Legislative Accountability Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Legislative Accountability Act creates new attribution requirements for bills and joint resolutions. For a bill or joint resolution reported by a House or Senate committee, the committee chair must submit, within three legislative days, the name of each Member of Congress who submitted an amendment adopted by the committee. For a bill or joint resolution passed by either chamber, the House Rules Committee chair or Senate Rules and Administration chair must submit, within three legislative days, names of members who submitted amendments adopted by that chamber. For reported appropriations, Ways and Means, or Finance bills and resolutions, the committee chair must submit the name of each member responsible for including a provision in the reported measure. The Clerk of the House, Secretary of the Senate, and Government Publishing Office Director must ensure the submitted names are included in reported, engrossed, enrolled, or enacted versions as footnotes identifying the adopted amendment or provision.
Who Benefits and How
Voters benefit from clearer public attribution for adopted amendments and provisions. Watchdog organizations benefit from machine-readable legislative accountability clues in official bill text. Members of Congress who author successful amendments benefit from visible credit in bill versions. Journalists benefit from footnoted source information on who is responsible for adopted provisions.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Committee chairs must submit member-attribution information within three legislative days. Rules Committee and Senate Rules staff must track floor-adopted amendments and submit names. The Clerk of the House, Secretary of the Senate, and GPO must add attribution footnotes to official bill versions. Members responsible for controversial provisions face more visible accountability.
Key Provisions
- Requires committee chairs to identify members whose amendments were adopted in committee-reported bills.
- Requires Rules chairs to identify members whose amendments were adopted by a chamber.
- Requires appropriations, tax, and finance committee chairs to identify members responsible for provisions in reported bills.
- Requires the Clerk, Secretary, and GPO to include attribution footnotes in official bill versions.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires congressional committee chairs, Rules chairs, the Clerk of the House, the Secretary of the Senate, and GPO to attach member-attribution footnotes to reported, engrossed, enrolled, or enacted bills identifying members responsible for adopted amendments or provisions in appropriations, tax, and finance legislation.
Key Policy Areas
Congressional Procedure, Transparency, Government Publishing
Primary Purpose
Requires congressional committee chairs, Rules chairs, the Clerk of the House, the Secretary of the Senate, and GPO to attach member-attribution footnotes to reported, engrossed, enrolled, or enacted bills identifying members responsible for adopted amendments or provisions in appropriations, tax, and finance legislation.
Policy Domains
Resolution provisions
Identified Gains
- Voters
- Watchdog organizations
- Members of Congress
- Journalists
Identified Costs
- Committee chairs
- Rules Committee staff
- Government Publishing Office
- Members responsible for provisions
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Burchett (for himself and Mr. Moskowitz) introduced the following …
Referred to the Committee on Rules, and in addition to …
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Government Publishing Office, Voters, Watchdog organizations
Positive-direction: Voters, Watchdog organizations
Negative-direction: Government Publishing Office
Committee chairs, Members of Congress, Rules Committee staff
Positive-direction: Members of Congress
Negative-direction: Committee chairs, Rules Committee staff
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology