II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 787 

To streamline the collection and distribution of government information. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 18, 2015 

Mrs. MCCASKILL (for herself and Ms. AYOTTE) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 

Science, and Transportation 

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. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘NTIS Elimination 

5 Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) The National Technical Information Service 

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

10 Archives and Records Administration, the GovernVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:40 Mar 24, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S787.IS S787

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1 ment Accountability Office (referred to in this Act 

2 as ‘‘GAO’’), and the Library of Congress all collect, 

3 categorize, and distribute government information. 

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

5 40 years before the creation of the Internet. 

6 (3) NTIS is tasked with collecting and distrib7 uting government-funded scientific, technical, engi8 neering, and business-related information and re9 ports. 

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

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

12 1995 and 2000. 

13 (5) A November 2012 GAO review of NTIS 

14 made the following conclusions: 

15 (A) ‘‘Of the reports added to NTIS’s re16 pository during fiscal years 1990 through 2011, 

17 GAO estimates that approximately 74 percent 

18 were readily available from other public 

19 sources.’’. 

20 (B) ‘‘These reports were often available ei21 ther from the issuing organization’s website, the 

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

23 or from another source located through a web 

24 search.’’. 


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

2 report [GAO] was searching for was another 

3 website located through http:// 

4 www.Google.com.’’. 

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

6 from sources other than NTIS were available 

7 free of charge.’’. 

8 (6) No Federal agency should use taxpayer dol9 lars to purchase a report from the National Tech10 nical Information Service that is available through 

11 the Internet for free. 

12 (7) In 1999, Secretary of Commerce William 

13 Daley— 

14 (A) admitted that the National Technical 

15 Information Service would eventually outlive its 

16 usefulness and be unable to sustain its revenue17 losing profit model; 

18 (B) explained that ‘‘declining sales reve19 nues soon would not be sufficient to recover all 

20 of NTIS’ operating costs’’; and 

21 (C) attributed this ‘‘decline to other agen22 cies’ practice of making their research results 

23 available to the public for free through the 

24 Web’’. 


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1 (8) According to the November 2012 GAO re2 port referred to in paragraph (5)— 

3 (A) ‘‘NTIS product expenditures exceeded 

4 revenues for 10 out of the past 11 fiscal 

5 years.’’; 

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

7 $1.3 million over the last 11 years on its prod8 ucts.’’; and 

9 (C) ‘‘The decline in revenue for its prod10 ucts continues to call into question whether 

11 NTIS’s basic statutory function of acting as a 

12 self-financing repository and disseminator of 

13 scientific and technical information is still via14 ble.’’. 

15 (9) NTIS has compensated for its lost revenue 

16 by charging other Federal agencies for various serv17 ices that are not associated with NTIS’s primary 

18 mission. 

19 (10) Future technological advances will ensure 

20 that the services offered by NTIS are even more su21 perfluous for essential government functions than 

22 they are today. 

23 SEC. 3. NATIONAL TECHNICAL INFORMATION SERVICE. 

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

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


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

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

3 (b) TRANSFER OF CRITICAL FUNCTIONS.— 

4 (1) CONSULTATION REQUIREMENT.—The Sec5 retary of Commerce, the Archivist of the United 

6 States, and the Comptroller General of the United 

7 States shall consult with the Director of the Office 

8 of Management and Budget to determine if any ac9 tivity or function of the National Technical Informa10 tion Service— 

11 (A) is critical to the national economy; and 

12 (B) is not being carried out by— 

13 (i) any other agency or instrumen14 tality of the Federal Government; or 

15 (ii) a contractor of the Federal Gov16 ernment. 

17 (2) TRANSFERS AUTHORIZED.— 

18 (A) IN GENERAL.—Before the effective 

19 date set forth in subsection (a), the Secretary 

20 of Commerce is authorized to transfer the re21 sponsibility for any NTIS activity or function 

22 that is critical to the national economy and not 

23 otherwise being carried out (as determined 

24 under paragraph (1)) to another office within 

25 the Department of Commerce. 


