I 

114TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4702 

To direct the Director of the Government Publishing Office to provide members of the public with Internet access to Congressional Research Service 

reports, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 3, 2016 

Mr. LANCE (for himself and Mr. QUIGLEY) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on House Administration 

A BILL 

To direct the Director of the Government Publishing Office 

to provide members of the public with Internet access 

to Congressional Research Service reports, 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 ‘‘Equal Access to Con5 gressional Research Service Reports Act of 2016’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

2 (a) CRS PRODUCT.—In this Act, the term ‘‘CRS 

3 product’’ means any final work product of CRS in any 

4 format. 

5 (b) CRS REPORT.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—In this Act, the term ‘‘CRS 

7 Report’’ means any written CRS product, including 

8 an update to a previous written CRS product, con9 sisting of— 

10 (A) a Congressional Research Service Re11 port; 

12 (B) a Congressional Research Service Au13 thorization of Appropriations Product and Ap14 propriations Product; or 

15 (C) subject to paragraph (2)(C), any other 

16 written CRS product containing CRS research 

17 or CRS analysis which is available for general 

18 congressional access on the CRS Congressional 

19 Intranet. 

20 (2) EXCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘CRS Report’’ 

21 does not include— 

22 (A) any CRS product that is determined 

23 by the CRS Director to be a custom product or 

24 service because it was prepared in direct re25 sponse to a request for custom analysis or re26 search and is not available for general congresVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:15 Mar 04, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4702.IH H4702

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1 sional access on the CRS Congressional 

2 Intranet; 

3 (B) any Congressional Research Service 

4 Report or any Congressional Research Service 

5 Authorization of Appropriations Product and 

6 Appropriations Product which, as of the effec7 tive date of this Act, is not available for general 

8 congressional access on the CRS Congressional 

9 Intranet; or 

10 (C) a written CRS product that has been 

11 made available by CRS for publication on a 

12 public Website maintained by the GPO Director 

13 (other than the Website) or the Library of Con14 gress. 

15 (c) OTHER DEFINITIONS.—In this Act— 

16 (1) the term ‘‘CRS’’ means the Congressional 

17 Research Service; 

18 (2) the term ‘‘CRS Congressional Intranet’’ 

19 means any of the Websites maintained by CRS for 

20 the purpose of providing to Members and employees 

21 of Congress access to information from CRS; 

22 (3) the term ‘‘CRS Director’’ means the Direc23 tor of CRS; 

24 (4) the term ‘‘GPO Director’’ means the Direc25 tor of the Government Publishing Office; 


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1 (5) the term ‘‘Member of Congress’’ includes a 

2 Delegate or Resident Commissioner to Congress; and 

3 (6) the term ‘‘Website’’ means the Website es4 tablished and maintained under section 3. 

5 SEC. 3. AVAILABILITY OF CRS REPORTS THROUGH GPO 

6 WEBSITE. 

7 (a) WEBSITE.— 

8 (1) ESTABLISHMENT AND MAINTENANCE.—The 

9 GPO Director, in consultation with the CRS Direc10 tor, shall establish and maintain a public Website 

11 containing CRS Reports and an index of all CRS 

12 Reports contained on the Website, in accordance 

13 with this section. 

14 (2) FORMAT.—On the Website, CRS Reports 

15 shall be searchable, sortable, and downloadable, in16 cluding downloadable in bulk. 

17 (3) FREE ACCESS.—Notwithstanding section 

18 4102 of title 44, United States Code, the GPO Di19 rector may not charge a fee for access to the 

20 Website. 

21 (b) UPDATES; DISCLAIMER.—The GPO Director, in 

22 consultation with the CRS Director, shall ensure that the 

23 Website— 

24 (1) is updated contemporaneously, automati25 cally, and electronically to include each new or upVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:15 Mar 04, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4702.IH H4702

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1 dated CRS Report released on or after the effective 

2 date of this Act; 

3 (2) shows the status of each CRS Report as 

4 new, updated, or withdrawn; and 

5 (3) displays the following statement in reference 

6 to the CRS Reports included on the Website: ‘‘These 

7 documents were prepared by the Congressional Re8 search Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan 

9 shared staff to congressional committees and Mem10 bers of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of 

11 and under the direction of Congress. Information in 

12 a CRS Report should not be relied upon for pur13 poses other than public understanding of informa14 tion that has been provided by CRS to Members of 

15 Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role. 

