I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 6026 

To amend section 262 of the Museum and Library Services Act to authorize 

the Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services to award 

grants to institutions of higher education for courses that use only 

publicly available digital resources for required reading assignments, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OCTOBER 24, 2023 

Mr. FOSTER introduced the following bill 

OCTOBER 25, 2023 

Referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 

A BILL 

To amend section 262 of the Museum and Library Services 

Act to authorize the Director of the Institute of Museum 

and Library Services to award grants to institutions 

of higher education for courses that use only publicly 

available digital resources for required reading assignments, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘No Cost Educational 

5 Resources Act of 2023’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. GRANTS. 

2 Section 262 of the Museum and Library Services Act 

3 (20 U.S.C. 9162) is amended— 

4 (1) in subsection (a)— 

5 (A) in the matter preceding paragraph 

6 (1)— 

7 (i) by striking ‘‘nationwide and to’’ 

8 and inserting ‘‘nationwide, to’’; and 

9 (ii) by inserting ‘‘, and to provide 

10 funding for open educational reading mate11 rial courses’’ after ‘‘museums’’; 

12 (B) in paragraph (4)(B), by striking 

13 ‘‘and’’ at the end; 

14 (C) in paragraph (5), by striking the pe15 riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

16 (D) by adding at the end the following: 

17 ‘‘(6) facilitating the adoption, adaption, and 

18 creation of open educational reading materials, and 

19 establishing more open educational reading material 

20 courses, pursuant to subsection (d).’’; 

21 (2) in subsection (c), by striking ‘‘The Direc22 tor’’ and inserting ‘‘Except as provided in subsection 

23 (d), the Director’’; and 

24 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

25 ‘‘(d) OPEN EDUCATIONAL READING MATERIAL

26 COURSES.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sec2 tion: 

3 ‘‘(A) The term ‘open educational reading 

4 material’ means a free digital text that is pub5 licly available to be downloaded and redistrib6 uted. 

7 ‘‘(B) The term ‘open educational reading 

8 material course’ means a science, technology, 

9 engineering, or math course offered by an insti10 tution of higher education that uses only open 

11 educational reading materials as the form of the 

12 required readings for the course. 

13 ‘‘(2) APPLICATION.—To receive a grant under 

14 subsection (a)(6), an institution of higher education 

15 shall submit to the Director an application that in16 cludes— 

17 ‘‘(A) a description of how the institution of 

18 higher education— 

19 ‘‘(i) plans to facilitate the adoption, 

20 adaption, and creation of open educational 

21 reading materials by assigning leadership 

22 of the grant implementation to library ad23 ministrators and librarians; 

24 ‘‘(ii) has collaborated with science, 

25 technology, engineering, and mathematics 


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1 department faculty in developing the appli2 cation and plans to continue to collaborate 

3 with such faculty in implementing the 

4 grant projects; and 

5 ‘‘(iii) plans to collaborate with other 

6 institutions of higher education to facilitate 

7 the wider adoption, adaption, and creation 

8 of open educational reading materials 

9 throughout the higher education commu10 nity; and 

11 ‘‘(B) a plan to review the quality of the 

12 open educational reading materials used at such 

13 institution of higher education. 

14 ‘‘(3) PRIORITY.—In awarding grants under 

15 subsection (a)(6), the Director shall give priority to 

16 an institution of higher education that— 

17 ‘‘(A) enrolls a high number of low-income 

18 or minority students, or both; and 

19 ‘‘(B) plans— 

20 ‘‘(i) to assign a member of the faculty 

21 and a librarian to coordinate the imple22 mentation of open educational reading ma23 terial courses; 


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1 ‘‘(ii) to use library resources to facili2 tate the use of open educational reading 

3 materials; 

4 ‘‘(iii) to use open educational reading 

5 materials as the form of the required read6 ings for science, technology, engineering, 

7 and mathematics courses with high enroll8 ment; and 

9 ‘‘(iv) to provide incentives for faculty 

10 to use only open educational reading mate11 rials as the form of the required readings 

12 for their courses, such as monetary awards 

13 or dedicated work time to adopt, adapt, or 

14 create such materials. 

15 ‘‘(4) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the 

16 date on which the first grant is awarded under sub17 section (a)(6), the Director shall submit to Congress 

18 a report that includes— 

19 ‘‘(A) the number of grants awarded under 

20 subsection (a)(6); 

21 ‘‘(B) an evaluation of the effect of such 

22 grants on increasing the number of science, 

23 technology, engineering, and mathematics 

24 courses using open educational reading mateVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:26 Nov 04, 2023 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6026.IH H6026

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1 rials as the form of required readings for such 

2 courses; and 

3 ‘‘(C) an evaluation of the amount of money 

4 saved by students who enroll in open edu5 cational reading material courses in comparison 

6 to students who enroll in similar courses with 

7 required readings that are only available by 

8 purchase.’’. 

Æ 


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