[vizeroth]

The purpose in founding the NTIS was to ensure that information and research was available to U.S. industry, government, academia, and the public. This is especially the case for government-funded research, but also includes technical information from foreign and other sources.

It's like saying you don't need the U.S. Copyright Office any more because the record and movie labels do such a wonderful job making sure their content is widely available.

"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."

Yes, because proving that 26% of the material added is not readily available elsewhere proves their uselessness... Oh, and let's not forget that the mandate for them to be profitable did not exist until just before it started to become impossible for them to do so.

[snsr]

> let's not forget that the mandate for them to be profitable did not exist until just before it started to become impossible for them to do so.

I'd be curious to read more about this. Looks like this isn't the first time the agency has been in the cross-hairs (from 1999) -

http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/NewsBreaks/Commerce-Departme...