The Department of Commerce’s National Technical Information Service charged taxpayers and other federal agencies $50 million in 2013 for electronic copies of government-funded research and reports.
There is another well-known service that provides electronic copies of research: Google. Almost 75% of the reports taxpayers spent money on were already available for free on public search engines.
That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses.
Coburn, the legendary U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname "Dr. No" by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. Projects that he couldn't stop, Coburn included in his oversight reports.
Coburn's Wastebook 2013 included 100 examples of outrageous spending worth nearly $30 billion, including the service fees — which would be worth $71.5 million today.
Key facts: The National Technical Information Service was created in 1970 when sharing digitized records was not as easy as it is today. By the 2010s, most of its core functions were no longer needed because of the internet. Federal reports were available from basic search engines or government websites like USA.gov.
For example, the NTIS was charging $79 for a copy of a military cookbook on CD-ROM, even though it could be downloaded for free from the Army’s website.
The service even charged $48 for Coburn’s own “Wastebook” reports. They were available for free on his Senate website.
Critics had called the NTIS’ format outdated for years. William Daley, secretary of commerce under President Bill Clinton, had already tried to shutter the service in 1999.
Coburn and Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill introduced the “Let Me Google That For You Act” in 2014 to abolish the NTIS. It never became law, but the service did begin offering more than 800,000 reports for free. Today, the NTIS advertises “free and open access” to its collection.
The agency now functions mostly as a data-services group working on artificial intelligence, machine learning and other technology projects to improve government efficiency. It remains self-supporting without annual funding from Congress.
Summary: Coburn never succeeded in eliminating the government’s “Google” office. But after taxpayers complained about paying for free information, at least the reports finally became free.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.
