Affordable College Textbook Act
Latest action · Nov 19, 2013 Referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedNov 19, 2013
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Affordable College Textbook Act - Directs the Secretary of Education to make competitive grants to institutions of higher education (IHEs) to support pilot programs that expand the use of open textbooks in order to achieve savings for students.
Requires the grants to be used for:
- professional development for IHE faculty and staff, including the search for and review of open textbooks;
- the creation or adaptation of open educational resources, especially open textbooks;
- the development or improvement of tools and informational resources that support the use of open textbooks;
- research evaluating the efficacy of using open textbooks to achieve savings for students; and
- partnerships with other entities to carry out the preceding activities.
Requires the full and complete digital content of the educational resources created or adopted using such grant funds to be made available free of charge to the public: (1) on an easily accessible and interoperable website; and (2) in a machine readable, digital format that anyone can directly download, edit, and redistribute.
Directs the Secretary to give special consideration to grant applicants that demonstrate the greatest potential to:
- achieve the highest level of savings for students;
- expand the use of open textbooks at other IHEs; and
- produce open textbooks that are of the highest quality, that can be most easily utilized and adapted by faculty members, that correspond to the highest enrollment courses, and that are created or adopted in partnership with entities that will assist in their marketing and distribution.
Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to include any educational material developed to accompany a college textbook as supplemental material that is subject to college textbook information disclosure requirements.
Expresses the sense of Congress that IHEs should encourage the consideration of open textbooks by faculty within the generally accepted principles of academic freedom that establish the right and responsibility of faculty members to select the most appropriate course materials for their classes.
Cosponsors 47
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Nov 19, 2013 to Jul 24, 2014; 1 is an original cosponsor, there from the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-CA | George Miller | Original | Nov 19, 2013 |
| D-TX | Al Green | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-NM | Ben Ray Luján | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-IA | David Loebsack | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-TX | Gene Green | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-CA | Grace F. Napolitano | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-NY | Hakeem S. Jeffries | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-TX | Henry Cuellar | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-CO | Jared Polis | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-NY | Jerrold Nadler | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-CT | Joe Courtney | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-FL | Joe Garcia | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-NY | Joseph Crowley | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-CA | Juan Vargas | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-TX | Lloyd Doggett | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-AZ | Raúl M. Grijalva | Nov 20, 2013 | |
| D-MA | John F. Tierney | Nov 21, 2013 | |
| D-CA | Karen Bass | Nov 21, 2013 | |
| D-NY | Nydia M. Velázquez | Nov 21, 2013 | |
| D-PR | Pedro R. Pierluisi | Nov 21, 2013 | |
| D-TX | Beto O'Rourke | Dec 4, 2013 | |
| D-PA | Chaka Fattah | Dec 4, 2013 | |
| D-CA | Lucille Roybal-Allard | Dec 4, 2013 | |
| D-NM | Michelle Lujan Grisham | Dec 4, 2013 | |
| D-TX | Pete P. Gallego | Dec 4, 2013 | |
| D-CA | Tony Cárdenas | Dec 4, 2013 | |
| D-AZ | Ed Pastor | Dec 11, 2013 | |
| D-MP | Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan | Dec 11, 2013 | |
| D-CA | Jim Costa | Dec 11, 2013 | |
| D-TX | Joaquin Castro | Dec 11, 2013 | |
| D-CA | Linda T. Sánchez | Dec 11, 2013 | |
| D-IL | Luis V. Gutierrez | Dec 11, 2013 | |
| D-CA | Raul Ruiz | Dec 11, 2013 | |
| D-CA | Xavier Becerra | Dec 11, 2013 | |
| D-NY | Yvette D. Clarke | Dec 11, 2013 | |
| D-FL | Frederica S. Wilson | Feb 3, 2014 | |
| D-CA | Gloria Negrete McLeod | Feb 3, 2014 | |
| D-MA | James P. McGovern | Feb 3, 2014 | |
| D-CA | Julia Brownley | Feb 3, 2014 | |
| D-PA | Matt Cartwright | Feb 3, 2014 | |
| D-WI | Ron Kind | Feb 3, 2014 | |
| D-OR | Suzanne Bonamici | Feb 3, 2014 | |
| D-CA | Zoe Lofgren | Feb 28, 2014 | |
| D-IL | Janice D. Schakowsky | Apr 30, 2014 | |
| D-WI | Mark Pocan | Apr 30, 2014 | |
| D-MN | Timothy J. Walz | Jun 10, 2014 | |
| D-IL | Bill Foster | Jul 24, 2014 |
Committees 1
Where it was sent and what each committee and subcommittee did with it, in order.
| Chamber | Committee | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| House | Education and Workforce Committee | Referred Nov 19, 2013 |
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Nov 19, 2013Introduced in House
- Nov 19, 2013Referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
In the Congressional Record 1
Days the Record’s own index lists this bill, newest first, with the pages and the members it names. Pages starting H are the House, S the Senate, E Extensions of Remarks.
| Where | In the Record | Members | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| House | Debate and remarks H6673 | Jared Polis D-CO | Jul 23, 2014 |
Research
What has been written about this bill: committee reports, cost estimates, the sponsor’s authority statement, printed hearings and the Congressional Research Service’s work.
Constitutional authority
The sponsor’s statement, as printed in the page H7252.
Related bills 1
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| S 1704 | Affordable College Textbook Act | Identical bill | Nov 14, 2013 |
Titles 2
Every title it has carried, official and short, at each stage.
- Official Title as Introduced
- To expand the use of open textbooks in order to achieve savings for students.
- Short Titles as Introduced
- Affordable College Textbook Act
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Education.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Nov 19, 2013Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov; cost estimates are the Congressional Budget Office's, and the hearings are the printed hearings GovInfo publishes, which can appear months after the hearing.
