HR-5182-119
Ordered to be Reported by Voice Vote.
Sponsored by Daniel Goldman (D-NY)
What it does
This bill would make technical corrections to title 54 of the U.S. Code (which governs national parks and historic preservation) and related statutes, fixing cross-references, typos, and redesignating sections. It also revives certain previously repealed provisions, makes minor funding provisions available for specific fiscal years (2018-2019 deferred maintenance funds), and repeals several obsolete or superseded historical statutes.
Who benefits
Federal agencies, courts, and attorneys who rely on title 54 for accurate cross-references; the National Park Service, which benefits from corrected statutory language governing employee housing, land acquisition, and historic preservation programs; land sellers who benefit from the added willing-seller requirement in section 308103.
Who is hurt
No group is meaningfully harmed; this is a technical corrections bill. Entities involved in litigation or administrative actions that hinge on precise statutory citations could face minor transitional confusion until courts and agencies adapt to renumbered sections.
Supporters argue
Supporters argue that fixing typographical errors, incorrect cross-references, and misnumbered sections in title 54 is necessary housekeeping that prevents legal ambiguity and litigation risk, since past codification created inconsistencies like "mimimum" and "Occcur" and wrong subsection citations. They contend this kind of technical corrections bill, following the original 2014 positive-law codification, is standard practice to keep the U.S. Code accurate and usable.
Opponents argue
Opponents might argue that even technical corrections bills carry some risk when they revive previously repealed provisions or alter cross-references in ways that could have unintended substantive effects on historic preservation or land acquisition programs. They contend that bundling dozens of small changes into one bill makes it harder for the public and even legislators to verify that no substantive policy shift is hidden among the corrections.
Constitutional context
This bill raises no constitutional question beyond Congress's Article I authority to enact and codify federal statutes, including its power under the Property Clause (Art. IV, §3) to manage federal lands referenced throughout title 54.
Checks and balances
Congress exercises its ordinary legislative and codification authority; no power shifts to the executive or judicial branch, and courts retain their normal role interpreting the corrected statutory text.
Historical precedent
Title 54 itself was created in 2014 (Public Law 113-287) as a positive-law codification of prior historic preservation and park statutes, and this bill follows the common congressional practice of subsequent technical corrections bills to fix errors discovered after codification.