Sponsors (5)
The bill clarifies leadership, succession, and personnel rules for the Library, GPO, and Copyright Office—improving operational continuity, merit protections, and some oversight structures—while trading off stronger traditional Senate checks and creating risks of increased politicization, concentrated authority in non‑confirmed acting officials, and transitional complexity that may affect employees and taxpayers.
Federal employees at the Library of Congress, GPO, and Copyright Office will have clearer, statutory appointment, succession, and removal rules that reduce leadership gaps and enable faster filling of vacancies, improving operational continuity and management stability.
GPO and related employees gain clearer merit-based hiring protections and coverage under the Congressional Accountability Act, increasing fairness, protections against prohibited personnel practices, and access to workplace remedies.
The Copyright Office is given an independent Register with direct rulemaking authority plus an Office of Inspector General and advance-notice removal protections, clarifying decision authority and adding oversight mechanisms that can speed processes and increase accountability.
Shifting appointment and removal authority for the Librarian, GPO Director, and some Copyright Office roles to congressional party leaders and removing Senate advice-and-consent substantially increases the risk of politicized leadership selections and reduces traditional Senate oversight.
The bill authorizes acting or interim officials appointed through congressional processes to exercise full Director/Librarian duties without Senate confirmation, concentrating decisionmaking authority in non‑confirmed appointees and raising risks that significant policy or contracting decisions may be made by temporary leaders.
Creating a separate GPO personnel system and exempting some actions from Title 5 competitive-service rules could reduce standardized protections, appeal remedies, and consistent application of hiring safeguards for GPO employees.
Based on analysis of 11 sections of legislative text.
Reorganizes appointment/removal rules for the Librarian and GPO Director, creates deputy roles, makes the Copyright Office independent, brings GPO under the Congressional Accountability Act, and modernizes GPO personnel and service authority.
Official title: To modify the appointment and removal process for certain legislative branch officers, and for other purposes.
Introduced November 12, 2025 by H. Morgan Griffith · Last progress June 9, 2026
Makes several structural changes across legislative branch agencies: it replaces Presidential appointment and Senate advice-and-consent for the Director of the Government Publishing Office (GPO) and modifies appointment and removal procedures for the Librarian of Congress, adds deputy positions and acting-officer rules for both agencies, and requires a GPO human capital management system. It also makes the Copyright Office independent of the Librarian, creates an Inspector General for the Copyright Office, brings GPO employees under the Congressional Accountability Act, and converts an old statutory requirement that all federal printing must be done at GPO into permissive authority for GPO to provide printing and publishing services. Most provisions take effect on enactment, with specific delayed or phased-in applicability for certain appointments, pay rules, and the GPO human capital system. The bill is broadly organizational and administrative, shifting decision authority from presidential/Senate processes and the Librarian toward Congress-led appointment processes and the Register of Copyrights for copyright matters, while modernizing personnel rules and GPO service authorities.