of the daily Federal Register is available at 6 a.m. (ET), making new Executive orders accessible to the American people on a very timely basis. We also compile each year's Executive orders in title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), as required under the Federal Register Act. The 1997 through 1999 editions of the CFR are available on-line on the GPO Access service. Some of the Presidential Memoranda and Determinations that are not published in the Federal Register and CFR, are released by the White House Press Secretary and carried in the OFR's Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents and the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States. These Federal Register publications are available in printed editions and on-line formats that we have recently developed for the GPO Access service.

To help the public sort through these various sources of information, we use our NARA Web site to direct customers to the text of Executive orders and other Presidential documents (see http://www.nara.gov/fedreg/presdoc.html). We also provide other information services, such as our historical Codification of Proclamations and Executive Orders and an on-line index of Executive orders, which tracks dates of issuance, amendments, revocations and dates of publication in the Federal Register. During the first nine months of calendar year 1999, our customers retrieved a total of 557,657 documents from these pages.

The Federal Register publication system also depends on its partnership with the Government Depository Library program to ensure that all citizens have equal access to Government information. More than 1,350 Depository Libraries throughout the United States and its Territories provide free public access to Federal Register publications in print, and on-line via the GPO Access service.

The Superintendent of Documents at GPO reports that Federal Register publications are among the most frequently used databases on the GPO Access service, accounting for 79 per cent of total usage. In fiscal year 1998, the public retrieved more than 102 million individual documents from our publications. At the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 1999, that figure had already been surpassed by 9 million and was headed for a projected year-end total of 145 million retrievals of information. About one-third of those retrievals are from the daily on-line Federal Register and two-thirds from the 200-volume Code of Federal Regulations. During the same time period, our customers retrieved 138,000 individual documents from the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, and 367,000 for The United States Government Manual. Overall, public use of on-line Federal Register publications has increased by more than 1000 per cent since free on-line service began in late 1995. I believe these figures demonstrate that Federal Register publications and information services are helping to build a "digital democracy" by providing the American people with direct access to essential Government information and the opportunity to express their views on the various programs and policies of Federal agencies.

This concludes my testimony. I thank the Chairman for this opportunity to address the Subcommittee, and I would be pleased to take any questions that you may have.

Mr. Goss. I want to thank you, and I was aware of some of that information, but I think it bears underscoring.

That really is startling, that there is this much public interest and technology is providing this kind of access. For those of us who are not as skilled as some of our younger members of our generation in all of this digital access you speak of, there has still got to be a way for us to retrieve these. So I hope you have a telephone or a public information office or answer your mail as well in addition to the electronics.

Mr. MOSLEY. Yes, we do.

Mr. Goss. I guess I am asking the question this way: It is hard for people to know when we say, gee, check the library, they might have it, it is hard to know which library does or doesn't. There needs to be a way that I think Members of Congress have staffers who are informed in their offices when these calls come in from the