Congresswoman Bice Successfully Works to Cut Waste & Inefficiency in the Government
Washington, D.C.- Today, the House passed H.R. 1234, legislation sponsored by Congresswoman Bice. This bill rescinds the print requirement of the Annotated Constitution and promotes the more cost-effective, efficient, and regularly updated digital version. H.R. 1234 originated in the Committee on House Administration, where Congresswoman Bice serves as the Chairwoman of the Modernization & Innovation Subcommittee.
Congresswoman Bice issued the following statement:
“As Chairwoman of the Modernization & Innovation Subcommittee, I have worked to bring Congress into the 21st Century. In many cases, the hard-bound copy of the Constitution Annotated is outdated by the time it is printed, which is why I introduced H.R. 1234. This legislation saves taxpayer money by removing print requirements and allows the prioritization of the superior digitized version, which is used by citizens, schools, libraries, and lawmakers across the country.”
Floor Remarks H.R. 1234:
Congresswoman Bice’s remarks: Its origins date back to 1797, when Congress passed legislation requiring every member of Congress to be provided with a copy of the Constitution. These copies were eventually expanded to include Supreme Court case citations. So that members could see which clauses of the Constitution the court used in deciding cases. But as the number of citations grew by hundreds, the copies became less useful to members because most had no idea what the cases were about and what questions were before the court. So in 1921, Congress began requiring reprints of the Constitution to include explanatory language that would make sense of the case citations throughout. This format 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 Initially, CONAN was printed every 10 years or so, but by 1970 members began to complain that it was outdated almost as soon as it was printed.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 requiring that paper bound supplements to CONAN be printed every two years. And since 1972, that's what we've done. Print a hardbound version of CONAN every 10 years and a paper bound supplement every two. CONAN obviously has a rich history dating back over 2 centuries. Nothing about HR 1234 erases or changes this history. 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 200 years ago. What has changed, however, is the way people get their information. Today, most of us rely on digital sources for the most up to date information, whether it is news, airfares, the weather or Supreme Court case citations. According to the GPO, the number of print copies of CONAN requested in the House in 2012 by the House, Senate and Joint Committee on Printing was just over 1000. Ten years later, in 2022, the number of requested copies dropped to just 659. It is no coincidence that this drop in request coincides with the 2019 launch of the digital version of CONAN. Over the last five years, the CONAN website has become an invaluable resource for individual citizens, schools, libraries, and, of course, Congress. It's 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, provides links to Supreme Court decisions, and perhaps most importantly, it's updated real time by CRS. All of this raises the question of why are we wasting taxpayer dollars printing this giant hardcover version of CONAN along with the paper bound supplements when a superior digital version already exists? According to the CBO, replacing this version of CONAN with the digital version would reduce the Library of Congress's operating cost by four million dollars over the next four years. Four million dollars. Eliminating the print requirement will also eliminate inefficient use of CRS staff time. Requiring CRS to spend countless hours formatting and paginating the print version of CONAN does not support the work of Congress, nor does it benefit our constituents. Mr. Speaker, replacing CONAN, the 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 constitutional analysis available at a significant cost savings to taxpayers. History shows that Congress has consistently taken steps to ensure that CONAN meets the evolving needs of members and other users. Passing HR 1234 is a logical next step in maintaining CONAN's relevancy and usefulness both to Congress and to the American people. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting HR 1234, and I urge quick action in the Senate. With that, I reserve the balance of my time. |