Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the methods used to establish federal compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM) prices.

GAO found that: (1) federal agencies use a variety of methods to price their CD-ROM titles; (2) most federal CD-ROM titles are sold by the agency that collects the original data or by agencies that produce and disseminate titles for the originating agencies; (3) most of the agencies' pricing methods include some common factors such as disc replication and shipping and handling; (4) CD-ROM prices vary dramatically governmentwide; and (5) 52 percent of the titles reviewed were priced at $50 or less.