[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4009 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4009
To amend title 17, United States Code, to reaffirm the importance of,
and include requirements for, works incorporated by reference into law,
and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 13, 2025
Mr. Issa (for himself and Ms. Ross) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend title 17, United States Code, to reaffirm the importance of,
and include requirements for, works incorporated by reference into law,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Protecting and Enhancing Public
Access to Codes Act'' or the ``Pro Codes Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Congress, the executive branch, and State and local
governments have long recognized that the people of the United
States benefit greatly from the work of private standards
development organizations with expertise in highly specialized
areas.
(2) The organizations described in paragraph (1) create
technical standards and voluntary consensus standards through a
process requiring openness, balance, consensus, and due process
to ensure all interested parties have an opportunity to
participate in standards development.
(3) The standards that result from the process described in
paragraph (2) are used by private industry, academia, the
Federal Government, and State and local governments that
incorporate those standards by reference into laws and
regulations.
(4) The standards described in paragraph (3) further
innovation, commerce, and public safety, all without cost to
governments or taxpayers because standards development
organizations fund the process described in paragraph (2)
through the sale and licensing of their standards.
(5) Congress and the executive branch have repeatedly
declared that, wherever possible, governments should rely on
voluntary consensus standards and have set forth policies and
procedures by which those standards are incorporated by
reference into laws and regulations and that balance the
interests of access with protection for copyright.
(6) Circular A-119 of the Office of Management and Budget
entitled ``Federal Participation in the Development and Use of
Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment
Activities'', issued in revised form on January 27, 2016,
recognizes the benefits of voluntary consensus standards and
incorporation by reference, stating that ``[i]f a standard is
used and published in an agency document, your agency must
observe and protect the rights of the copyright holder and meet
any other similar obligations.''.
(7) Federal agencies have relied extensively on the
incorporation by reference system to leverage the value of
technical standards and voluntary consensus standards for the
benefit of the public, resulting in more than 23,000 sections
in the Code of Federal Regulations that incorporate by
reference technical and voluntary consensus standards.
(8) State and local governments have also recognized that
technical standards and voluntary consensus standards are
critical to protecting public health and safety, which has
resulted in many such governments--
(A) incorporating those standards by reference into
their laws and regulations; or
(B) entering into license agreements with standards
development organizations to use the standards created
by those organizations.
(9) Standards development organizations rely on copyright
protection to generate the revenues necessary to fund the
voluntary consensus process and to continue creating and
updating these important standards.
(10) The people of the United States have a strong interest
in--
(A) ensuring that standards development
organizations continue to utilize a voluntary consensus
process--
(i) in which all interested parties can
participate; and
(ii) that continues to create and update
standards in a timely manner to--
(I) account for technological
advances;
(II) address new threats to public
health and safety; and
(III) improve the usefulness of
those standards; and
(B) the provision of access that allows people to
read technical and voluntary consensus standards that
are incorporated by reference into laws and
regulations.
(11) As of the date of enactment of this Act, many
standards development organizations make their standards
available to the public free of charge online in a manner that
does not substantially disrupt the ability of those
organizations to earn revenue from the industries and
professionals that purchase copies and subscription-access to
those standards (such as through read-only access), which
ensures that the public may read the current, accurate version
of such a standard without significantly interfering with the
revenue model that has long supported those organizations and
their creation of, and investment in, new standards.
(12) Through this Act, and the amendments made by this Act,
Congress intends to balance the goals of furthering the
creation of standards and ensuring public access to standards
that are incorporated by reference into law or regulation.
SEC. 3. WORKS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE INTO LAW.
(a) In General.--Chapter 1 of title 17, United States Code, is
amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 123. Works incorporated by reference into law
``(a) Definitions.--In this section:
``(1) Circular a-119.--The term `Circular A-119' means
Circular A-119 of the Office of Management and Budget entitled
`Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary
Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities',
issued in revised form on January 27, 2016.
``(2) Incorporated by reference.--
``(A) In general.--The term `incorporated by
reference' means, with respect to a standard, that the
text of a Federal, State, local, or municipal law or
regulation--
``(i) references all or part of the
standard; and
``(ii) does not copy the text of that
standard directly into that law or regulation.
``(B) Application.--The creation or publication of
a work that includes both the text of a law or
regulation and all or part of a standard that has been
incorporated by reference, as described in subparagraph
(A), shall not affect the status of the standard as
incorporated by reference under that subparagraph.
``(3) Standard.--The term `standard' means a standard or
code that is--
``(A) a technical standard, as that term is defined
in section 12(d) of the National Technology Transfer
and Advancement Act of 1995 (15 U.S.C. 272 note); or
``(B) a voluntary consensus standard, as that term
is used for the purposes of Circular A-119.
``(4) Standards development organization.--The term
`standards development organization' means a holder of a
copyright under this title that plans, develops, establishes,
or coordinates voluntary consensus standards using procedures
that incorporate the attributes of openness, balance of
interests, due process, an appeals process, and consensus in a
manner consistent with the requirements of Circular A-119.
``(5) Publicly accessible online.--
``(A) In general.--The term `publicly accessible
online', with respect to material, means that the
material is displayed for review in a readily
accessible manner on a public website that conforms
with the accessibility requirements of section 508 of
the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d),
including the regulations implementing that section as
set forth in part 1194 of title 36, Code of Federal
Regulations, or any successor regulation.
``(B) Rule of construction.--If a user is required
to create an account or agree to the terms of service
of a website or organization in order to access
material online, that requirement shall not be
construed to render the material not publicly
accessible online for the purposes of subparagraph (A),
if--
``(i) there is no monetary cost to the user
to access that material; and
``(ii) no personally identifiable
information collected pursuant to such a
requirement is used without the affirmative and
express consent of the user.
``(b) Standards Incorporated by Reference Into Law or Regulation.--
A standard to which copyright protection subsists under section 102(a)
at the time of its fixation shall retain such protection,
notwithstanding that the standard is incorporated by reference, if the
applicable standards development organization, within a reasonable
period of time after obtaining actual or constructive notice that the
standard has been incorporated by reference, makes all portions of the
standard so incorporated publicly accessible online at no monetary cost
and in a format that includes a searchable table of contents and index,
or equivalent aids to facilitate the location of specific content.
``(c) Burden of Proof.--In any proceeding in which a party asserts
that a standards development organization has failed to comply with the
requirements under subsection (b) for retaining copyright protection
with respect to a standard, the burden of proof shall be on the party
making that assertion to prove that the standards development
organization has failed to comply with those requirements.''.
(b) Technical and Conforming Amendment.--The table of sections for
chapter 1 of title 17, United States Code, is amended by adding at the
end the following:
``123. Works incorporated by reference into law.''.
SEC. 4. STUDY OF STANDARDS COST TO GOVERNMENTS.
(a) In General.--The Comptroller General of the United States shall
conduct a study on the financial impact to Federal, State, and local
governments in the United States associated with acquiring access to
standards incorporated by reference into law.
(b) Scope.--The study under subsection (a) shall--
(1) analyze the total expenditure by government entities
for accessing these standards;
(2) assess any financial burdens or resource constraints
these costs impose on governments, particularly for smaller
municipalities;
(3) evaluate the cost-effectiveness of current mechanisms
for acquiring these standards; and
(4) examine the impacts on public services due to the costs
associated with accessing these standards.
(c) Report.--Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment
of this Act, the Comptroller General shall submit a report to Congress
that includes--
(1) the findings of the study conducted under subsection
(a); and
(2) recommendations to mitigate any adverse financial
impacts identified by the study, including suggestions for
legislative or administrative actions as appropriate.
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