The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) was an office of the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...
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, , ) is a practical process of determining the value of a new or emerging technology in and of itself or against existing technologies. This is a means of assessing and rating the new technology from the time when it w ...
. 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 e-publishing, digital publishing, or online publishing) includes the digital publication of e-books, digital magazines, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. It also includes the ed ...
. 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 Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
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 1945 by a group of scient ...
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 (meteorology), 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 b ...
,
health care
Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...
, global
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
, and
polygraphs.
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 by the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party during the 1994 United States House of Representatives elections, 1994 congressional election campaign. Written by Newt Gingri ...
" period of
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1 ...
'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 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, , ) is a practical process of determining the value of a new or emerging technology in and of itself or against existing technologies. This is a means of assessing and rating the new technology from the time when it w ...
survived, in particular in Europe. The
European Parliamentary Technology Assessment (EPTA) network coordinates members of
technology assessment
Technology assessment (TA, , ) is a practical process of determining the value of a new or emerging technology in and of itself or against existing technologies. This is a means of assessing and rating the new technology from the time when it w ...
units working for various European governments. The US
Government Accountability Office
The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan government agency within the legislative branch that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the s ...
has meanwhile established a TA unit, taking on former duties of the OTA.
While campaigning in the
2008 US presidential election
Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from Delaware, defeated the Republican ticket of John Mc ...
,
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...
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:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
. 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 (WWICS) or Wilson Center is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank
A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topi ...
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, 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, political commentator, and author. He founded the political party and action committee Forward Party (United States), Forward Party in 2021, for which he serves ...
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 United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan government agency within the legislative branch that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the s ...
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.
In 2022,
Jamie Susskind
Jamie Susskind (born 1989) is an English barrister and author.
Background
Jamie Susskind is the son of Richard Susskind, a notable British author, and is Jewish. He grew up in Radlett, an affluent village in Hertfordshire, and received a priv ...
advocated for bringing back the office in order to have expertise on pressing issues like
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
and
online privacy
Internet privacy involves the right or mandate of personal privacy concerning the storage, re-purposing, provision to third parties, and display of information pertaining to oneself via the Internet. Internet privacy is a subset of data privacy. P ...
.
Bruce Schneier
Bruce Schneier (; born January 15, 1963) is an American cryptographer, computer security professional, privacy specialist, and writer. Schneier is an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a Fellow at the Berkman ...
also called for a similar National Cyber Office.
See also
*
Administrative Conference of the United States – another federal advisory body that was defunded in 1995
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 think tank based in Washington, D.C., 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) Legacyvia
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (''abbrev.'' SPIA; 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 c ...
at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
*
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 Archivehosted by th
Federation of American ScientistsLegislative History of Technology Assessment in the U.S.hosted b
Future CongressCyberCemetery 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 university, public research university located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its main campus is in Denton, Texas, Denton, with a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas, Frisco. It serves as the ...
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 Legislature, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal gove ...
*
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 ...
report (
PDF
Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...
).
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