H.R. 6686

[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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