Sponsors (4)
The bill makes the Constitution Annotated more broadly and quickly available online and saves printing costs, but it shifts access away from print-dependent users and places preservation and equity burdens on the Library and underserved communities.
Congress, schools, local governments, and the public will have continuous, free online access to the Constitution Annotated with more frequent digital updates (odd-numbered years), so annotations reflect recent case law sooner.
Taxpayers will save money and avoid logistical burdens because the government will stop producing ongoing hardbound editions, eliminating printing and distribution costs.
Low-income individuals, rural communities, and others with limited internet access may lose reliable access because the Annotated Constitution will be digital-only after 2025.
Libraries, courts, and some schools that depend on mandatory hardbound copies will no longer receive them, forcing those institutions to procure, budget for, or do without printed volumes.
Long-term preservation and format-migration responsibilities fall to the Library of Congress, creating archival and technical risks that could require future funding or work paid by taxpayers or state governments.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Replaces required printed hardbound and pocket-part editions of the Constitution Annotated with required digital decennial editions and recurring digital pocket-part supplements available on the Library of Congress website.
Replaces the current legal requirement to print hardbound decennial editions and pocket-part print supplements of the Constitution Annotated with a requirement that the Library of Congress produce and publish digital decennial editions and recurring digital pocket-part supplements. The Librarian must post the digital products on a public Library of Congress website, keep them available to Congress and the public, and stop required printing after completion of the October 2025 Supreme Court term. The bill sets schedules: digital pocket-part supplements begin after the October 2025 term and recur in odd-numbered years whose final digit is not 1; fully revised digital decennial editions begin after the October 2031 term and recur every ten years thereafter. The statutory mandate to print additional paper copies is repealed.
Introduced February 12, 2025 by Stephanie I. Bice · Last progress April 1, 2025