[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 139 (Monday, September 9, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H5046-H5047]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REPEAL REQUIREMENT FOR CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE TO PREPARE
ANNOTATED CONSTITUTION AND SUPPLEMENTS IN HARDBOUND VERSION
Mr. STEIL. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 7592) to direct the Librarian of Congress to promote the more
cost-effective, efficient, and expanded availability of the Annotated
Constitution and pocket-part supplements by replacing the hardbound
versions with digital versions.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 7592
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. REPEAL REQUIREMENT FOR CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH
SERVICE TO PREPARE ANNOTATED CONSTITUTION AND
SUPPLEMENTS IN HARDBOUND VERSION.
(a) Repeal.--The first section of Public Law 91-589 (2
U.S.C. 168) is amended--
(1) by striking ``the Librarian of Congress'' and inserting
``(a) subject to subsection (b), the Librarian of Congress'';
and
(2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(b)(1) Upon the completion of the October 2031 term of
the Supreme Court and upon the completion of each tenth
October term of the Supreme Court thereafter, the Librarian
of Congress shall have prepared a digital decennial revised
edition of the Constitution Annotated, which shall contain
annotations of all decisions theretofore rendered by the
Supreme Court construing provisions of the Constitution, in
place of the hardbound decennial revised edition of the
Constitution Annotated described in subsection (a)(3).
``(2) Upon the completion of the October 2023 term of the
Supreme Court and upon the completion of each subsequent
October term of the Supreme Court beginning in an odd-
numbered year (the final digit of which is not a 1), the
Librarian shall have prepared a digital cumulative pocket-
part supplement to the most recent decennial revised edition
of the Constitution Annotated, which shall contain cumulative
annotations of all such decisions rendered by the Supreme
Court which were not included in the most recent revised
edition of the Constitution Annotated, in place of the
hardbound editions of the cumulative pocket-part supplement
described in subsection (a)(4).''.
(b) Ensuring Availability of Digital Versions.--Section 2
of Public Law 91-589 (2 U.S.C. 168a) is amended--
(1) by striking ``All hardbound'' and inserting ``(a) All
hardbound''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(b)(1) The digital decennial revised editions of the
Constitution Annotated prepared under subsection (b)(1) of
the first section of this Joint Resolution and the digital
cumulative pocket-part supplements prepared under subsection
(b)(2) of the first section of this Joint Resolution shall be
available at a public website of the Library of Congress.
``(2) The Librarian of Congress shall ensure the continuing
availability of the documents referred to in paragraph (1) to
Congress and the public.''.
(c) Repeal of Additional Printing Requirements.--
(1) Mandatory printing of additional copies.--Section 3 of
Public Law 91-589 (2 U.S.C. 168b) is amended--
(A) by striking ``There shall be printed'' and inserting
``(a) There shall be printed''; and
(B) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(b) Subsection (a) does not apply after completion of the
October 2023 term of the Supreme Court, and the Librarian of
Congress shall provide the decennial revised editions of the
Constitution Annotated and the cumulative pocket part
supplements prepared under this Joint Resolution exclusively
in a digital format available at a public website of the
Library of Congress.''.
(2) Printing of additional copies pursuant to concurrent
resolution.--Section 4 of Public Law 91-589 (2 U.S.C. 168c)
is repealed.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Wisconsin (Mr. Steil) and the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Kilmer)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin.
General Leave
Mr. STEIL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on the bill, H.R. 7592.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Wisconsin?
There was no objection.
Mr. STEIL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 7592. Today, Congress
will save taxpayers $5 million. Yes, you heard me correctly: Congress
will save taxpayer dollars today.
While our Nation is running $32 trillion in debt, and we have a long
way to go to get our country back on track, this is a good policy. It
will save taxpayers money.
We do this by getting rid of the statutory requirement to print
hardbound copies of the Constitution Annotated, or CONAN, as it is
better known today.
An easily accessible and up-to-date online version of it already
exists and is already used by millions of Americans. Continuing to
print hardbound copies not only wastes taxpayer dollars, but it also
wastes the time of CRS staff, who could better support the more
pressing work of Congress.
