Senators to feds: 'Just Google it'

Senators want to eliminate an agency tucked within the Commerce Department, the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), suggesting that the Internet has made it obsolete. Sens Mark Kirk (R-IL), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and David Perdue (R-GA) introduced the Just Google It Act on June 22, which would eliminate the NTIS. The NTIS is the "largest central resource for government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information," according to the agency's website. But, the Sens say that the rise of Internet search engines has made it "outdated and duplicative."

“Instead of wasting millions of dollars to buy and sell printed documents, the federal government should join the 21st Century and just Google it,” Sen Kirk said in a statement, adding that the government agency "has been obsolete since the Internet was invented." The Sens pointed to a 2014 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report which found that a majority of documents added to the NTIS collection over the past twenty years could be found somewhere else, with most of those available for free online. The Sens would give the Commerce Department a year to shut down the NTIS and transfer any "critical functions" to another part of the department.