16 CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Gov17 ernment, are not subject to copyright protection in 

18 the United States. Any CRS Report may be repro19 duced and distributed in its entirety without permis20 sion from CRS. However, as a CRS Report may in21 clude copyrighted images or material from a third 

22 party, you may need to obtain the permission of the 

23 copyright holder if you wish to copy or otherwise use 

24 copyrighted material.’’. 


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1 (c) FURNISHING OF NECESSARY INFORMATION AND

2 TECHNOLOGY.—The CRS Director shall consult with and 

3 provide assistance to the GPO Director to ensure— 

4 (1) that the GPO Director is provided with all 

5 of the information necessary to carry out this Act, 

6 including all of the information described in sub7 paragraphs (A) through (E) of section 4(a)(1), in 

8 such format and manner as the GPO Director con9 siders appropriate; and 

10 (2) that CRS makes available and implements 

11 such technology as may be necessary to facilitate the 

12 contemporaneous, automatic, and electronic provi13 sion of CRS Reports to the GPO Director as re14 quired under this Act. 

15 (d) NONEXCLUSIVITY.—The GPO Director may pub16 lish other information on the Website. 

17 (e) ADDITIONAL TECHNIQUES.—The GPO Director 

18 and the CRS Director may use additional techniques to 

19 make CRS Reports available to the public, if such tech20 niques are consistent with this Act and any other applica21 ble laws. 

22 (f) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.—The CRS Director 

23 is encouraged to make additional CRS products that are 

24 not custom products or services available to the GPO Di25 rector for publication on the Website, and the GPO DirecVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:15 Mar 04, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4702.IH H4702

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1 tor is encouraged to publish such CRS products on the 

2 Website. 

3 (g) EXPANSION OF CONTENTS OF ANNUAL REPORT

4 TO CONGRESS TO INCLUDE INFORMATION ON EFFORTS

5 TO MAKE ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS AVAILABLE ON

6 WEBSITE.—Section 203(i) of the Legislative Reorganiza7 tion Act of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 166(i)) is amended by striking 

8 the period at the end and inserting the following: ‘‘, and 

9 shall include in the report a description of the efforts made 

10 by the Director to make additional Congressional Re11 search Service products that are not custom products or 

12 services available to the Director of the Government Pub13 lishing Office for publication on the Website established 

14 and maintained under the Equal Access to Congressional 

15 Research Service Reports Act of 2016.’’. 

16 SEC. 4. WEBSITE CONTENTS. 

17 (a) SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR REPORTS POSTED

18 ON WEBSITE.— 

19 (1) RESPONSIBILITIES OF GPO DIRECTOR.— 

20 With respect to each CRS Report included on the 

21 Website, the GPO Director shall include— 

22 (A) the name and identification number of 

23 the CRS Report; 

24 (B) an indication as to whether the CRS 

25 Report is new, updated, or withdrawn; 


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1 (C) the date of release of the CRS Report; 

2 (D) the division or divisions of CRS that 

3 were responsible for the production of the CRS 

4 Report; and 

5 (E) any other information the GPO Direc6 tor, in consultation with the CRS Director, con7 siders appropriate. 

8 (2) RESPONSIBILITIES OF CRS DIRECTOR.— 

9 With respect to each CRS Report included on the 

10 Website, the CRS Director shall, prior to transmit11 ting the Report to the GPO Director— 

12 (A) at the discretion of the CRS Director, 

13 remove the name of and any contact informa14 tion for any employee of CRS; and 

15 (B) include in the CRS Report the fol16 lowing written statement: ‘‘This document was 

17 prepared by the Congressional Research Service 

18 (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff 

19 to congressional committees and Members of 

20 Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and 

21 under the direction of Congress. Information in 

22 a CRS Report should not be relied upon for 

23 purposes other than public understanding of in24 formation that has been provided by CRS to 

25 Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s 


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1 institutional role. CRS Reports, as a work of 

2 the United States Government, are not subject 

3 to copyright protection in the United States. 

