Legislation has been introduced that would eliminate the National Technical Information Service, designed as a central resource for government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information.
Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Rep. Jim Bridenstein, R-Okla., and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, however, view the agency as little more than a glorified search engine, and would like to see it defunded.
“This agency has clearly outlived its usefulness,” said McCaskill, Chairman of the Senate subcommittee on financial & contracting oversight. “I find it staggering that the agency is selling government reports both to the public and to other federal agencies that are widely available for free and easy to find with a simple search — and the agency is still losing money.”
By statute, the Alexandria, Virginia-based NTIS charges for its services in order to cover its costs, but has operated at a loss of about $1 million a year in recent years.
