Agency Caves To Coburn, Drops Fees For Only His Reports
Bureaucrats at their best: Feds to charge for free online reports, except for Coburn’s
By Stephen Dinan
A federal agency having trouble adapting to the Internet age has finally stopped charging customers for one senator’s reports — but is still charging for thousands of other documents that are available online, for free, and reachable through a simple Google search.
Under pressure from Sen. Tom Coburn, the National Technical Information Service last week quietly stopped charging for reports written by the Oklahoma Republican. But NTIS is still charging for other lawmakers’ reports, and those of other federal agencies — even though those documents, like Mr. Coburn’s reports, are all easily available online.
The NTIS’s decision appears to set a new precedent, which raises the question of what would happen if other agencies or members of Congress also demanded their reports be shared for free.
“Their decision shows that shining a light on wasteful spending can yield real savings,” said John Hart, a spokesman for Mr. Coburn, who has earned the reputation as Congress’s top waste-watcher. “If 535 offices followed Dr. Coburn’s model we’d save even more. This is just one area of waste out of thousands. Now, NTIS needs to stop charging for other reports as well.”