MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2010


KLMNO


EZ SU THE FED PAGE Federal bookstore newest haven for paper-loving policy wonks


Congress’s greatest hits — and all the others — now more browsable


BY LISA REIN Book sales are down nation-


wide, independents are gasping for air, and the future for bricks- and-mortar bookstores looks bleak.Government is going green and thrifty. So, what’s a new government


bookstore that refuses to give in to the scanned, Googled, digital Zeitgeist doing stepsfromCapitol Hill? The federal government may


be moving its records and much of its whopping documentation of the legislative process online. But the Government Printing Of- fice has rebranded and over- hauled its once money-losing bookstore in the belief that a digital file cannot entirely replace the touch and smell and feel of a book. Even a book like the U.S. Army’s “War Surgery in Afghani- stan and Iraq.” WithWashington being a place


where the 9/11 Commission Re- portandtheOmnibusAppropria- tions Act of 2009 actually make for serious pillow talk, the print- ing office staff hopes its reverence for tradition will break even, even if it doesn’t break retail records. “What we’re looking at is stay-


ing in balance,” said Robert C. Tapella, the public printer. “We see ourselves as a community bookstore. We’re not trying to make the last buck.We are here to serve the American people.” The agency’s publication busi-


ness peaked at $100 million in revenue in the 1980s, went sever- al million into the red in 2005and two years ago bounced back to a small margin of profitability. But mostly the printing office is stay- ing afloat by shifting its functions to security documents for a post- Sept. 11 world. The bookstore’s mission is dif-


ferent. “There are still a lot of Americans willing to plunk down money to browse in a bookstore,” Tapella said. “There’s a soul. A pulse.” The store made its first sale in


1895, 34 years after Congress created the printing office to pub- lish and disseminate the work of the three branches of govern-


Kuzel clutched a turquoise vol- ume of the 2009 Code of Federal Regulations. Kuzel lives in An- chorage, Alaska, and works as a grant administrator for Catholic Charities, which is resettling 150 refugees from Bhutan and Sudan. Embedded in the code are the State Department’s rules for re- settlement. “Of course, I could have found


this on the Internet,” said Kuzel, who was in town on other busi- ness and stopped by the store. “But I’ve got tohave the hard copy so I can scribble in it.” Mark Laframboise, book buyer


for Politics and Prose, recalled that he drove downtown on the September day in 1998 when in- dependent counsel Kenneth W. Starr released his report on Presi- dent Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky and bought 48 copies from the store to sell at cost. “Back then it was a pretty hot government publication,” he said. The store’s next revenue fron-


tier is electronic books, although it remains to be seen how many Kindle owners will download “The U.S. Army in Somalia 1992- 94.” And with so many govern- ment documents available free online, making money could be challenging. Tapella said the key could be in


MARK GAIL/THE WASHINGTON POST Illustrator Nick Crawford, left, and author Jim Cameron sign copies of the first government comic book on Sept. 1 at the redesigned store.


ment. Its tiny sixth-floor home at 732 North Capitol St. NW was accessed only by freight elevator until 1921, when it moved down- stairs to the lobby of one of the government’s oldest agencies. From then until the store’s grand reopening on Aug. 11, books were displayed on a long counter un- der drab lights. “It was a rack and stack government warehouse,” Tapella said. Now the store looks like a small-scale Barnes & Noble, de- signed for browsingandbuying, a retailer of inside-the-Beltway de- cisions, how-to manuals and curi- osities with outside-the-Beltway appeal that showcase the breadth of expertise in government. Buyers will find the “Woody


Plant Seed Manual” from the Agriculture Department in hard- cover for $103 and “Government Auditing Standards,” covering 218 pages, from the Government Accountability Office for $12.50.


Q&A Background checks zero in on the undisclosed If the question is asked, abso- BY DANA HEDGPETH Each year, the U.S. govern-


ment issues thousands of securi- ty clearances to employees. But it is not Uncle Sam who does all of those background checks. Many are done by a private contractor. Falls Church-based USIS,


which was mentioned in The Post’s Top Secret America series, is one of the largest outfits doing screening and background checks for the government. Its clients include the departments of Justice, State,Homeland Secu- rity and Defense, plus about a dozen intelligence agencies, in- cluding the National Security Agency and the National Recon- naissance Office. USIS, which is privately held,


has had contracts with the gov- ernment to do background inves- tigations since the mid-’90s. The company won’t say how much it makes from government con- tracts, but executives said last year it processed more than 2 million investigations for the government. The U.S. govern- ment then uses the USIS infor- mation to decide whether to grant someone a clearance. Doug Steele, vice president of


operations in the Investigative Services Division of USIS, dis- cussed the business. Here are some interview excerpts. Q: What’s the worst thing


someone can say when going through a background investi- gation? A: To me, the worst thing


someone can say is what he doesn’t say. What do youmean by that? When there’s not full disclo-


sure, that’s what can get you in trouble. Why? Because it goes to a person’s


honesty, integrity, personal con- duct and candor. If someone is not truthful in the course of a background investigation with us, then it raises the question, “How can he be trusted in a position of responsibility dealing with national security on a day- to-day basis?” What kinds of questions do


