The Comparative Print Suite
Developed by: House Office of the Clerk, House Office of Legislative Counsel
Used by: Staff in Member offices in the U.S. House of Representatives
Public link: N/A
The House of Representatives’ new Comparative Print Suite allows staff to directly compare two versions of a bill — to easily see which changes have been made through line edits or amendments or to see how a bill would change a current law.
Most of the publicly available information on the Comparative Print Project comes from quarterly reports submitted by the Clerk of the House on the project’s development. There is little to no information on the project that is intended primarily for public consumption. The Comparative Print Project has received extraordinarily little public attention for how useful a software it is and how long it has been in development.
Development and Launch
The Comparative Print project has been in development since 2017 when the 115th Congress called for comparative prints of each bill, joint resolution, and amendment to be made publicly available online. A temporary system for generating comparative prints was instituted to meet a December 31, 2017 deadline established by the 115th Congress, while a more robust version of the comparative print system was developed.
Development of the Comparative Print System took many years and iterations, as the system was tailored to fit the unique needs of Congress. The Office of the House Clerk worked closely with the House Office on Legislative Counsel and contractor, Xcential, to develop the tool.
The official launch of the Comparative Print Suite to all House Offices was announced in October, 2022. It is available to all House staff behind the House firewall at compare.house.gov. Initially, users will only have access to basic bill comparison tools, however any staffer that completes the CAO’s Comparative Print Suite course on the Congressional Staff Academy website will be granted access to all currently available tools.
Functionality
The Comparative Print Suite is designed to display legislative changes in context by generating reports that illustrate changes in versions of a bill or how a bill would change current law. These changes are shown both through distinct colors and text formatting such as underlines and strikethroughs:
Comparative Print can show three types of comparisons:
Two versions of a bill, resolution, or amendment
Current law and current law as proposed to be changed by amendments contained in a bill, resolution, or amendment to current law
A bill or resolution and the bill or resolution as proposed to be modified by amendments
If an amendment cannot be carried out and shown automatically due to an error, the system displays an alert which informs the user. Types of errors that can affect the generation of a comparative print include:
An error in drafting
An error in the current law dataset
An error in the system
The amendment already being executed into current law
The comparative print results are shown both in an interactive online version and a PDF that can be downloaded by the user and shared. Bills to be compared can be searched for among codified law or uploaded in PDF or XML formats.
In her testimony to the House Appropriations Committee in March of 2023, Clerk Cheryl Johnson summarized the key functionalities of the Comparative Print Suite for Members.
Adoption
In October of 2020, it was reported that a beta version of the system was being tested by a pilot group of 13 individuals from five committees and 15 staff members from the House Office of Legislative Counsel. By April of 2021, the system was ready to be tested by a group of more than 100 committee staff, with more reported to be added soon after.
The Comparative Print Suite is now available to all House of Representatives staffers, as announced by Offices of the Clerk and the Legislative Counsel. While exact numbers on uptake among staffers are not available, the great anticipation by many for the program’s release suggests enthusiasm for Comparative Print among several offices.
