Issue Briefs: Federal Legislation New Book Banning Law Pending, SB4925/HB7661 Additional changes proposed to Copyright Office HR6028
- by Susan Halas
Federal legislation related to book banning and a measure to move the copyright office to the executive branch are in the news.
Proposed federal legislation that could increase book banning is generating widespread interest. A July 20th article in Publishers Weekly reports Senate Bill 4925, a partisan effort to control materials in public schools, has been referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. The bill was introduced June 24 by Republican Senators Jim Banks of Indiana, James Lankford of Oklahoma, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
According to PW “Like its companion legislation, House Bill 7661, SB 4925 would amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to prohibit the use of federal funding for “sexually oriented material” in public schools. Both SB 4925 and HB 7661 are known as the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act.”
The measures defines “sexually oriented” as materials which “exposes children to nude adults, individuals who are stripping, or lewd and lascivious dancing” as well as that which “involves gender dysphoria or transgenderism.”
Right to Read advocates interpret these measures as an attack on civil liberties and an attempt to suppress the representation of LGBTQ individuals.
In response the American Library Association issued an “Action Alert” through social media urging opponents to,“Tell the senate to protect freedom to read. Parents should decide what their children read, not politicians. S. 4925 threatens to hand over parents’ rights to lawmakers, letting them decide what books students can access in their school libraries.
“The bill is dangerously broad, withholding critical school funding for the mere mention of transgender people or nudity. Such a sweeping prohibition threatens health, art and science education …. The ALA termed the proposed laws “ideological grandstanding and political overreach.”
Changes proposed to Copyright Office
In other pending federal legislation H.R. 6028, the Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act, also known as the “Griffith Bill”, is proposed legislation sponsored by Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA). H.R. 6028 would remove the US Copyright Office from the supervision of the Library of Congress and change the way the Register of Copyrights is appointed according to a June 4 article in Music Business Worldwide.
The article notes, “The bill arrives in the middle of an ongoing fight over the US Copyright Office and the firing of its director.
In May 2025, the Trump administration fired top copyright official Shira Perlmutter, a day after her office released a report concluding that training AI on copyrighted works qualifies as fair use in some circumstances but not others.
The administration had first removed Carla D. Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, and installed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as acting Librarian, who then moved to replace Perlmutter with Department of Justice official Paul Perkins.
Perlmutter sued the administration, arguing that only the Librarian of Congress, not the President, has the power to appoint or remove the Register of Copyrights.
A federal appeals court reinstated Perlmutter in September 2025, and she remains in the role while the legal battle continues.
That fight turns on the same question Griffith‘s bill addresses: whether the Register of Copyrights is an executive or a legislative officer.
The court that reinstated Perlmutter treated the role as a legislative one, beyond the President’s power to remove.
H.R. 6028 would recast it in statute as a presidential appointment.
Text of H.R. 6028: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/6028.
Electronic Frontier Foundation