Unfortunately, that's the way it's been moving for years. Government has been getting out of the standards business for almost 2 decades now. That's not a bad thing, they suck at it.

Most Government standards for all sorts of things have been farmed out to various standards setting bodies (SAE, ASTM, ISO, etc.) While that engages a wider range of interested contributors with expertise in often esoteric stuff, and quicker changes when needed, the organizations need to support themselves and as a result they all charge to purchase the documents that end up being referenced by those government organizations.

It doesn't have to be that way, the governments could either insist they are free and the organizations could find another way to raise their funds, which might be problematic and lower participation in the standard setting committees, or the government could subsidize the organizations, but that would make them beholding to the government.

There's no good answer.