I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1631 
To amend title 17, United States Code, to reaffirm the importance of, and 
include requirements for, works incorporated by reference into law, and 
for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 17, 2023 
Mr. ISSA (for himself and Ms. ROSS) introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To amend title 17, United States Code, to reaffirm the 
importance of, and include requirements for, works incor-
porated by reference into law, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting and En-
hancing Public Access to Codes Act’’ or the ‘‘Pro Codes 
Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Congress, the executive branch, and State 
and local governments have long recognized that the 
people of the United States benefit greatly from the 
work of private standards development organizations 
with expertise in highly specialized areas. 
(2) The organizations described in paragraph 
(1) create technical standards and voluntary con-
sensus standards through a process requiring open-
ness, balance, consensus, and due process to ensure 
all interested parties have an opportunity to partici-
pate in standards development. 
(3) The standards that result from the process 
described in paragraph (2) are used by private in-
dustry, academia, the Federal Government, and 
State and local governments that incorporate those 
standards by reference into laws and regulations. 
(4) The standards described in paragraph (3) 
further innovation, commerce, and public safety, all 
without cost to governments or taxpayers because 
standards development organizations fund the proc-
ess described in paragraph (2) through the sale and 
licensing of their standards. 
(5) Congress and the executive branch have re-
peatedly declared that, wherever possible, govern-
ments should rely on voluntary consensus standards 
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and have set forth policies and procedures by which 
those standards are incorporated by reference into 
laws and regulations and that balance the interests 
of access with protection for copyright. 
(6) Circular A–119 of the Office of Manage-
ment and Budget entitled ‘‘Federal Participation in 
the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus 
Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activi-
ties’’, issued in revised form on January 27, 2016, 
recognizes the benefits of voluntary consensus stand-
ards and incorporation by reference, stating that 
‘‘[i]f a standard is used and published in an agency 
document, your agency must observe and protect the 
rights of the copyright holder and meet any other 
similar obligations.’’. 
(7) Federal agencies have relied extensively on 
the incorporation by reference system to leverage the 
value of technical standards and voluntary consensus 
standards for the benefit of the public, resulting in 
more than 23,000 sections in the Code of Federal 
Regulations that incorporate by reference technical 
and voluntary consensus standards. 
(8) State and local governments have also rec-
ognized that technical standards and voluntary con-
sensus standards are critical to protecting public 
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health and safety, which has resulted in many such 
governments— 
(A) incorporating those standards by ref-
erence into their laws and regulations; or 
(B) entering into license agreements with 
standards development organizations to use the 
standards created by those organizations. 
(9) Standards development organizations rely 
on copyright protection to generate the revenues 
necessary to fund the voluntary consensus process 
and to continue creating and updating these impor-
tant standards. 
(10) The people of the United States have a 
strong interest in— 
(A) ensuring that standards development 
organizations continue to utilize a voluntary 
consensus process— 
(i) in which all interested parties can 
participate; and 
(ii) that continues to create and up-
date standards in a timely manner to— 
(I) account for technological ad-
vances; 
(II) address new threats to public 
health and safety; and 
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(III) improve the usefulness of 
those standards; and 
(B) the provision of access that allows peo-
ple to read technical and voluntary consensus 
standards that are incorporated by reference 
into laws and regulations. 
(11) As of the date of enactment of this Act, 
many standards development organizations make 
their standards available to the public free of charge 
online in a manner that does not substantially dis-
rupt the ability of those organizations to earn rev-
enue from the industries and professionals that pur-
chase copies and subscription-access to those stand-
ards (such as through read-only access), which en-
sures that the public may read the current, accurate 
version of such a standard without significantly 
interfering with the revenue model that has long 
supported those organizations and their creation of, 
and investment in, new standards. 
(12) Through this Act, and the amendments 
made by this Act, Congress intends to balance the 
goals of furthering the creation of standards and en-
suring public access to standards that are incor-
porated by reference into law or regulation. 
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SEC. 3. WORKS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE INTO LAW. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 1 of title 17, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘§ 123. Works incorporated by reference into law 
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) CIRCULAR A–119.—The term ‘Circular A– 
119’ means Circular A–119 of the Office of Manage-
ment and Budget entitled ‘Federal Participation in 
the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus 
Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities’, 
issued in revised form on January 27, 2016. 
‘‘(2) INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘incor-
porated by reference’ means, with respect to a 
standard, that the text of a Federal, State, 
local, or municipal law or regulation— 
‘‘(i) references all or part of the 
standard; and 
‘‘(ii) does not copy the text of that 
standard directly into that law or regula-
tion. 
‘‘(B) APPLICATION.—The creation or pub-
lication of a work that includes both the text of 
a law or regulation and all or part of a stand-
ard that has been incorporated by reference, as 
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described in subparagraph (A), shall not affect 
the status of the standard as incorporated by 
reference under that subparagraph. 
‘‘(3) STANDARD.—The term ‘standard’ means a 
standard or code that is— 
‘‘(A) a technical standard, as that term is 
defined in section 12(d) of the National Tech-
nology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 
(15 U.S.C. 272 note); or 
‘‘(B) a voluntary consensus standard, as 
that term is used for the purposes of Circular 
A–119. 
‘‘(4) STANDARDS
DEVELOPMENT
ORGANIZA-
TION.—The term ‘standards development organiza-
tion’ means a holder of a copyright under this title 
that plans, develops, establishes, or coordinates vol-
untary consensus standards using procedures that 
incorporate the attributes of openness, balance of in-
terests, due process, an appeals process, and con-
sensus in a manner consistent with the requirements 
of Circular A–119. 
‘‘(5) PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE ONLINE.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘publicly ac-
cessible online’, with respect to material, means 
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that the material is displayed for review in a 
readily accessible manner on a public website. 
‘‘(B) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—If a user 
is required to create an account or agree to the 
terms of service of a website or organization in 
order to access material online, that require-
ment shall not be construed to render the mate-
rial not publicly accessible online for the pur-
poses of subparagraph (A), if there is no mone-
tary cost to the user to access that material. 
‘‘(b) STANDARDS INCORPORATED
BY REFERENCE 
INTO LAW OR REGULATION.—A standard to which copy-
right protection subsists under section 102(a) at the time 
of its fixation shall retain such protection, notwithstanding 
that the standard is incorporated by reference, if the appli-
cable standards development organization, within a rea-
sonable period of time after obtaining actual or construc-
tive notice that the standard has been incorporated by ref-
erence, makes all portions of the standard so incorporated 
publicly accessible online at no monetary cost. 
‘‘(c) BURDEN
OF PROOF.—In any proceeding in 
which a party asserts that a standards development orga-
nization has failed to comply with the requirements under 
subsection (b) for retaining copyright protection with re-
spect to a standard, the burden of proof shall be on the 
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