Reuters: “No Free PACER as U.S. Lawmakers Exclude Proposal From Spending Bill”

From Reuters:

U.S. lawmakers have left a proposal to make the federal judiciary’s PACER online court records system free out of a sprawling, $1.66 trillion spending measure unveiled on Tuesday, a setback for advocates as the current Congress nears its end.

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The Open Courts Act would make electronic court records freely available and mandate the judiciary to develop a new website to access them. It had already advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan vote in December 2021.

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With lawmakers racing to finish up business before Christmas and the end of the current congressional session on Jan. 3, the Open Courts Act’s supporters saw the omnibus spending measure as one of the best options to getting the legislation enacted.

But the PACER bill was ultimately left out of the 4,155-page omnibus spending measure that Democratic and Republican negotiators released on Tuesday morning, leaving its path to passage in the current Congress unlikely.

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