Claire McCaskill

Who is making that decision?

Do you think Harry Truman envisioned that you would be offering the Air Force Recipe Cookbook as part of that?

Your statutory mission was very clear, that it is supposed to be a clearinghouse of scientific, technical, and engineering reports.

This is about duplication. This is about charging taxpayers for information they can get for free.

It looks like this is a work-around the FAR, plain and simple.

I think I have common sense, and I think I understand what is going on here.

And, you are more expensive than GSA.

You would have to scope out this whole program.

We cannot find any IT services you offer that GSA does not offer.

I spend a lot of time on Federal Acquisition Regulations.

I need a ballpark percentage.

OK. That is the point I wanted to make.

You are absolutely right there.

So, it appears you are selling customer service to other agencies, correct?

That page is, yes, where the service pages are for the Federal agencies to know about how the services that we can provide for them.

On the NTIS website, you advertise a bunch of services, from shipping and fulfillment to government web and system hosting.

That is called the Iraqi Science and Technology Information Repository, which is a joint program between the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, and NTIS as the partner, along with a private partner in Tennessee.

Do you think that is what Congress intended when they wanted you to be self-sufficient?

They are taxpayers. They are entitled to the government's information for free.

The notion that depending on where you are lucky enough to click is going to decide whether or not you pay for something is wrong.

They own the government. We do not own the government.

I think it is completely inappropriate that we are having a government agency provide the public with free information in one place, and then the government is trying to charge someone in another place for the exact same information.

The Government Printing Office considers your agency to be the largest source of, quote, 'fugitive reports,' end of quote.

And you charge $4,000 for a single user subscription for that information.

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