It is a positive step in modernizing Congress. At the beginning of
the 118th Congress, the Committee on House Administration took the
important step of working to modernize how Congress works. The
Modernization Subcommittee is led by Chairwoman Stephanie Bice and
Ranking Member Derek Kilmer. The subcommittee is bringing good ideas to
life by focusing on what we can do to make Congress a more effective
and efficient institution.
I have argued that the work of modernizing Congress extends to
Congress' support agencies. They need to work in a way that reflects
how today's Congress works.
The CONAN print requirement reflects how Congress worked 50 years
ago, before the internet even existed. Today, the rules don't make much
sense.
We do ourselves a disservice when we require CRS to do work that is
no longer necessary, no longer meets our needs. The more Congress can
do to optimize tremendous resources like CRS, the better off Congress
is, and H.R. 7592 moves us toward that goal.
I recognize Modernization Subcommittee Chairwoman Stephanie Bice,
who, along with subcommittee Ranking Member Derek Kilmer,
Representative Carey, and Representative Morelle, introduced this
measure and worked on a bipartisan basis to bring it to the floor
today.
I also recognize Chairwoman Bice for demonstrating that subcommittees
have an important role to play in the legislative process. This was the
first time in 31 years that a subcommittee of the House Administration
Committee held a markup.
Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the hard work that went into this
important measure, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting
H.R. 7592. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. KILMER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to stand before you today to speak about two
bills that have come from the Modernization Subcommittee, which
encompass the select committee's mission to make Congress work better
for the American people. Each of these bills addresses a problem or
challenge we identified through the Select Committee on the
Modernization of Congress.
I thank our subcommittee chair, Stephanie Bice, and our subcommittee
colleagues, Joe Morelle and Mike Carey, for their bipartisan
partnership on these bills, too, as well as our full committee
chairman, Bryan Steil.
As many of you know, the Congressional Research Service, or CRS,
mission is to provide timely, objective, and authoritative research and
analysis to Congress, its Members, committees, and staff.
The policy proposals we put forth are better for CRS' involvement and
support of us. That is why our subcommittee took it very seriously when
CRS' interim director, Robert Newlen, approached us about a few
challenges CRS was having and ways we could help.
In the select committee, we recommended congressional committees
consider the authorities for congressional support agencies and
identify those that need updating. H.R. 7592 and our next bill, H.R.
7593, are perfect examples of this.
Under existing law, the Library of Congress is required to produce
hardbound copies of the Constitution
[[Page H5047]]
with annotations, also referred to as CONAN.
You actually have to be as strong as Conan to lift this. My mother
tells me that at birth, I was 6 pounds, 8 ounces. This is 8 pounds, 14
ounces, so it is larger than small Derek Kilmer.
The task of printing this behemoth has fallen to CRS, and the most
recent CONAN print cost $1 million per year to print, not to mention
the considerable staff time and attention spent formatting, printing,
and distributing said books.
The law requiring printed CONAN copies predated widespread internet
access. Since 2019, the Library of Congress and CRS have made this same
information available online, free of cost, with the added benefit of
real-time updates that just aren't possible with printed books.
This bill simply replaces the requirement for the Library of Congress
and CRS to prepare hardbound versions of the CONAN and replaces it with
a requirement to prepare digital versions and publish them online
instead, as they already have been doing.
Through this bill, the American people can receive better and more
up-to-date information online. We can save taxpayer dollars and
valuable CRS staff capacity. We can eliminate the 8 pounds and 14
ounces of print. I personally would like to eliminate 8 pounds and 14
ounces after the weight I have gained over the August recess.
I think this is a commonsense bill, and I thank my colleague,
Chairwoman Bice, for her leadership on this.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve
the balance of my time.
Mr. STEIL. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the
gentlewoman from Oklahoma (Mrs. Bice) to speak on the bill.
