WASHINGTON—The government’s management of scientific and technical information came under heavy fire last month at a congressional hearing. Witnesses charged that the Reagan administration has failed to develop a coherent national policy, and attacked its plans to broaden security restrictions on such information and sell off the National Technical Information Services (NTIS), the nation’s largest repository of technical material.
The hearing before the Science, Research and Technology subcommittee of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee also showcased bills by subcommittee chairman Rep. Doug Waigren (D-Pa.) and ranking member Rep. George Brown (D-Calif.). Brown’s bill (H.R. 1615) would create a centralized Government Information Agency to collect, maintain and distribute all R&D information generated by or for the federal government, while Walgren’s bill (H.R. 2159) would make NTIS a government corporation.
Neither Walgren’s bill, which would protect NTIS by removing it from the Commerce Department, nor Brown’s bill, which would make ...
