The Government Printing Office will spend an estimated $18,000 to reprint the most recent House disbursements report after omitting an index from the two-volume set.

The printing agency plans to redistribute 1,668 copies of the “Statement of Disbursements of the House” issued for January to March 2004 to Congressional offices and other recipients this week. The quarterly publication details expenditures for every House office including such items as staff salaries.

A GPO spokeswoman explained Tuesday that the initial version of the two-section report excluded the index from the second book, and said both volumes will be re-issued. The printing agency distributed all but 160 copies of the original run; those books are put aside as a serial set.

The new books, which are known as a “Star Print” or corrected Congressional publication, will be issued with an explanatory note, which states in part:

“To correct this misprint the GPO has reprinted both Parts 1 and 2 of the Statement of Disbursements as a ‘Star Print.’ The new release of this publication has a black star in the lower left corner of both the cover and title pages. Please replace the previous set of Statement of Disbursements with the ‘Star Print’ version.”

The GPO spokeswoman noted that the agency plans to absorb the cost of the reprint.

“GPO apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused Members and other recipients of this publication and has taken steps to prevent a repeat of this error,” the note states.

In May, GPO officials recalled nearly 712,000 copies of the pocket-size Constitution and Declaration of Independence pamphlets after it became apparent the agency had omitted seven words and a footnote from its most recent edition.

Public Printer Bruce James blamed the omissions on a “printing error caused by a mechanical process” in a letter to Congressional offices that receive the publications.

Those booklets, which have since been reissued, were distributed in October.