4 Any CRS Report may be reproduced and dis5 tributed in its entirety without permission from 

6 CRS. However, as this CRS Report may in7 clude copyrighted images or material from a 

8 third party, you may need to obtain the permis9 sion of the copyright holder if you wish to copy 

10 or otherwise use copyrighted material.’’. 

11 (b) SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR INDEX ON

12 WEBSITE.—The GPO Director shall ensure that the index 

13 of all CRS Reports published on the Website is— 

14 (1) comprehensive; 

15 (2) contemporaneously updated; 

16 (3) searchable; 

17 (4) sortable; 

18 (5) maintained in a human-readable format; 

19 (6) maintained in a structured data format; 

20 (7) downloadable; and 

21 (8) inclusive of each item of information de22 scribed in subsection (a)(1) with respect to each 

23 CRS Report. 


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1 SEC. 5. CONFORMING AMENDMENT TO DUTIES OF CRS. 

2 Section 203(d) of the Legislative Reorganization Act 

3 of 1946 (2 U.S.C. 166(d)) is amended— 

4 (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph 

5 (7); 

6 (2) by striking the period at the end of para7 graph (8) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

8 (3) by adding at the end the following new 

9 paragraph: 

10 ‘‘(9) to comply with the requirements of, and 

11 provide information and technological assistance 

12 consistent with, the Equal Access to Congressional 

13 Research Service Reports Act of 2016.’’. 

14 SEC. 6. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION. 

15 (a) NO EFFECT ON SPEECH OR DEBATE CLAUSE.— 

16 Nothing in this Act may be construed to diminish, qualify, 

17 condition, waive, or otherwise affect the applicability of 

18 clause 1 of section 6 of article I of the Constitution of 

19 the United States (commonly known as the ‘‘Speech or 

20 Debate Clause’’) or any other privilege available to Con21 gress or Members, offices, or employees of Congress with 

22 respect to any CRS Report made available online under 

23 this Act. 

24 (b) CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS.—Nothing in 

25 this Act may be construed to waive the requirement that 

26 any confidential communication by CRS to a Member, ofVerDate Sep 11 2014 18:15 Mar 04, 2016 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4702.IH H4702

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1 fice, or committee of Congress shall remain under the cus2 tody and control of Congress and may be released only 

3 by Congress and its Houses, Members, offices, and com4 mittees, in accordance with the rules and privileges of each 

5 House and the requirements of this Act. 

6 (c) DISSEMINATION OF CRS PRODUCTS.—Nothing in 

7 this Act may be construed to limit or otherwise affect the 

8 ability of a Member, office, or committee of Congress to 

9 disseminate CRS products on a Website of the Member, 

10 office, or committee or to otherwise provide CRS products 

11 to the public, including as part of constituent service ac12 tivities. 

13 SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATE. 

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 

15 (b), this Act and the amendments made by this Act shall 

16 take effect 90 days after the date on which the GPO Di17 rector submits the certification described in subsection 

18 (b)(2). 

19 (b) PROVISION OF INFORMATION AND TECH20 NOLOGY.— 

21 (1) CRS DEADLINE.—Not later than 90 days 

22 after the date of enactment of this Act, the CRS Di23 rector shall provide the GPO Director with the infor24 mation and technology necessary for the GPO Direc25 tor to begin the initial operation of the Website. 


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1 (2) CERTIFICATION.—Upon provision of the in2 formation and technology described in paragraph 

3 (1), the GPO Director shall submit to Congress a 

4 certification that the CRS Director has provided the 

5 information and technology necessary for the GPO 

6 Director to begin the initial operation of the 

7 Website. 

Æ 


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