Office of Technology Assessment
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The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) was an office of the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
that operated from 1974 to 1995. OTA's purpose was to provide congressional members and committees with objective and authoritative analysis of the complex scientific and technical issues of the late 20th century, i.e.
technology assessment Technology assessment (TA, German: , French: ) is a scientific, interactive, and communicative process that aims to contribute to the formation of public and political opinion on societal aspects of science and technology. This is a means of as ...
. It was a leader in practicing and encouraging delivery of public services in innovative and inexpensive ways, including early involvement in the distribution of government documents through
electronic publishing Electronic publishing (also referred to as publishing, digital publishing, or online publishing) includes the digital publication of e-books, Online magazine, digital magazines, and the development of digital library, digital libraries and catalo ...
. Its model was widely copied around the world. The OTA was authorized in 1972 and received its first funding in fiscal year 1974. It was defunded at the end of 1995, following the 1994 mid-term elections which led to Republican control of the Senate and the House. House Republican legislators characterized the OTA as wasteful and hostile to GOP interests.
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
hosts The OTA Legacy site, which holds "the complete collection of OTA publications along with additional materials that illuminate the history and impact of the agency". On July 23, 2008 the
Federation of American Scientists The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is an American nonprofit global policy think tank with the stated intent of using science and scientific analysis to attempt to make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1946 by scientists who wo ...
launched a similar archive that includes interviews and additional documents about OTA.


History

Congress established the Office of Technology Assessment with the Technology Assessment Act of 1972. It was governed by a twelve-member board, comprising six members of Congress from each party—half from the Senate and half from the House of Representatives. During its twenty-four-year life it produced about 750 studies on a wide range of topics, including
acid rain Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists between 6.5 and 8.5, but acid ...
,
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, global
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
, and
polygraphs A polygraph, often incorrectly referred to as a lie detector test, is a device or procedure that measures and records several physiological indicators such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while a person is asked an ...
.


Closure

Criticism of the agency was fueled by ''Fat City'', a 1980 book by ''Washington Times'' journalist Donald Lambro that was regarded favorably by the Reagan administration; it called OTA an "unnecessary agency" that duplicated government work done elsewhere. OTA was abolished (technically "de-funded") in the "
Contract with America The Contract with America was a legislative agenda advocated for by the Republican Party during the 1994 congressional election campaign. Written by Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey, and in part using text from former President Ronald Reagan's 19 ...
" period of
Newt Gingrich Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U ...
's Republican ascendancy in Congress. According to ''Science'' magazine, "some Republican lawmakers came to view he OTAas duplicative, wasteful, and biased against their party." When the
104th Congress The 104th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from January 3, 19 ...
withdrew funding for OTA, it had a statutory limit of 143 full-time staff (augmented by various project-based contractors) and an annual budget of $21.9 million. The closure of OTA was criticized at the time, including by Republican representative Amo Houghton, who commented at the time of OTA's defunding that "we are cutting off one of the most important arms of Congress when we cut off unbiased knowledge about science and technology." Critics of the closure saw it as an example of politics overriding science, and a variety of scientists have called for the agency's reinstatement. Law professor and legal scholar David L. Faigman also made a strong case supporting the role OTA had played, also calling for its reinstatement.


Subsequent developments

While the OTA was closed down, the idea of
technology assessment Technology assessment (TA, German: , French: ) is a scientific, interactive, and communicative process that aims to contribute to the formation of public and political opinion on societal aspects of science and technology. This is a means of as ...
survived, in particular in Europe. The
European Parliamentary Technology Assessment The European Parliamentary Technology Assessment (EPTA) is a network of technology assessment (TA) institutions specialising in advising parliamentary bodies in Europe. Objectives The EPTA partners advise parliaments on the possible social, ec ...
(EPTA) network coordinates members of
technology assessment Technology assessment (TA, German: , French: ) is a scientific, interactive, and communicative process that aims to contribute to the formation of public and political opinion on societal aspects of science and technology. This is a means of as ...
units working for various European governments. The US
Government Accountability Office The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal govern ...
has meanwhile established a TA unit, taking on former duties of the OTA. While campaigning in the
2008 US presidential election The 2008 United States presidential election was the 56th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from ...
,
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
pledged to work to restore the OTA if elected
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
. On April 29, 2009, House of Representatives member Rush Holt of New Jersey wrote an op-ed piece articulating the argument for restoring the OTA. In April 2010 The
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (or Wilson Center) is a quasi-government entity and think tank which conducts research to inform public policy. Located in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washi ...
released a report entitled "Reinventing Technology Assessment" that emphasized citizen engagement and called for performing the functions of the OTA by creating a nationwide network of non-partisan policy research organizations, universities, and science museums: the Expert & Citizen Assessment of Science & Technology (ECAST) network. ECAST would conduct both expert and participatory technology assessments for Congress and other clients. The author of the report was Dr. Richard Sclove of the Loka Institute. The report states that the drive to modernize OTA was initiated by
Darlene Cavalier Darlene Cavalier is an American professor of practice at Arizona State University's School for the Future of Innovation in Society. She is the founder of SciStarter (a science portal and research platform), founder of Science Cheerleaders (a non ...
, a popular citizen science advocate and author of the Science Cheerleader blog. Cavalier outlined the idea of the citizen network in a guest blog post for ''Discover'' magazine's The Intersection. She introduced the concept in an article in '' Science Progress'' in July 2008.
Andrew Yang Andrew Yang (born January 13, 1975) is an American businessman, attorney, lobbyist, and politician. Yang was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries and the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary. He is the co-c ...
became the first 2020 presidential candidate on April 4, 2019 to push for the idea to reestablish the OTA. He did so with a detailed proposal that includes refusing to sign any budget that did not include the OTA. In January 2019 the
Government Accountability Office The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal govern ...
established the Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics (STAA) team to take on the technology assessment mission of the former OTA. STAA developed out of a small technology assessment pilot program at GAO created in 2002, which was elevated to GAO's 15th mission team. It launched with 49 full-time equivalent staff and has since grown to over 100. In October 2019, a congressionally directed report by the National Academy of Public Administration recommended increased investment in GAO and CRS to build Congress's policy capacity in science and technology.


