PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Mar 12, 2009
Learning Opportunities With Creation of Open Source Textbooks (LOW COST) Act of 2009 - Requires each federal agency that expends more than $10 million in a fiscal year on scientific education and outreach to use at least 2% of such funds for collaboration on the development and implementation of open source materials as an educational outreach effort.
Directs such agencies, under the joint guidance of the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Secretary of Energy (DOE), to collaborate with each other or with any federally supported laboratory or university-based research program to develop, implement, and establish procedures for checking the veracity, accuracy, and educational effectiveness of open source materials that: (1) contain a comprehensive set of textbooks or other educational materials covering topics in college-level physics, chemistry, or math; (2) such agencies post on a Federal Open Source Material Website, which shall be available to the public without charge; (3) are updated prior to each academic year with the latest research and information ; and (4) are free of copyright violations.
Requires the Director and the Secretary to award joint grants to eligible entities to: (1) develop and implement such open source materials; and (2) evaluate and report to the Director and Secretary on the materials produced.
People & committees
Rep. Foster, Bill [D-IL-14] · D–IL
Legislative record
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Referred to the Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning, and Competitiveness.
Referred to the Subcommittee on Research and Science Education.
Referred to House Education and Labor
Referred to the Committee on Science and Technology, and in addition to the Committee on Education and Labor, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Referred to House Science and Technology
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Mar 23, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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