I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1729 
To provide the public with access to the laws of the United States, and 
for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 27, 2017 
Mr. BRAT (for himself and Mr. MOULTON) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on House Administration 
A BILL 
To provide the public with access to the laws of the United 
States, 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 ‘‘Statutes at Large 
Modernization Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The United States was established under ‘‘a 
government of laws, and not of men’’. 
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(2) The rule of law requires that the laws be 
available to the people. 
(3) Active, permanent laws are codified in the 
United States Code, which is maintained by the Of-
fice of the Law Revision Counsel at http:// 
uscode.house.gov/. 
(4) The United States Code usually does not in-
clude, however, repealed laws, original statutes that 
have since been amended, or those with limited du-
ration such as appropriations acts. Furthermore, un-
codified titles of the United States Code are merely 
‘‘evidence’’ of the law before the judicial branch, so 
attorneys must consult the United States Statutes at 
Large. 
(5) The United States Statutes at Large is 
compiled by the National Archives and Records Ad-
ministration. It is legal and permanent evidence of 
all the laws enacted during a session of Congress be-
ginning with the First Congress in 1789. It also 
contains 
concurrent 
resolutions, 
reorganization 
plans, proposed and ratified amendments to the 
Constitution of the United States, and proclamations 
by the President. 
(6) The Statutes at Large collection is pub-
lished under the direction of the Office of the Fed-
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eral Register through the Congressional Printing 
Management Division of the Government Publishing 
Office. 
(7) The Law Library of Congress has begun to 
digitize the Statutes at Large. It has published all 
volumes in a text-over-PDF format. They appear as 
scanned PDF images with basic search capability. 
(8) More resources are needed to adequately re-
fine and structure the embedded data elements that 
enable advanced search functions, machine read-
ability, and other useful options. 
(9) The Government Publishing Office is the 
appropriate entity to lead the online digitization of 
the Statutes at Large in collaboration with other 
Federal and private entities with expertise in devel-
oping formatting conventions for legislative mate-
rials. 
(10) Incorporating relevant digital information 
into www.Congress.gov would make it a more useful 
and comprehensive research resource. 
SEC. 3. PUBLIC ACCESS TO THE LAWS OF THE UNITED 
STATES. 
(a) ONLINE AVAILABILITY OF STATUTES AT LARGE 
THROUGH GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE.—Section 
728 of title 44, United States Code, is amended— 
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(1) in the first undesignated paragraph, by 
striking ‘‘The Director’’ and inserting ‘‘(a) PRINT-
ING AND DISTRIBUTION.—The Director’’; 
(2) in the second undesignated paragraph, by 
striking ‘‘The Director’’ and inserting ‘‘(b) TREA-
TIES AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS.— 
The Director’’; and 
(3) by adding at the end the following new sub-
section: 
‘‘(c) ONLINE ACCESS TO STATUTES AT LARGE.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall make 
the Statutes at Large available to the public at no 
cost on a website in a searchable, non-proprietary 
format. 
‘‘(2) CONSULTATION AND COORDINATION.—The 
Director shall ensure that the searchable online edi-
tion of the United States Statutes at Large made 
available under this subsection is prepared in con-
sultation and coordination with entities that develop 
formatting conventions used for enrolled bills and 
other legislative materials, which may include the Li-
brary of Congress, the Office of the Clerk of the 
House of Representatives, the Office of the Sec-
retary of the Senate, the Office of the Legislative 
Counsel of the House of Representatives, the Office 
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of the Legislative Counsel of the Senate, the Office 
of the Law Revision Counsel, the Congressional Re-
search Service, the National Archives and Records 
Administration, and such other public and private 
entities that the Director considers appropriate.’’. 
(b) REQUIRING LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS TO INCOR-
PORATE SEARCHABLE STATUTES AT LARGE INTO LEGIS-
LATIVE INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEM.—Section 209 
of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 1996 (2 
U.S.C. 180) is amended by adding at the end the following 
new subsection: 
‘‘(f) In addition to the legislative information de-
scribed in subsection (b), the relevant electronic informa-
tion made available by the Director of the Government 
Publishing Office under section 728(c) of title 44, United 
States Code, shall be incorporated into the legislative in-
formation service to the extent practicable.’’. 
(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 
authorized to be appropriated $5,000,000 for each of fis-
cal years 2018 through 2022 to carry out the provisions 
of this Act. 
Æ 
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