Sponsor
Stephanie I. Bice
Representative · R-OK
Representative · R-OK
Official title: To revise certain authorities of the Government Publishing Office, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 18, 2026 by Stephanie I. Bice · Last progress September 15, 2026
The bill modernizes and centralizes government publishing—expanding free digital access, preservation, and cost-recovery mechanisms—while trading away some guaranteed printed access, concentrating authority, and shifting costs and administrative burdens onto agencies, libraries, and taxpayers.
Researchers, students, and the general public gain free, permanent online access and improved discoverability of Government publications via a comprehensive, machine-independent online catalog, making it easier to find and obtain government information.
Libraries, archives, and the public benefit from stronger stewardship and continuity measures (preservation, lifecycle management, authentication, minimum geographically distributed tangible copies, and continuity publication rules) that reduce the risk of losing historical and legal government records and keep key publications available during emergencies.
Taxpayers and the GPO may see lower reliance on new appropriations because the bill allows cost-recovery mechanisms (cost-plus premium pricing, Revolving Fund gifts/bequests) and reduces some printing/distribution obligations.
People who rely on printed copies (former Members, congressional offices, libraries, rural residents, and users without reliable internet) will face reduced guaranteed access to free hardbound materials and may lose convenient physical access points as statutory entitlements and mandatory sales/receipt duties become permissive.
Expanding digital repositories and stewardship programs, plus new notification/collaboration requirements for agencies, will increase federal and local staffing and preservation costs and impose administrative burdens that taxpayers and state/local agencies may ultimately bear.
Concentrating broad discretionary authority in the Superintendent and removing certain departmental approval/Joint Committee consultation requirements reduces oversight and centralizes decisionmaking, which could limit transparency and uniformity across agencies.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Modernizes GPO authorities, establishes statutory Public Information Programs to ensure permanent public access to government publications, renames the Joint Committee, and replaces most printed Annotated Constitution editions with digital editions.
Makes broad changes to how the Government Publishing Office (GPO) and the Superintendent of Documents manage, price, distribute, preserve, and provide public access to federal publications. It creates a new statutory Public Information Programs framework to require agencies to notify, furnish, and collaborate to ensure permanent, no-fee public access (including digital access) and updates sales, pricing, and disposal authorities for government publications. Renames the Joint Committee on Printing to the Joint Committee on Publishing and modernizes GPO procurement and operational authorities. It also ends the statutory requirement to print and distribute most hardbound decennial and pocket‑part editions of the Constitution Annotated, replacing them with digital decennial editions and digital cumulative supplements available on the Library of Congress website beginning with specified future Supreme Court terms.