Bureau of Land Management:� Payment of Printing Costs by the, B-290900, March 18, 2003

B-290900 Mar 18, 2003 Jump To VIEW DECISION RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights One of the missions of the Project is to educate the public and other interested entities about the lighthouse program. Project members determined that one way to accomplish this goal was to publish a brochure detailing the program and containing photographs of the relevant Michigan lighthouse properties. Sec. 501 that all government printing be done through the Government Printing Office does not apply because BLM did not procure the services and the printing was not done "for the government" under 44 U.S.C. The Michigan Lighthouse Project was established in 1998 to address the fate of lighthouses in the state of Michigan. Who answers to and is paid by both the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office and the Michigan Historic Preservation Network. View Decision Bureau of Land Management: Payment of Printing Costs by the Milwaukee Field Office, B-290900, March 18, 2003 DIGEST DECISION A certifying officer of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Department of the Interior, has requested an advance decision under 31 U.S.C. Sec. 3529 regarding the payment of an invoice submitted by a printing company to BLM for part of the costs associated with the printing of a brochure about the Michigan Lighthouse Project (Project). For the following reasons, BLM may use appropriated funds to pay its share of the brochure production costs in the furtherance of its role in the lighthouse preservation program. BACKGROUND According to the record, the Michigan Lighthouse Project was established in 1998 to address the fate of lighthouses in the state of Michigan, including the seventy-seven lighthouses under federal ownership. A full-time Project Director, who answers to and is paid by both the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office and the Michigan Historic Preservation Network, a statewide nonprofit historic preservation advocate, oversees the Project. Letter from William S. Fulcer, Acting Assistant Manager, BLM Milwaukee Field Office, to Doug McArthur, Senior Attorney, GAO, August 14, 2002. In addition to various interested Michigan state agencies and non-profit organizations, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, current members of the Project include the General Service Administration (GSA), the Coast Guard, the National Park Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and BLM. (For more information on the Michigan Lighthouse Project, see the website at www.sos.state.mi.us/history/preserve/lights/milight2.html.) According to the submission, BLM agreed to cooperate in the Project under the authority granted in the Department of Interior and Related Agencies Appropriation Act, 1991, Pub. L. No. 101-512, title 1, 104 Stat. 1918, Nov. 5, 1990 (FY 1991 Appropriation Act), which provided that "notwithstanding the provisions of the Federal Grants and Cooperative Agreements Act of 1977 . . . the Bureau is authorized hereafter to negotiate and enter into cooperative arrangements with public and private agencies, organizations, institutions, and individuals, to implement challenge cost-share programs," such as the Michigan Lighthouse Project. Letter from Stephen D. Douglas, Acting State Director, BLM Eastern States Office, to Thomas H. Armstrong, Assistant General Counsel, GAO, Sept. 11, 2002. BLM and other federal agencies formalized their participation in the Project in an Agreement Respecting the Preservation of Historic Lighthouses between the Governor of the State of Michigan, BLM, GSA, and the Coast Guard, numbered BLM-ES-030-05, August 16, 1999. The Agreement sets forth the Project's objectives of developing a plan to permanently and expeditiously transfer historic Michigan lighthouses to the proper entities. The plan will include a strategy to ensure that Michigan's historic lighthouses are afforded sufficient protection. The Agreement does not specify relative funding responsibilities. It was developed in conjunction with the Project Charter, which details the mission of the Project to, among other things, increase public awareness of lighthouse preservation issues through "print material which highlights the Project and the benefits which accrue to participants." "Charter of the Michigan Lighthouse Project," 1999, page 3. The National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000, Pub. L. No. 106-355, 114 Stat. 1385 (codified at 16 U.S.C. Secs. 470w-7 and 470w-8) established a national lighthouse preservation program and provided a statutory mechanism for the conveyance of lighthouse properties at no cost to federal agencies, state or local governments, nonprofit organizations, and community development organizations for park, recreation, cultural, historic, or educational uses, while retaining federal use of the lighthouses for navigational purposes.