I wonder if this is such a good idea, since we all know that everything on the internet is true.
It takes some real skill to find reliable, accurate, up-to-date information on the internet. Could NTIS still serve a purpose by Googling for more critical research? Or maybe the idea is that that job is for the Congressional Research Service.
The bill specifically points out that Google generally points to the originating agency of the reports in question. That is, the NSIT was originally supposed to let the Department of Commerce find Department of Agriculture datasets, but now the DoA just publishes those on its own website and the DoC can just cut out the middleman.
When you search through Google Scholar, the quality of the information you get is actually really good. IMHO the best solution is to get rid of NTIS' goal to be profitable, and simply make it an agency that collects and distributes those documents for free. Integration with Google Scholar would be a logical next step.
It takes some real skill to find reliable, accurate, up-to-date information on the internet. Could NTIS still serve a purpose by Googling for more critical research? Or maybe the idea is that that job is for the Congressional Research Service.