I 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4382 

To streamline the collection and distribution of government information. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 2, 2014 

Mr. BRIDENSTINE (for himself and Mr. CUELLAR) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 

A BILL 

To streamline the collection and distribution of government 

information. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress finds the following: 

5 (1) The National Technical Information Service 

6 (referred to in this Act as ‘‘NTIS’’), the National 

7 Archives and Records Administration, the Govern8 ment Accountability Office (referred to in this sec9 tion as ‘‘GAO’’), and the Library of Congress all col10 lect, categorize, and distribute government informa11 tion. 


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1 (2) NTIS was established in 1950, more than 

2 40 years before the creation of the Internet. 

3 (3) NTIS is tasked with collecting and distrib4 uting government-funded scientific, technical, engi5 neering, and business-related information and re6 ports. 

7 (4) GAO found that NTIS sold only 8 percent 

8 of the 2,500,000 reports in its collection between 

9 1995 and 2000. 

10 (5) A November 2012 GAO review of NTIS 

11 made the following conclusions: 

12 (A) ‘‘Of the reports added to NTIS’s re13 pository during fiscal years 1990 through 2011, 

14 GAO estimates that approximately 74 percent 

15 were readily available from other public 

16 sources.’’. 

17 (B) ‘‘These reports were often available ei18 ther from the issuing organization’s website, the 

19 Federal Internet portal (http://www.USA.gov) 

20 or from another source located through a web 

21 search.’’. 

22 (C) ‘‘The source that most often had the 

23 report [GAO] was searching for was another 

24 website located through http:// 

25 www.Google.com.’’. 


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1 (D) ‘‘95 percent of the reports available 

2 from sources other than NTIS were available 

3 free of charge.’’. 

4 (6) No Federal agency should use taxpayer dol5 lars to purchase a report from the National Tech6 nical Information Service that is available through 

7 the Internet for free. 

8 (7) As far back as 1999, Secretary of Com9 merce William Daley— 

10 (A) admitted that the National Technical 

11 Information Service would eventually outlive its 

12 usefulness and be unable to sustain its revenue13 losing profit model; 

14 (B) explained that ‘‘declining sales reve15 nues soon would not be sufficient to recover all 

16 of NTIS’ operating costs’’; and 

17 (C) attributed this ‘‘decline to other agen18 cies’ practice of making their research results 

19 available to the public for free through the 

20 Web’’. 

21 (8) According to the November 2012 GAO re22 port— 

23 (A) ‘‘NTIS product expenditures exceeded 

24 revenues for 10 out of the past 11 fiscal 

25 years.’’; 


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1 (B) ‘‘The agency lost, on average, about 

2 $1.3 million over the last 11 years on its prod3 ucts.’’; and 

4 (C) ‘‘The decline in revenue for its prod5 ucts continues to call into question whether 

6 NTIS’s basic statutory function of acting as a 

7 self-financing repository and disseminator of 

8 scientific and technical information is still via9 ble.’’. 

10 (9) NTIS has compensated for its lost revenue 

11 by charging other Federal agencies for various serv12 ices that are not associated with NTIS’s primary 

13 mission. 

14 (10) Future technological advances will ensure 

15 that the services offered by NTIS are even more su16 perfluous for essential government functions than 

17 they are today. 

18 SEC. 2. NATIONAL TECHNICAL INFORMATION SERVICE. 

19 (a) REPEAL.—Effective on the date that is 1 year 

20 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the National 

21 Technical Information Act of 1988 (subtitle B of title II 

22 of Public Law 100–519; 15 U.S.C. 3704b) is repealed. 

23 (b) TRANSFER OF CRITICAL FUNCTIONS.— 

24 (1) CONSULTATION REQUIREMENT.—The Sec25 retary of Commerce, the Archivist of the United 


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1 States, the Comptroller General of the United 

2 States, and the Commissioner of Social Security 

3 shall consult with the Director of the Office of Man4 agement and Budget to determine if any function of 

5 the National Technical Information Service is crit6 ical to the economy of the United States. 

7 (2) GAO CERTIFICATION.—The Comptroller 

8 General shall determine which of the critical func9 tions identified pursuant to paragraph (1) are not 

10 being carried out by any other agency or instrumen11 tality of the Federal Government. 

12 (3) TRANSFERS AUTHORIZED.—Before the ef13 fective date set forth in subsection (a), the Secretary 

14 of Commerce may transfer the responsibility for any 

15 critical function of NTIS (as identified under para16 graph (1)) that is not otherwise being carried out 

17 (as determined under paragraph (2)) to another of18 fice within the Department of Commerce. 

19 (c) ABOLITION OF FUNCTIONS.—Except for the func20 tions transferred pursuant to subsection (b), all functions 

21 of the National Technical Information Service immediately 

22 before the repeal date described in subsection (a) are abol23 ished on such repeal date. 


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1 SEC. 3. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE CERTIFICATION. 

2 Before the effective date set forth in section 2(a), the 

3 Secretary of Commerce shall submit a written certification 

4 to the Committee on Finance of the Senate and the Com5 mittee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Rep6 resentatives that all of the operations of the National 

7 Technical Information Service have been terminated. 

Æ 


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