 As he had as governor of Kentucky , Ford gave attention to improving the efficiency of government . While serving on the Joint Committee on Printing during the One Hundred First and One Hundred Third Congresses , he saved the government millions of dollars in printing costs by printing in volume and using recycled paper . In 1998 , Virginia senator John Warner sponsored the Wendell H. Ford Government Publications Reform Act of 1998 ; Ford signed on as a co @-@ sponsor . The bill would have eliminated the Joint Committee on Printing , distributing its authority and functions among the Senate Rules Committee , the House Oversight Committee , and the administrator of the Government Printing Office . It would also have centralized government printing services and penalized government agencies who did not make their documents available to the printing office to be printed . Opponents of the bill cited the broad powers granted to the printing office and concerns about the erosion of copyright protection . The bill was reported favorably out of committee , but was squeezed from the legislative calendar by issues related to the impending impeachment of Bill Clinton . Warner did not return to his chairmanship of the Joint Committee on Printing in the next congress , Ford retired from the Senate , and the bill was not re @-@ introduced . 