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1 (B) CONGRESSIONAL NOTIFICATION.—Be2 fore transferring any activity or function pursu3 ant to subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall 

4 submit a report to the Committee on Com5 merce, Science, and Transportation of the Sen6 ate, the Committee on Homeland Security and 

7 Governmental Affairs of the Senate, the Com8 mittee on Energy and Commerce of the House 

9 of Representatives, the Committee on Oversight 

10 and Government Reform of the House of Rep11 resentatives that— 

12 (i) identifies the activities or functions 

13 that will be transferred; and 

14 (ii) provides the rationale for deter15 mining that such activities or functions are 

16 critical to the national economy. 

17 (3) DEFINED TERM.—As used in this sub18 section, an activity or function that is ‘‘critical to 

19 the national economy’’ promotes the economic 

20 growth of the United States by providing access to 

21 information that stimulates innovation and dis22 covery. 

23 (c) REPOSITORY OF NONCLASSIFIED INFORMA24 TION.— 


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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Commerce 

2 is authorized to continue to maintain a permanent 

3 repository of nonclassified scientific, technical, and 

4 engineering information that contains reports that 

5 are scientific, technical, or engineering in nature. 

6 (2) ITEM TO BE INCLUDED.— 

7 (A) IN GENERAL.—All Federal entities 

8 shall send electronic copies of all nonclassified 

9 scientific, technical, and engineering reports 

10 and information to the Department of Com11 merce for inclusion in the repository referred to 

12 in paragraph (1). 

13 (B) NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENT.—If any 

14 Federal entity regularly fails to comply with the 

15 requirement under subparagraph (A), the Sec16 retary of Commerce shall notify— 

17 (i) the Committee on Commerce, 

18 Science, and Transportation of the Senate; 

19 and 

20 (ii) the Committee on Energy and 

21 Commerce of the House of Representa22 tives. 

23 (3) PUBLIC AVAILABILITY.—The repository re24 ferred to in paragraph (1) and any document therein 

25 shall be publicly available and searchable, including 


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1 bibliographic information, in a format that is useful 

2 to American industry, business, libraries, and re3 search institutions. 

4 (4) DIGITAL COPIES.—The Secretary shall pro5 vide digital copies of any document in the repository 

6 referred to in paragraph (1) to the public free of 

7 charge. 

8 (5) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

9 There is authorized to be appropriated such sums as 

10 may be necessary to maintain the repository referred 

11 to in paragraph (1). 

12 (d) BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION.—The Secretary 

13 of Commerce shall continue to make selected bibliographic 

14 information products available in a timely manner to de15 pository libraries as part of the Depository Library Pro16 gram of the Government Publishing Office. 

17 (e) USE OF TECHNOLOGY.—The Secretary of Com18 merce shall utilize available technology to ensure that the 

19 Department of Commerce is collecting all nonclassified sci20 entific, technical, and engineering information to the best 

21 of its ability. 

22 SEC. 4. NTIS REVOLVING FUND. 

23 Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment 

24 of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury, after consulta25 tion with the Secretary of Commerce, shall— 


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1 (1) transfer all unexpended balances in the Na2 tional Technical Information Service Revolving Fund 

3 (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Fund’’), estab4 lished pursuant to the Department of Commerce Ap5 propriations Act, 1993 (title II of Public Law 102– 

6 305; 15 U.S.C. 3704b note), to the Department of 

7 Commerce to be expended solely for the maintenance 

8 of the repository described in section 3(c); and 

9 (2) dissolve the Fund. 

10 SEC. 5. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE CERTIFICATION. 

11 Before the effective date set forth in section 3(a), the 

12 Secretary of Commerce shall submit a written certification 

13 to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transpor14 tation of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and 

15 Commerce of the House of Representatives that all of the 

16 operations of the National Technical Information Service, 

17 except for the activities or functions transferred pursuant 

18 to section 3(b)(2)(A), have been terminated. 

Æ 


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