USIS


Doug Steele is vice president in the Investigative Services Division ofUSIS.


you ask a person? For higher-level clearances,we


ask such questions as ‘Is your spouse affiliated with anyone that othersmay question?’ What’s that mean? It sounds


like you’re asking if my spouse is friends with Tony Soprano. Some people joke and say, “You


should see my husband’s friends.” What else do you ask? We might ask about the per-


son’s travel patterns. Why? Well, let’s say a neighbormen-


tions thatMr. Smith has a love of the mujaheddin in Afghanistan or al-Qaeda, that would trigger me to probe deeper.Or if you ask, “Have you ever known this per- son to show unusual foreign preferences?” What does thatmean? If someone mentions they fa-


vor the politics ofNorth Korea or Iran or Pakistan. That’s going to raise an eyebrow to an investiga- tor from a national security standpoint. Do you really need to confess


to all the crazy things you may have done in, say, your college days?


lutely. The worst thing to do is to tell a baldfaced lie. But for most people we don’t go back that far in their history. It’s usually activi- ties you’ve been involved with in the last seven to 10 years for higher clearance levels. How much does it cost for


you to do one of your back- ground checks? We’ll get back to you. [A few


days later, a company spokes- woman said the costs can range from less than $100 to $3,344.19 per person for more extensive background checks.] What’s theworst thing you’ve


heard someone confess? We had an attache in a high-


level position assigned to an Eastern European country who very much liked the ladies. He had two separate lives. When I interviewed his wife, everything he had toldme didn’t square. What do youmean? He was a jet-setter, but at


home he was a librarian type. I happened to ask him about his wife’s friends, and it turned out that he was having an affair with his wife’s best friend and a sec- ond woman in the Eastern Euro- pean country.When he would fly abroad he would take her and rendezvous with the other wom- en as well. Yet he was represent- ing the highest levels of the U.S. government. Howdid you even think to ask


about his wife’s friends? It was by reading his body


language that I detected some- thing wasn’t adding up. During an interviewyou ask about home life,marital status—not because you want to know if they like fishing but because you want to knowhowquick they are on their feet. How could you tell he was


lying? He had shifty eyes. He put his


hands up to his face, crossed his hands a lot. That triggered that there wasmore to the story. What happened with that


gentleman? He ended up losing his clear-


ance and was debarred from further federal service. hedgpethd@washpost.com


On the shelf, the National Ocean- ic and Atmospheric Administra- tion holds forth on “Understand- ingMarine Debris.” There are hard copies of the


Federal Register, Congressional Record and Official Gazette of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Of- fice—publications that not long ago could be found on the desks of every congressional staffer or patent lawyer. Among the 1,600 titles — plus


another 1,000 online—are plenty of coffee-table books for curl-up- on-the-couch, from “Black Ameri- cans in Congress: 1870-2007” to “A Botanic Garden for the Na- tion,” an illustrative text on the U.S Botanic Garden in Washing- ton. The 2,600-square-foot space,


advertised with two large ban- ners above the steps of the brick building, was redesigned and renovated in-house during a four- month construction period.


There’s now fresh carpet and track lighting, an online cata- logue, piped music and a $10 table with hard-to-move mer- chandise — just like at the big chains. The store sells civics flash


cards for young readers. And children get their own corner with cushions, toys and ample copies of the first government comic book: “Squeaks Discovers Type!,” a paean to the history of printing. A coffee bar is on the way. The only detractor is the metal


detector in the lobby. “It used to be, you’d come in,


you’d get your book and you’d leave,” said Davita Vance-Cooks, the printing office’s chief of publi-


cation and information sales. “We’ve never marketed our book- store before. We’re marketing it now.” The bookstore is taking out


print ads in local newspapers and targeting public schools and thousands of public and research libraries. Taking a page from Poli- tics and Prose, the independent bookstore on Connecticut Ave- nue NW, Vance-Cooks recently kicked off an author book-signing program with the comic book’s writer and illustrator, both print- ing office employees. About 100 people came. In its first week the new store had about 400 visitors. Traffic since then has hovered around 100 visitors a week. On week four, a smiling Brian


how the book is rendered. “We could conceivably make a deci- sion that the Code of Federal Regulations might have a cost associated with downloading it in a book format.” The printing office has an ad-


vantage over traditional book- stores: Remainders and out-of- print publications are less of a problem. When a customer re- cently ordered a single copy of the 9/11 Commission report, Vance- Cooks had it printed on a single press run. “These are things of enduring


interest to a very small number of people that can be stocked forev- er on a computer,” said Michael Cader, publisher of thePublishers Marketplace, an industry news- letter. “It’s a lot better than park- ing 500 books in a warehouse waiting for someone to come along and ask for them.” reinl@washpost.com


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