[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 787 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``NTIS Elimination Act''.

SEC. 2. 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 Government Accountability Office (referred 
        to in this Act as ``GAO''), and the Library of Congress all 
        collect, categorize, and distribute government information.
            (2) NTIS was established in 1950, more than 40 years before 
        the creation of the Internet.
            (3) NTIS is tasked with collecting and distributing 
        government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and 
        business-related information and reports.
            (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 repository 
                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 either 
                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.''.
                    (D) ``95 percent of the reports available from 
                sources other than NTIS were available free of 
                charge.''.
            (6) No Federal agency should use taxpayer dollars to 
        purchase a report from the National Technical Information 
        Service that is available through the Internet for free.
            (7) In 1999, Secretary of Commerce 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 revenues soon 
                would not be sufficient to recover all of NTIS' 
                operating costs''; and
                    (C) attributed this ``decline to other agencies' 
                practice of making their research results available to 
                the public for free through the Web''.
            (8) According to the November 2012 GAO report referred to 
        in paragraph (5)--
                    (A) ``NTIS product expenditures exceeded revenues 
                for 10 out of the past 11 fiscal years.'';
                    (B) ``The agency lost, on average, about $1.3 
                million over the last 11 years on its products.''; and
                    (C) ``The decline in revenue for its products 
                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 viable.''.
            (9) NTIS has compensated for its lost revenue by charging 
        other Federal agencies for various services that are not 
        associated with NTIS's primary mission.
            (10) Future technological advances will ensure that the 
        services offered by NTIS are even more superfluous for 
        essential government functions than they are today.

SEC. 3. 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 Secretary of Commerce, 
        the Archivist of the United States, and the Comptroller General 
        of the United States shall consult with the Director of the 
        Office of Management and Budget to determine if any activity or 
        function of the National Technical Information Service--
                    (A) is critical to the national economy; and
                    (B) is not being carried out by--
                            (i) any other agency or instrumentality of 
                        the Federal Government; or
                            (ii) a contractor of the Federal 
                        Government.
            (2) Transfers authorized.--
                    (A) In general.--Before the effective date set 
                forth in subsection (a), the Secretary of Commerce is 
                authorized to transfer the responsibility for any NTIS 
                activity or function that is critical to the national 
                economy and not otherwise being carried out (as 
                determined under paragraph (1)) to another office 
                within the Department of Commerce.
                    (B) Congressional notification.--Before 
                transferring any activity or function pursuant to 
                subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall submit a report 
                to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
                Transportation of the Senate, the Committee on Homeland 
                Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate, the 
                Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of 
                Representatives, the Committee on Oversight and 
                Government Reform of the House of Representatives 
                that--
                            (i) identifies the activities or functions 
                        that will be transferred; and
                            (ii) provides the rationale for determining 
                        that such activities or functions are critical 
                        to the national economy.
            (3) Defined term.--As used in this subsection, an activity 
        or function that is ``critical to the national economy'' 
        promotes the economic growth of the United States by providing 
        access to information that stimulates innovation and discovery.
    (c) Repository of Nonclassified Information.--
            (1) In general.--The Secretary of Commerce is authorized to 
        continue to maintain a permanent repository of nonclassified 
        scientific, technical, and engineering information that 
        contains reports that are scientific, technical, or engineering 
        in nature.
            (2) Item to be included.--
                    (A) In general.--All Federal entities shall send 
                electronic copies of all nonclassified scientific, 
                technical, and engineering reports and information to 
                the Department of Commerce for inclusion in the 
                repository referred to in paragraph (1).
                    (B) Notification requirement.--If any Federal 
                entity regularly fails to comply with the requirement 
                under subparagraph (A), the Secretary of Commerce shall 
                notify--
                            (i) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
                        Transportation of the Senate; and
                            (ii) the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
                        of the House of Representatives.
            (3) Public availability.--The repository referred to in 
        paragraph (1) and any document therein shall be publicly 
        available and searchable, including bibliographic information, 
        in a format that is useful to American industry, business, 
        libraries, and research institutions.
            (4) Digital copies.--The Secretary shall provide digital 
        copies of any document in the repository referred to in 
        paragraph (1) to the public free of charge.
            (5) Authorization of appropriations.--There is authorized 
        to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to maintain 
        the repository referred to in paragraph (1).
    (d) Bibliographic Information.--The Secretary of Commerce shall 
continue to make selected bibliographic information products available 
in a timely manner to depository libraries as part of the Depository 
Library Program of the Government Publishing Office.
    (e) Use of Technology.--The Secretary of Commerce shall utilize 
available technology to ensure that the Department of Commerce is 
collecting all nonclassified scientific, technical, and engineering 
information to the best of its ability.

SEC. 4. NTIS REVOLVING FUND.

    Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation with the Secretary of 
Commerce, shall--
            (1) transfer all unexpended balances in the National 
        Technical Information Service Revolving Fund (referred to in 
        this section as the ``Fund''), established pursuant to the 
        Department of Commerce Appropriations Act, 1993 (title II of 
        Public Law 102-305; 15 U.S.C. 3704b note), to the Department of 
        Commerce to be expended solely for the maintenance of the 
        repository described in section 3(c); and
            (2) dissolve the Fund.

SEC. 5. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE CERTIFICATION.

    Before the effective date set forth in section 3(a), the Secretary 
of Commerce shall submit a written certification to the Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee 
on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives that all of the 
operations of the National Technical Information Service, except for 
the activities or functions transferred pursuant to section 3(b)(2)(A), 
have been terminated.
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