GPO Reports $14.3M Loss for 2020

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) lost $14.3 million on $915.9 million in revenue according to FY 2020 financial results reported by Director Hugh Nathanial Halpern. For the 24th consecutive year, GPO earned an unmodified, or clean, opinion, on its audited financial statements for FY 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected GPO and its customers alike. Early in the pandemic, production operations slowed to ensure support for the critical needs of Congress and GPO began the work of reimagining its other operations to ensure the safety of our teammates. Early in the summer, GPO successfully implemented GPOSAFE, a plan to safely return to work during the pandemic, including symptom screening at all entry points (including temperature monitoring), requirements for PPE, and social distancing measures in production, office, and common areas. As another key element of GPOSAFE, the agency’s manufacturing operations began operating at 50 percent capacity and implemented split shifts for essential teammates, leading to lower production levels. GPO’s production changes, combined with lower demand from its customers across all three branches of government, contributed to GPO’s lower results in FY 2020.

GPO was able to rely on its cash reserves to ensure that its operations could continue without layoffs or furloughs.

“The coronavirus pandemic caused the largest disruption to agency operations since the Civil War,” said GPO Director Hugh Nathanial Halpern. “While I wish our financial results were better, a big thank you goes to our GPO teammates for figuring out how to conduct our operations safely during the pandemic and to remain as productive as possible. I am confident that the agency can recover from 2020 and emerge at the end of FY 2021 in great shape. We are continuing to provide a first-class experience to our customers in Congress, the White House, and the Federal agencies as they begin their own recoveries and choose GPO as their publishing partner.”

Under GPOSAFE, telework-capable teammates are successfully working from home. During the pandemic, GPO continues to provide a first-class customer experience, update govinfo, onboard teammates, and more, virtually. The agency’s expanded use of telework and experiment with MaxiFlex scheduling have kept the agency productive while giving teammates more flexibility to care for their families during these unprecedented times.

GPO enhanced the user experience on govinfo, the one-stop site for authentic information published by the Government. During FY 2020, GPO added 212,000 new documents to govinfo, more than a 75 percent increase compared to last year. There have been more than 392 million retrievals from govinfo in FY 2020.

GPO FY 2020 highlights:

• More than 392 million retrievals on GPO’s govinfo, the digital system of authentic, published Government information
• Stimulating state/local economies with more than $517 million in contracts to private sector printing companies through GPO’s print procurement program
• Published first Congressional Record on new digital inkjet presses
• GPO is named Most Valuable Employer During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Fall Library Conference was virtual and had record attendance
• Library of Congress and GPO release ten years of legislative data on govinfo

Source: Government Publishing Office