I happened to stumble upon a notice on the Senate Rules Committee web site indicating that the Rules Committee confirmation hearing for President Obama’s nomination for the 26^th U.S. Public Printer, William J. Boarman, is scheduled for Tuesday, May 25, at 10 AM.

This appears to be the only notice that has been given and is a little bit surprising.  The GPO is a billion dollar U.S. government business.  I have no opinion one way or another about Mr. Boarman’s qualifications for the job, since I have not spoken to him (although that has now become a priority for me), but I find it odd that there was not a more visible notice about the hearing.  One would expect at least a press release from the GPO or the White House advising the public about this hearing and their ability to comment on the proposed appointment.  The site says:

Individuals and organizations that wish to submit a statement for the hearing record are requested to submit a cover letter on stationery that lists the individual/organization’s name, address, phone, and email. The letter should note the subject and date of the hearing and request that it and any additional documents be included in the hearing record. The deadline to submit statements is 5 business days after the adjournment of the hearing.

Five days!  Then it goes before the full Senate for a vote.  The whole thing could be wrapped up in a couple weeks.  The speed and “under-the-radarness” with which this is being done makes me wonder.  Does everyone consider this an unimportant post or is there something else going on here?  What has been the due diligence in terms of his background?  The hearing can be seen live on a webcast from the Senate Rules Committee site, and while I don’t normally watch such things, this one should be interesting.

So what happened to transparency in government?  Our industry should be paying attention to this confirmation, be informed about the nominee, and be vocal about their support or non-support of the appointment based on facts which, it seems, are not readily available.  Love it or hate it, the GPO plays an important role in the U.S. printing industry and we should certainly care about who is running the operation and what their plans are for the organization. (Remember that only one President in the history of the GPO has ever actually visited the GPO facility, and that was Abraham Lincoln, who was responsible for establishing this agency!)

This approach to the confirmation is made even more interesting by the fact that, according to sources we spoke with after discovering the hearing date, Boarman was a somewhat significant player in the effort to unseat a sitting Senator from his own party in another state (Boarman lives in Maryland).  According to a New York Times article published May 19^th, organized labor says it “plans to go all-out to defeat Blanche Lincoln, the Democratic senator from Arkansas, in a June 8 runoff election against Lt. Gov. Bill Halter.” The article goes on to say, “labor’s big push for Mr. Halter — including more than 60,000 phone calls and 200,000 leaflets distributed at work sites — helped prevent Ms. Lincoln from obtaining the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff in Tuesday’s [May 18^th] Democratic primary.” Our sources indicate that Mr. Boarman, in his CWA role, bundled contributions of $10,000 to help support this effort, and was instrumental in raising funds, including a personal contribution of $250, making the CWA third on the list in terms of dollar volume (although five other union organizations maxed out with this amount as well—I assume the contributions are listed in alphabetical order).  Working to unseat a sitting Senator of your own party right before your confirmation hearing … one wonders how that will be received by the Senate as a whole.

Mr. Boarman is currently President of the Printing, Publishing & Media Workers Sector of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and the Senior Vice President of CWA. A recently published bio gives this background:  “Mr. Boarman has been associated with the printing industry, its labor relations and personnel management for over 40 years starting with his four-year apprenticeship at McArdle Printing in Washington, D.C., succeeding to Journeyman Printer (Practical Printer by Trade) in 1971. In 1974 Mr. Boarman accepted an appointment as Printer to GPO. In 1977, Mr. Boarman took a leave of absence from GPO to serve in various elected posts within the International Typographical Union, which merged with CWA in 1987. He is chairman of the CWA/ITU Negotiated Pension Plan, a multi-employer defined benefit pension plan with assets of $1 billion; President of the International Allied Printing Trades Association; and President of the Union Printers Home, a 122-bed skilled nursing facility in Colorado Springs, CO. Mr. Boarman served three terms as co-chair of the Council of Institutional Investors (CII) and as the first-ever public member of the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities.”

The last two Public Printers have done a yeoman’s job of overhauling the antiquated operations at the GPO, starting with Bruce James, who was appointed 24^th U.S. Public Printer during the Bush43 tenure, as well as his successor, Bob Tapella, the current (and 25^th) Public Printer.  The leadership that has been provided by these two gentlemen has brought the GPO into the digital age, especially through the FDsys initiative which makes important documents such as the Congressional Record and Federal Register available online even before the ink hits the paper in the GPO pressroom.  WhatTheyThink has extensively interviewed both Mr. James and Mr. Tapella, with interviews published in writing and on video.  A simple search of the WhatTheythink site will turn those up if you want to refresh your memory on has been accomplished.  Does Mr. Boarman plan to continue this work?  That’s one of the questions I have for him.

I encourage members of the industry to get involved at least by watching the hearing as part of developing an informed opinion.  Meanwhile, WhatTheyThink will be reaching out to Mr. Boarman to seek an interview, although it is probably unlike that will happen before the hearing, and will be closely following the process. Let’s at least ensure the transparency we were promised.

Let us know what you think.