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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The National Technical Information Service 
(referred to in this Act as ‘‘NTIS’’), the National 
Archives and Records Administration, the Govern-
ment Accountability Office (referred to in this sec-
tion as ‘‘GAO’’), and the Library of Congress all col-
lect, categorize, and distribute government informa-
tion. 
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(2) NTIS was established in 1950, more than 
40 years before the creation of the Internet. 
(3) NTIS is tasked with collecting and distrib-
uting government-funded scientific, technical, engi-
neering, and business-related information and re-
ports. 
(4) GAO found that NTIS sold only 8 percent 
of the 2,500,000 reports in its collection between 
1995 and 2000. 
(5) A November 2012 GAO review of NTIS 
made the following conclusions: 
(A) ‘‘Of the reports added to NTIS’s re-
pository during fiscal years 1990 through 2011, 
GAO estimates that approximately 74 percent 
were readily 
available 
from 
other 
public 
sources.’’. 
(B) ‘‘These reports were often available ei-
ther from the issuing organization’s website, the 
Federal Internet portal (http://www.USA.gov) 
or from another source located through a web 
search.’’. 
(C) ‘‘The source that most often had the 
report [GAO] was searching for was another 
website 
located 
through 
http:// 
www.Google.com.’’. 
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(D) ‘‘95 percent of the reports available 
from sources other than NTIS were available 
free of charge.’’. 
(6) No Federal agency should use taxpayer dol-
lars to purchase a report from the National Tech-
nical Information Service that is available through 
the Internet for free. 
(7) As far back as 1999, Secretary of Com-
merce William Daley— 
(A) admitted that the National Technical 
Information Service would eventually outlive its 
usefulness and be unable to sustain its revenue- 
losing profit model; 
(B) explained that ‘‘declining sales reve-
nues soon would not be sufficient to recover all 
of NTIS’ operating costs’’; and 
(C) attributed this ‘‘decline to other agen-
cies’ practice of making their research results 
available to the public for free through the 
Web’’. 
(8) According to the November 2012 GAO re-
port— 
(A) ‘‘NTIS product expenditures exceeded 
revenues for 10 out of the past 11 fiscal 
years.’’; 
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(B) ‘‘The agency lost, on average, about 
$1.3 million over the last 11 years on its prod-
ucts.’’; and 
(C) ‘‘The decline in revenue for its prod-
ucts continues to call into question whether 
NTIS’s basic statutory function of acting as a 
self-financing repository and disseminator of 
scientific and technical information is still via-
ble.’’. 
(9) NTIS has compensated for its lost revenue 
by charging other Federal agencies for various serv-
ices that are not associated with NTIS’s primary 
mission. 
(10) Future technological advances will ensure 
that the services offered by NTIS are even more su-
perfluous for essential government functions than 
they are today. 
SEC. 2. NATIONAL TECHNICAL INFORMATION SERVICE. 
(a) REPEAL.—Effective on the date that is 1 year 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the National 
Technical Information Act of 1988 (subtitle B of title II 
of Public Law 100–519; 15 U.S.C. 3704b) is repealed. 
(b) TRANSFER OF CRITICAL FUNCTIONS.— 
(1) CONSULTATION REQUIREMENT.—The Sec-
retary of Commerce, the Archivist of the United 
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