The Affordable College Textbook Act is a United States legislative

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pl ...

intended to

support Support may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Supporting character * Support (art), a solid surface upon which a painting is executed Business and finance * Support (technical analysis) * Child support * Customer support * Income Su ...

use of

open textbooks An open textbook is a textbook licensed under an open license, and made available online to be freely used by students, teachers and members of the public. Many open textbooks are distributed in either print, e-book, or audio formats that may be do ...

. It was introduced on April 4, 2019, to the

116th Congress The 116th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate, Senate and the United States House of Representati ...

by four senators (

Dick Durbin Richard Joseph Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of Illinois, a seat he has held since 1997. A member of the Dem ...

of Illinois,

Angus King Angus Stanley King Jr. (born March 31, 1944) is an American lawyer and politician who has served since 2013 as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States senator from Maine. A Independent politician, political independent, h ...

of Maine,

Kyrsten Sinema Kyrsten Lea Sinema ( ; born July 12, 1976) is an American politician, lawyer, and former social worker who served from 2019 to 2025 as a United States senator from Arizona. A former member of the Democratic Party, Sinema became an independent ...

of Arizona,

Tina Smith Christine Elizabeth Smith (née Flint, born March 4, 1958) is an American politician, retired Democratic political consultant, and former businesswoman serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United Sta ...

of Minnesota), and one representative (

Joe Neguse Joseph D. Neguse ( ; born May 13, 1984) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Colorado's 2nd congressional district since 2019. The district is based in Boulder and includes many of Denver's northwestern subu ...

of Colorado). Organizations supporting the bill include the

American Federation of Teachers The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders. About 60 pe ...

, the

American Association of Community Colleges The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), headquartered in the National Center for Higher Education building in Washington, D.C., is the primary advocacy organization for community colleges at the national level and works closely wit ...

, the

Association of Research Libraries The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 125 research library at comprehensive, research institutions in Canada and the United States. ARL member libraries make up a large portion of the academic and research li ...

, and

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

History

Previously, the bill was introduced to the

115th Congress The 115th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States of America federal government, composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from January 3, 2017, to January ...

on September 26, 2017. If passed, the program would have tried to make

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

less expensive for college

students A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school ...

. The

U.S. Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a United States Cabinet, cabinet-level department of the federal government of the United States, United States government, originating in 1980. The department began operating on May 4, 1980, havin ...

would have coordinated funding. U.S. Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois,

Al Franken Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American politician, comedian, and actor who served from 2009 to 2018 as a United States senator from Minnesota. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he worked as an ...

of Minnesota, and Angus King of Maine sponsored S.1864, and U.S. Representatives

Jared Polis Jared Schutz Polis ( ; ; born May 12, 1975) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 43rd governor of Colorado since 2019. He served one term on the Colorado State Board of Education from 2001 to 2007, and five terms as the Unite ...

of Colorado and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona sponsored the identical H.R.3840. Later co-sponsors in the Senate included Democrats

Richard Blumenthal Richard Blumenthal ( ; born February 13, 1946) is an American politician, lawyer, and United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps veteran serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from ...

of Connecticut,

Benjamin Cardin Benjamin Louis Cardin (born October 5, 1943) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a United States senator from Maryland from 2007 until 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representative for from 1987 t ...

of Maryland, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, and Tina Smith of Minnesota. Later co-sponsors in the House included a mixture of Republicans and Democrats:

Carlos Curbelo Carlos Luis Curbelo (born March 1, 1980) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 26th congressional district from 2015 to 2019. In 2018, he was narrowly defeated for re-election by Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-P ...

of Florida,

Peter DeFazio Peter Anthony DeFazio ( ; born May 27, 1947) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 1987 to 2023. He is a member of the Democratic Party and is a founder of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. A native of Mas ...

of Oregon, Peter King of New York,

Mia Love Ludmya "Mia" Love (née Bourdeau; December 6, 1975 – March 23, 2025) was an American political commentator and politician who served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for Utah's 4th congressional district from ...

of Utah, Tom MacArthur of New Jersey, and

Rick Nolan Richard Michael Nolan (December 17, 1943 – October 18, 2024) was an American politician and businessman who served as the U.S. representative from Minnesota's 8th congressional district from 2013 to 2019. He previously served as the U.S. rep ...

of Minnesota. Similar bills had been previously introduced in 2009, 2010, 2013, and 2015 as the "Open College Textbook Act" and the "Affordable College Textbook Act". In 2018, Congress budgeted five million dollars for a related pilot program.

References

GovTrack GovTrack.us is a website developed by then-student Joshua Tauberer. It is based in Washington, D.C., and was launched as a hobby. It enables its users to track the bills and members of the United States Congress. Users can add trackers to certain ...

Proposed legislation of the 113th United States Congress Proposed legislation of the 114th United States Congress Proposed legislation of the 115th United States Congress Proposed legislation of the 116th United States Congress United States proposed federal education legislation 2017 in education 2019 in education Higher education in the United States Textbooks Open educational resources Universities and colleges in the United States Education policy in the United States {{US-fed-legislation-stub

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links