The Honorable Bill Frist
Chairman, Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
416 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4205
Dear Senator Frist,
Jeanne Hurley Simon, Chairperson of the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) first offered the Commission's assistance to you in connection with your deliberations relating to the shutdown and transfer of NTIS from the Department of Commerce, in her August 16, 1999 letter (attached).
You then kindly reciprocated, and invited the Commission to testify at your October 21, 1999 hearing on NTIS. We furnished a prepared statement to the Subcommittee in advance, and NCLIS Member Dr. Joan R. Challinor testified on the Commission's behalf. As you may recall from her opening statement, Dr. Joan Challinor is the wife of Dr. David Challinor, who for quite some time before his retirement was the Assistant Secretary for Science at the Smithsonian Institution. That period included the time when the old Smithsonian Science Information Exchange (SSIE) went to the new NTIS. Both David and Joan are therefore quite familiar with the scientific and technical information resources challenges of the Nation.
In our response to your post hearing questions for the record, we reiterated our offer to assist you, and I'm pleased that on December 8, 1999, Floyd Deschamps invited Judy Russell, NCLIS Deputy Executive Director, and NCLIS consultant Dr. Forest Woody Horton, Jr., to a meeting in the Subcommittee's offices in the Hart building. Ms. Russell and Dr. Horton tell me that they believe the meeting was very productive and there was a free exchange of views.
Our understanding is that you wish to have a firm proposal ready to make to the Subcommittee, the full Committee, and the Senate as soon as practicable after the Second Session begins. However, as Ms. Russell and Dr. Horton pointed out to Mr. Deschamps, having only the month of January 2000 to complete a meaningful investigation and prepare a complete report to you on options available, much less a preferred course of action, does not provide very much time.
Alternatively, we suggested to Mr. Deschamps that you consider a two-pronged approach. First, the Congress should indicate that it wishes for the Department of Commerce to keep NTIS temporarily housed in that agency, fully operating, through September 30, 2001. This reasonable delay will give Congress and the President enough time to consider alternative courses that the Government might pursue, and come up with a preferred approach taking into account the consequences the closure of NTIS and transfer of its programs and services would have on the public.
As you know, NCLIS has already offered to undertake such a study. Therefore, the second part of the approach we suggest is that you request us to conduct such an investigative study, within the 3-6 month timeframe initially proposed.
Since we understand NTIS operated "in the black" for FY 1999, it seems to us that such a two-pronged strategy is defensible under the circumstances. After all, it is reasonable for the Congress to recommend that the President and Secretary Daley allow this two year "breather period" to give all the interested parties adequate time to take stock of the situation. At the same time, NTIS should continue on course to take prudent management steps to remain in the black for FY 2000 and 2001.
Meanwhile, NCLIS intends to be as proactive as possible. To that end we are convening a meeting of experts here in Washington, D.C. in January 2000, bringing together both the public and private sector stakeholders whose views on the public record are necessary for a thorough and systematic investigation of the alternatives. Certainly we will invite you and/or Subcommittee staffers (e.g. Mr. Deschamps) to that meeting, as well as the appropriate House committee people.
Thank you again for the opportunity to assist you and the Subcommittee in seeking a satisfactory resolution to the very complex and difficult public information resources management challenges the NTIS shutdown and transfer poses. We hope you will see your way clear to ask us to proceed along the lines we've suggested here.
Sincerely yours,
Robert S. Willard
Executive Director
Cc: Chairperson Jeanne H. Simon