Senators propose replacing federal agency with Google
Taking the snarkiness of Let Me Google That For You to the next level, a team of four Republican senators introduced the Just Google It Act this week to eliminate the National Technical Information Service (NTIS).
This little-known agency of the Commerce Department is supposed to be the "largest central resource for government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information," a function the bill's sponsors say has been rendered unnecessary by the existence of the internet. A 2014 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) agrees.
"Instead of wasting millions of dollars to buy and sell printed documents, the federal government should join the 21st century and just Google it," said Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), one of the bill's co-sponsors. A similar bill, literally called the Let Me Google That For You Act, was introduced by a bipartisan pair of senators last year.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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