[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6686 Introduced in House (IH)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 6686
To amend section 262 of the Museum and Library Services Act to
authorize the Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services
to award grants to institutions of higher education for courses that
use only publicly available digital resources for required reading
assignments, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 12, 2025
Mr. Foster introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Education and Workforce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend section 262 of the Museum and Library Services Act to
authorize the Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services
to award grants to institutions of higher education for courses that
use only publicly available digital resources for required reading
assignments, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``No Cost Educational Resources Act of
2025''.
SEC. 2. GRANTS.
Section 262 of the Museum and Library Services Act (20 U.S.C. 9162)
is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1)--
(i) by striking ``nationwide and to'' and
inserting ``nationwide, to''; and
(ii) by inserting ``, and to provide
funding for open educational reading material
courses'' after ``museums'';
(B) in paragraph (4)(B), by striking ``and'' at the
end;
(C) in paragraph (5), by striking the period at the
end and inserting ``; and''; and
(D) by adding at the end the following:
``(6) facilitating the adoption, adaption, and creation of
open educational reading materials, and establishing more open
educational reading material courses, pursuant to subsection
(d).'';
(2) in subsection (c), by striking ``The Director'' and
inserting ``Except as provided in subsection (d), the
Director''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(d) Open Educational Reading Material Courses.--
``(1) Definitions.--For purposes of this section:
``(A) The term `open educational reading material'
means a free digital text that is publicly available to
be downloaded and redistributed.
``(B) The term `open educational reading material
course' means a science, technology, engineering, or
math course offered by an institution of higher
education that uses only open educational reading
materials as the form of the required readings for the
course.
``(2) Application.--To receive a grant under subsection
(a)(6), an institution of higher education shall submit to the
Director an application that includes--
``(A) a description of how the institution of
higher education--
``(i) plans to facilitate the adoption,
adaption, and creation of open educational
reading materials by assigning leadership of
the grant implementation to library
administrators and librarians;
``(ii) has collaborated with science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics
department faculty in developing the
application and plans to continue to
collaborate with such faculty in implementing
the grant projects; and
``(iii) plans to collaborate with other
institutions of higher education to facilitate
the wider adoption, adaption, and creation of
open educational reading materials throughout
the higher education community; and
``(B) a plan to review the quality of the open
educational reading materials used at such institution
of higher education.
``(3) Priority.--In awarding grants under subsection
(a)(6), the Director shall give priority to an institution of
higher education that--
``(A) enrolls a high number of low-income or
minority students, or both; and
``(B) plans--
``(i) to assign a member of the faculty and
a librarian to coordinate the implementation of
open educational reading material courses;
``(ii) to use library resources to
facilitate the use of open educational reading
materials;
``(iii) to use open educational reading
materials as the form of the required readings
for science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics courses with high enrollment; and
``(iv) to provide incentives for faculty to
use only open educational reading materials as
the form of the required readings for their
courses, such as monetary awards or dedicated
work time to adopt, adapt, or create such
materials.
``(4) Report.--Not later than 2 years after the date on
which the first grant is awarded under subsection (a)(6), the
Director shall submit to Congress a report that includes--
``(A) the number of grants awarded under subsection
(a)(6);
``(B) an evaluation of the effect of such grants on
increasing the number of science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics courses using open
educational reading materials as the form of required
readings for such courses; and
``(C) an evaluation of the amount of money saved by
students who enroll in open educational reading
material courses in comparison to students who enroll
in similar courses with required readings that are only
available by purchase.''.
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