Oregon Public Broadcasting

A follow-up now to a story we brought you earlier this week. It appears unlikely the Washington Legislature will eliminate the state's 156-year old printing operation.

Instead, the House passed legislation Friday to merge the state printer with the Department of Information Services.

Democratic Representative Sam Hunt of Olympia defended the $10 million a year printing agency. Sam Hunt: "Timeliness is always important. The state printer can be there to do emergency jobs. Faster oftentimes than the private sector especially when we need them in an ASAP basis."

House Democrats rejected a Republican amendment. It would have prohibited the state printer from charging other agencies a five-percent mark up on print jobs that are outsourced to private vendors.

Democrats in the State Senate had proposed closing down the state printer -- calling it antiquated. But Senate leaders now say they will concur with the House approach of merging, but not eliminating, the agency.