HR-5185-119
Ordered to be Reported by Voice Vote.
Sponsored by Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA)
What it does
This bill would update citations throughout the United States Code and various public laws that still reference old sections of the Revised Statutes, the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act, and similar superseded statutes, replacing them with the correct current section numbers in title 41. It makes no substantive policy changes to procurement law, agency authority, or spending programs — it only corrects outdated legal references so the law reads accurately.
Who benefits
Lawyers, judges, federal agency staff, and legal researchers who rely on accurate statutory citations when interpreting federal procurement and contracting law; the Office of the Law Revision Counsel and Congress itself benefit from a cleaner, more usable U.S. Code.
Who is hurt
No group is meaningfully harmed. There is a small, generalized cost to anyone maintaining legal databases or citation systems who must update cross-references, but this is a routine administrative burden rather than a material harm.
Supporters argue
Supporters argue that positive-law codification projects like this one are essential housekeeping that prevents confusion and litigation risk caused by outdated citations to repealed statutes such as the Revised Statutes' section 3709 or the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act. They contend that accurate cross-references reduce the risk of misapplication of law by courts, agencies, and contractors who might otherwise rely on citations to provisions that no longer exist in their original form.
Opponents argue
Critics of technical corrections bills generally argue that even purely conforming amendments carry some risk of inadvertent substantive change if a cross-reference is mismapped, and that such bills consume committee and floor time that could go to more pressing legislative priorities. They contend that thorough independent verification of hundreds of individual citation changes is difficult for members to perform before voting, creating a small but real risk of error going unnoticed.
Constitutional context
This bill raises no constitutional question beyond Congress's general Article I authority to organize and codify the laws it enacts; it does not touch appointments, removal, spending authority in a new way, or any area of active constitutional dispute.
Checks and balances
Congress exercises its own housekeeping authority over the statute books; no power shifts to the executive or judicial branch, and no new checks are needed since the bill changes citations rather than substantive authority.
Historical precedent
Congress has periodically enacted similar technical and conforming amendment bills after recodifying titles of the U.S. Code into positive law, including earlier title 41 codification cleanup legislation.