The Pro Codes Act is rapidly being pushed through Congress without careful review or appropriate oversight. As written, the bill mandates that Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) like the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) would have to make standards available for free online, jeopardizing an entire industry and putting American public safety and national security at risk. 

This rushed, misguided, ill-informed legislation will imperil a system that’s worked for generations and kept millions of Americans out of harm’s way. It’s a clear-cut example of a government taking of private intellectual property and an unnecessary overreach that would lead to an additional financial burden on Federal Agencies and American taxpayers.

Congress must pump the brakes now and consider its disastrous unintended consequences.