Free access mandate is bad --- it ensures worse standards are used.
Bremer 19 – Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, J.D. from New York University.
Emily S. Bremer, “Technical Standards Meet Administrative Law: A Teaching Guide on Incorporation by Reference,” Notre Dame Law School Scholarship, https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/1406/
The government could pay for the licenses necessary to provide free online access to all incorporated standards. This would effectively turn the standards into public goods accessible to all, including members of industry who would otherwise purchase copies of the standard for non-regulatory purposes. In essence, the government would have to buy out the market for the standard. The cost would be prohibitive. This approach might also create a financial incentive for an agency to use an outdated version of a standard for which another agency had already secured the necessary license, rather than select the best standard possible.