Findings

Congress finds the following: (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 consensus standards through a process requiring openness, balance, consensus, and due process to ensure all interested parties have an opportunity to participate in standards development. (3) The standards that result from the process described in paragraph (2) are used by private industry, 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 process described in paragraph (2) through the sale and licensing of their standards. (5) Congress and the executive branch have repeatedly declared that, wherever possible, governments should rely on voluntary consensus standards 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 Management 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, recognizes the benefits of voluntary consensus standards 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 recognized that technical standards and voluntary consensus standards are critical to protecting public health and safety, which has resulted in many such governments— (A) incorporating those standards by reference 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 important 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 update standards in a timely manner to— (I) account for technological advances; (II) address new threats to public health and safety; and (III) improve the usefulness of those standards; and (B) the provision of access that allows people 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 disrupt the ability of those organizations to earn revenue from the industries and professionals that purchase copies and subscription-access to those standards (such as through read-only access), which ensures 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 ensuring public access to standards that are incorporated by reference into law or regulation.