119-hr4009

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4009 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

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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