Congress Suddenly Cares About Right to Repair (Finally!)

Two new proposed laws have been introduced in the House of Representatives that aim to make it easier for people to fix their own stuff. One focuses on cars, the other on copyright restrictions on electronics. This, in addition to legislation that was proposed in the Senate that would enshrine farmers’ right to repair their equipment.

After years of inaction, repair is now a hot topic in Congress. The legislation covering electronics is a bipartisan bill filed Tuesday from Reps. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) and Victoria Spartz (R-IN). It’s called the Freedom to Repair Act and would carve a permanent exemption out of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Currently, the DMCA makes it a crime to circumvent copyright on electronics for the purpose of repair.

The archaic law has led to a situation where digital rights activists must petition the Library of Congress every few years to carve out specific exemptions to the DMCA. It’s a laborious and silly process that the Freedom to Repair Act would end permanently. 

“For far too long, federal copyright law has allowed the most powerful corporations in the world to control who repairs what we own,” Rep. Jones said in a statement. “By entrenching the power of these major corporations, repair restrictions threaten our economy, including the economic well-being of American consumers and small businesses.”

The same day, Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL)—chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy—introduced the Right to Equitable and Professional Auto Industry Repair (REPAIR) Act. The act would make sure independent repair shops and consumers have access to the same tools and data that dealerships have. The act is similar to one passed in Massachusetts that car companies are currently claiming is unconstitutional and unenforceable.

“Americans should not be forced to bring their cars to more costly and inconvenient dealerships for repairs when independent auto repair shops are often cheaper and far more accessible,” Rep. Rush said in a statement. “But as cars become more advanced, manufacturers are getting sole access to important vehicle data while independent repair shops are increasingly locked out. The status quo for auto repair is not tenable, and it is getting worse.

All of this action follows Biden’s public commitment to the right-to-repair, an executive order lifting repair restrictions, and the FTC’s adoption of a pro-repair platform.

"Right to Repair has passed a threshold. We've gone from frustrated tinkerers, repair shop owners, farmers and other technicians, to a globally recognized issue,” Nathan Proctor, the head of USPIRG's Right to Repair Campaign, told Motherboard. “Congress moving on multiple Right to Repair bills is just another sign that it's a common sense idea whose time has come."