See also


References


Further reading

* Bruce Bimber: ''Politics of Expertise in Congress: The Rise and Fall of the Office of Technology Assessment'', State University of New York Press, 1996. * Peter D. Blair,
Congress’s Own Think Tank
', Palgrave Macmillan, September 2013. * * Ash Carter, Laura Manley, et al.
"Building a 21st Century Congress: Improving Congress’s Science and Technology Expertise"
Harvard Belfer Center, September 2019. * Zach Graves and Kevin Kosar
“Bring in the Nerds: Reviving the Office of Technology Assessment”
R Street Institute policy study, January 2018. * M. Anthony Mills
"Reviving technology assessment: Learning from the founding and early history of Congress’ Office of Technology Assessment"
American Enterprise Institute The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right Washington, D.C.–based think tank that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. ...
, May 2021. * M. Granger Morgan and Jon Peha,
Science and Technology Advice for Congress
', Routledge, September 2003. * Chris Mooney
"Requiem for an Office"
''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'', September 2005 vol. 61 no. 5 40–49. * Chris Mooney, ''The Republican War on Science'' (New York: Basic Books, 2005), ch. 5. * Jathan Sadowski
"The Much-Needed and Sane Congressional Office That Gingrich Killed Off and We Need Back"
''The Atlantic'', October 26, 2012. * Daniel Schuman and Zach Graves
"Science, Technology, & Democracy: Building a Modern Congressional Technology Assessment Office"
Harvard Ash Center, January 2020. * Kim Zetter
"Of Course Congress Is Clueless About Tech—It Killed Its Tutor"
''Wired.com'', April 21, 2016.


External links


Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) Legacy
via
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...
at
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
*
OTA publications
*** *** US Congress 1994. Perspectives on the Role of Science and Technology in Sustainable Development. OTA-ENV-609. NTIS order #PB95-109674. GPO stock #052-003-01396-
Govinfo.library.unt.edu

The Office of Technology Assessment Archive
hosted by th
Federation of American Scientists

Legislative History of Technology Assessment in the U.S.
hosted b
Future Congress

CyberCemetery OTA coverage "established ... to provide permanent, Web based, public access"
a partnership of
University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School," ...
and the
United States Government Printing Office The United States Government Publishing Office (USGPO or GPO; formerly the United States Government Printing Office) is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States Federal government. The office produces and distributes information ...
*
Technology Assessment in Congress: History and Legislative Options
Congressional Research Service The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a public policy research institute of the United States Congress. Operating within the Library of Congress, it works primarily and directly for members of Congress and their committees and staff on a c ...
report (
PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
).
Psychiatric Disabilities, Employment, and the Americans With Disabilities Act Background Paper
Behney, Clyde J. (Asst Director OTA Health, Life Sciences & Environment Division), Hall, Laura Lee, Keller, Jacqueline T. HTML converted from WordPerfect 5.1 to HTML in 1996 a
Earth Ops Dot Org

OTA Video "Meeting the Needs of Congress"
{{Authority control Agencies of the United States Congress Defunct agencies of the United States government Technology assessment organisations Life sciences industry 1972 establishments in Washington, D.C. 1995 disestablishments in Washington, D.C. Defunct organizations based in Washington, D.C. Government agencies established in 1972 Government agencies disestablished in 1995