Title 15 — Commerce and TradeRelease 119-73

§1152 Clearinghouse for technical information; removal of security classification

Title 15 › Chapter CHAPTER 23— - DISSEMINATION OF TECHNICAL, SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING INFORMATION › § 1152

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of Commerce must create and run a central clearinghouse inside the Department of Commerce to collect and share scientific, technical, and engineering information. He must search for and gather data from any sources at home or abroad, then organize and keep those materials. He must make the information available to businesses, state and local governments, other federal agencies, and the public by preparing summaries, translations, lists, indexes, and copies, and by sharing them directly or through publications and services. If national security review shows release is allowed, and he has legal authority and permission from the proper officials, he may lift restrictions that block sharing data so industry can use it.

Full Legal Text

Title 15, §1152

Commerce and Trade — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Secretary of Commerce (hereinafter referred to as the “Secretary”) is directed to establish and maintain within the Department of Commerce a clearinghouse for the collection and dissemination of scientific, technical, and engineering information, and to this end to take such steps as he may deem necessary and desirable—

(a)To search for, collect, classify, coordinate, integrate, record, and catalog such information from whatever sources, foreign and domestic, that may be available;

(b)To make such information available to industry and business, to State and local governments, to other agencies of the Federal Government, and to the general public, through the preparation of abstracts, digests, translations, bibliographies, indexes, and microfilm and other reproductions, for distribution either directly or by utilization of business, trade, technical, and scientific publications and services;

(c)To effect, within the limits of his authority as now or hereafter defined by law, and with the consent of competent authority, the removal of restrictions on the dissemination of scientific and technical data in cases where consideration of national security permit the release of such data for the benefit of industry and business.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

15 U.S.C. § 1152

Title 15 — Commerce and Trade

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73