Congress shields standards firms' profits while mandating free access to binding codes
S. 4145 — Pro Codes Act of 2026 · Filed by Christopher Coons (D-DE) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 19, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill amends copyright law to protect the revenue model of private standards-development organizations (SDOs) whose technical codes are incorporated into federal, state, and local laws. It requires SDOs to make their standards freely available online (with searchable indexes) within a reasonable time after a standard is incorporated into law, in exchange for retaining full copyright protection. The bill balances public access to legally binding standards against SDOs' need to sell copies to industry and professionals.
Why we flagged it
The bill's primary mechanism is a copyright-law amendment that shields SDOs' intellectual property rights in exchange for free public posting of incorporated standards. It is neither pure deregulation nor pure consumer protection, but a negotiated balance codifying existing practice.
What the text implies
- The 'reasonable period of time' standard for posting is undefined, potentially allowing SDOs to delay public access for months or years after incorporation, during which only purchasers have current versions.
- The bill protects SDOs' copyright in incorporated standards, which may strengthen their ability to enforce licensing restrictions on derivative works, potentially limiting downstream innovation or competitive standards.
- By codifying the incorporation-by-reference system in copyright law, the bill may discourage federal agencies from adopting open-source or government-authored standards as alternatives.
- The 'no monetary cost' requirement for public access does not prohibit SDOs from collecting personal data or requiring account creation, which may enable profiling of who accesses legally binding standards.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Citizens gain free, legally-mandated access to technical standards that govern their safety and compliance obligations—a genuine public benefit. However, the bill's operative mechanism is a copyright-protection guarantee for SDOs, which may entrench their market power and pricing for non-incorporated standards, and the 'reasonable period of time' compliance window is undefined, creating potential delays in public access.
Who stands to gain
- standards development organizations (ASTM International, IEEE, NFPA, ISO, etc.)
- technical standards publishers and licensing platforms
Named in the bill
standards development organizations, ASTM International, IEEE, NFPA, ISO, Office of Management and Budget, Circular A-119, National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995, Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Code of Federal Regulations
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- Mar 19, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Mar 19, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
8 lobbying clients named this bill on 8 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,860,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 6 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 88% of bills with at least one filing.
Christopher Coons, the sponsor, reported $1,440,800 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle. $8,500 of that came from 1 PAC tied to these lobbying clients.
- Honeywell International — $1,610,000 on 1 filing
- American Concrete Institute — $80,000 on 1 filing
- National Fire Protection Association — $50,000 on 1 filing
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers (asme) — $30,000 on 1 filing
- Crossroads Strategies, LLC on Behalf of American Concrete Institute — $30,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 21, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (8,637 characters) on Oct 31, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,778 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 21, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-31.
“Congress shields standards firms' profits while mandating free access to binding codes” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s4145 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.