Test Site may be center for U.S. documents

Suzanne Struglinski

Monday, Dec. 13, 2004 | 10:55 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Nevada Test Site may become home to a new branch of the Government Printing Office that would handle secure documents as early as 2006.

Nevadan Bruce James, the Public Printer of the United States, proposed the new facility be built in his home state as part of his five-year "Strategic Vision for the 21st Century" for the Government Printing Office.

The plan, released today, said the Test Site would produce security and intelligence documents, including new "electronic passports" complete with computer chips, because it is "one of the nation's most secure federal locations."

GPO expects the new site to be functional and producing passports and other documents by July 2006. It will also serve as a "backup" facility -- a second digital printing center for the Federal Register and Congressional Record.

The new site is part of a reorganization plan for the agency as it wades through a massive transition from its historic role as paper printer of all government documents to a digital document operation.

James aims to relocate the agency's main facilities, now just a few blocks from the Capitol, because it is not able to handle the type of technology the GPO needs to support publishing electronic documents. The printing office estimates that 50 percent of the government's documents are "born digital" or created on a computer, published to the Internet and will never need to be printed by the U.S. government.

James, of Lake Tahoe's Crystal Bay, started his job as the Public Printer in December 2002.

Nevada's senators, Harry Reid, a Democrat and John Ensign, a Republican, support the idea. Reid is the incoming Senate Democratic leader.

The GPO has not made a final decision about establishing a facility at the Test Site, office spokeswoman Veronica Meter said. It's not known yet whether the printing facility would be housed in a new or existing building.

It was not immediately clear how the printing office identified the Test Site as a suitable spot for its new "backup" facility, or what approvals that site would need. It likely would not need congressional approval, Meter said.

No cost or construction estimates were immediately available.

The strategic plan released today said the agency has hired a real estate consulting company to assist the agency in selecting and developing its new sites. The agency plan says "we expect" the new headquarters will be in the Washington area and that the security-document facility would be at the Test Site.

The Nevada Test Site, with its nearest border to Las Vegas about 65 miles northwest of the city, was the nation's nuclear weapons proving ground during the Cold War, but no tests have been conducted there since 1992.

Government officials have long pondered new uses for the site, one of the most secure and remote government sites in the nation. Proposals have ranged from wind farms to space shuttle launch pads.

In recent years, the site has been used for counter-terrorism training as part of a new war on terror.