CIRCULAR LETTER NO. 468

August 1, 2000

TO: Printing and Publishing Officials of the Federal Government

SUBJECT: Discontinuance of the special "Interim Rate" contained in Circular Letter No. 459, "Changes in the Cost to Publish in the Federal Register"

Circular Letter No. 459, dated December 14, 1999, contained changes in the page rates charged for publishing in the Federal Register. These rates, effective January 1, 2000, included a special "Interim Rate" for Billing Code F: "Fully coded and validated" to remain in effect until the Government Printing Office (GPO) became fully operational with SGML-structured documents.

GPO is now producing the Federal Register from SGML/XML coded data. All manuscript and non-coded electronic data is being coded with SGML/XML markup. All GPO locator-coded electronic data is being processed through a conversion process and is then fine-tuned as necessary to ensure that it is SGML/XML compliant. Accordingly, effective January 1, 2001, the special "Interim Rate" will be discontinued and the rates indicated below will apply for Billing Code F: "Fully coded and validated (locator codes)." The rates for all other billing codes remain as indicated in Circular Letter No. 459.

Cost to publish in the Federal Register (effective January 1, 2001):

To become eligible for the "SGML-coded and validated" discounted rates (Billing Code S), agencies must avail themselves of the free training and documentation furnished by GPO. Please contact Mr. William Reilly, telephone: 202-512-1369, or e-mail: wreilly@gpo.gov, to arrange for the submission of agency-specific test files and to schedule training, which will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Subsequent to training, an agency will be provided the appropriate discount upon successful submission of the SGML-coded and validated files. Validation of the submissions must be accomplished at the agency utilizing the GPO MicroComp composition software, which creates draft output for use in the agency's approval process. MicroComp page output (in Federal Register format) must accompany the electronic files when they are submitted to GPO.

If you have any questions regarding the information contained in this Circular Letter, please contact Mr. William Reilly or your GPO Account Representative.

Sincerely,

JIM BRADLEY
Director, Customer Services

Questions or comments regarding this service? Contact wwwadmin@gpo.gov.

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