GPO Director Testifies Before House Committee on Production of Secure Credentials

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) Director Davita Vance-Cooks discussed how GPO has been providing federal agencies expertise and a secure manufacturing source for the production of secure credentials for decades before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Click here to read Vance-Cooks prepared statement before the Committee.

GPO’s role in the production of secure credentials:

• GPO has produced the U.S. Passport for the State Department since the 1920s, giving extensive experience in the important field of secure credentials. More than a decade ago it engineered the development of the e-Passport, which contains multiple physical and digital security features. Since then, GPO has produced over 100 million e-Passports that are in use by the American public today.
• Based on this experience, in 2007 the Joint Committee on Printing (JCP), GPO’s oversight committee, approved the request to establish a capability to produce secure credentials, such as border crossing cards, for federal agencies that were asking it for these solutions. In 2012, the JCP approved our request to establish a continuity of operations (COOP) for secure credential production at our Secure Production Facility in Stennis, Miss.
• To date, the GPO has produced more than 9 million secure credential cards across 15 different secure credential product lines. Among these products are the Trusted Traveler Family of border crossing cards—NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST, and Global Entry—for the Department of Homeland Security, which are used by frequent travelers across the U.S. borders. GPO produces a Border Crossing Card that is issued by the State Department for authorized travel across the Mexican border. GPO also has produced secure law enforcement credentials for the U.S. Capitol Police that were used in the 2009 and 2013 Presidential inaugurations, in addition to other products.
• The work GPO does in this field is well-established, well-known among federal agencies that need these products, and has been thoroughly validated by the Government Accountability Office and the National Academy of Public Administration, as well as overseen by its legislative and appropriations committees over many years.

About U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO)
GPO is the federal government’s official, digital, secure resource for producing, procuring, cataloging, indexing, authenticating, disseminating, and preserving the official information products of the U.S. government. The GPO is responsible for the production and distribution of information products and services for all three branches of the federal government, including U.S. passports for the Department of State as well as the official publications of Congress, the White House, and other federal agencies in digital and print formats.

GPO provides for permanent public access to federal government information at no charge through its Federal Digital System, partnerships with approximately 1,200 libraries nationwide participating in the Federal Depository Library Program, and its secure online bookstore.