Moving Towards Electronic Distribution of Bills and Resolutions in Congress: House Passes H.R. 292, Stop the OverPrinting (STOP) Act

On Jan. 18, H.R. 292, Stop the OverPrinting (STOP) Act passed in the House. Essentially, the bill would replace the mandatory printing of bills and resolutions for the use of offices of Members of Congress with on-demand printing under the following circumstances:

1. if a committee of the House or Senate, at any time during a Congress, requests the Public Printer to provide the committee with printed copies of each bill or resolution during the Congress that is within the committee's jurisdiction, the Public Printer shall provide the committee with printed copies of each such bill or resolution (limited to 75 copies); and
2. at the request of a Member or committee of the House or Senate, the Public Printer shall provide the Member or committee with such number of copies of a bill or resolution as the Member or committee may request.

Under H.R. 292, Stop the OverPrinting (STOP) Act, the primary format of bills and resolutions would be electronic and would be accessible through the Internet. The Hill reports that H.R. 292 is expected to save as much as $35 million over 10 years in printing costs. [JH]