BUDGET
Printing the President's Budget — PICTURES
Updated: February 13, 2012 | 7:03 a.m.
February 13, 2012 | 6:00 a.m.
Printing the President's budget each year is no small undertaking. Each printed set contains thousands of pages and weighs about 10 pounds. The employees of the Government Printing Office take pride in their work, even as new technology has caused the office to cut employees in recent years.
Here's a look at how the budget is put together.
The Government Printing Office opened its doors on the day President Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861. The Office of Management and Budget works with the President to write the presidential budget, and GPO produces it here.
PHOTO: Julia Edwards
A GPO employee loads a stack of raw pages to be sorted, covered, bound and trimmed. The budget comes in four volumes. All together it weighs contains more than 2,000 pages and weighs around 10 pounds.
PHOTO: Julia Edwards
Sam Dews removes budgets from a machine that covers them with their signature blue cover. Dews has worked at GPO since 1973 and remembers when the process used to take nearly a month. This year, GPO took only five days to complete printing.
PHOTO: Julia Edwards
Workers remove bound copies from the budget. Until binding, the cover and 2,000 plus sheets of paper are only loosely stacked.
PHOTO: Julia Edwards
This machine trims bound budgets on three sides. Trimming is the last step in the production process.
PHOTO: Julia Edwards
Acting Public Printer DaVita Vance-Cooks, who directs the GPO, helps her employees bring the last budgets off the conveyor belt. This is the first budget produced under Vance-Cooks leadership. She is the first female to hold the position.
PHOTO: Julia Edwards
The Budget of Fiscal Year 2013 on display on the printing room floor.
PHOTO: Julia Edwards
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