Mrs. BICE. Mr. Speaker, as was mentioned by my colleague Mr. Kilmer,
this is the Constitution Annotated, or CONAN, as it is better known
today. Its origins date back to 1797 when Congress passed legislation
requiring that every Member of Congress be provided a copy of the
Constitution.
These copies were then expanded to include Supreme Court case
citations so that Members could see which clauses of the Constitution
the Court used to decide those cases.
As the number of citations grew, Members became frustrated with the
new format. The hundreds of citations listed under each clause of the
Constitution were useless to most of them because they had no idea what
the cases were about and what questions were before the Court.
In 1921, Congress passed a resolution requiring reprints of the
Constitution to include explanatory language that would make sense of
all the case citations throughout. This requirement made the reprints
much more useful to the Members, and the format created then is one
that is still used today.
Initially, CONAN was printed every 10 years or so, but by 1970,
Members began to complain that it was outdated almost as soon as it was
printed. They addressed this by passing a resolution requiring that a
paperbound supplement to CONAN be printed every 2 years, in addition to
printing the hardbound version of the CONAN every 10.
Since 1972, that is what we have done: Print a hardbound version of
CONAN every 10 years and a paperbound supplement every 2.
CONAN obviously has a rich history dating back over two centuries.
The Constitution provides the framework for our government, and
understanding that framework and how the Supreme Court has applied it
to its decisions over the years is as essential today as it was over
200 years ago.
Nothing about H.R. 7592 erases or changes this important history. In
fact, the legislative history of CONAN makes it clear that Congress has
consistently prioritized up-to-date interpretation and analysis of
court cases, and this resolution honors that longstanding tradition.
Today, people rely on digital sources for the most up-to-date
information. This is true whether we are talking about breaking news,
airfares, restaurant reviews, or Supreme Court case citations.
CONAN is a case in point. According to the GPO, the number of print
copies of CONAN requested in 2012 by the House, Senate, and Joint
Committee on Printing was just over 1,000. Ten years later, in 2022,
the number of requested copies dropped to just 659.
It is no coincidence that this drop in requests for the hardbound
version of CONAN coincides with the 2019 launch of a digital version of
CONAN.
Over the past 5 years, the CONAN website has become an invaluable
resource to individuals, citizens, schools, libraries, and, of course,
Congress. The user-friendly site has received more than 28 million
visits since it was created and features hundreds of pages of
constitutional analysis and content.
The site is publicly accessible, easy to search, and provides links
to Supreme Court decisions. Perhaps most importantly, it is updated in
real time by CRS.
All of this raises the question of why we are wasting taxpayer
dollars printing this giant hardcover version of CONAN along with
paperbound supplements when a superior digital version already exists.
According to the CBO, replacing this version of CONAN with a digital
version would reduce the Library of Congress' operating costs by
millions over the next few years.
Eliminating the print requirement will also eliminate inefficient use
of CRS staff time. In addition to updating the online version of CONAN
in real time, CRS staff have to spend countless hours formatting and
paginating the print version of CONAN. A more efficient CRS ultimately
benefits Congress and, in turn, our constituents.
Mr. Speaker, replacing the CONAN print requirement with a digital
requirement is a no-brainer. The digital version provides Members and
other users with the most up-to-date information and analysis available
at a significant cost savings for taxpayers.
History shows that Congress has consistently taken steps to ensure
that CONAN meets the evolving needs of Members and other users. Passing
this legislation is a logical next step in maintaining CONAN's
relevancy and usefulness, both to Congress and to the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 7592.
{time} 1515
Mr. KILMER. Mr. Speaker, I don't have any additional speakers, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. STEIL. Mr. Speaker, I again thank the gentlewoman from Oklahoma
(Mrs. Bice), the Modernization Subcommittee chairwoman, for her
leadership on this measure that will save taxpayer dollars.
I also recognize, once again, the subcommittee ranking member Mr.
Kilmer as well as Mr. Carey and Mr. Morelle. I urge all of my
colleagues who want to save taxpayers $5 million to vote in support of
H.R. 7592. I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Steil) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 7592.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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