Office of Technology Assessment
Encyclopedia
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
from 1972 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
Technology assessment Technology assessment Technology assessment (TA, German Tenteractive, and communicative process that aims to contribute to the formation of public and political opinion on societal aspects of science and technology.- General description :...
. It was a leader in practicing and encouraging delivery of public services in innovative and inexpensive ways, including distribution of government documents through electronic publishing
Electronic publishing
Electronic publishing or ePublishing includes the digital publication of e-books and electronic articles, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. Electronic publishing has become common in scientific publishing where it has been argued that peer-reviewed scientific journals are in...
. Its model was widely copied around the world.
Princeton University hosts The OTA Legacy site "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
Federation of American Scientists
The Federation of American Scientists is a nonpartisan, 501 organization intent on using science and scientific analysis to attempt make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1945 by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs...
launched a similar archive that includes interviews and additional documents about OTA.
History
Congress created the Office of Technology Assessment in 1972, Public Law 92-484. 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 rainAcid rain
Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions . It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen...
, health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
, global climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
, and polygraphs.
Closure
Criticism of the agency was fueled by Fat City, a 1980 book by Donald LambroDonald Lambro
Donald Lambro is an Albanian American journalist. He is the chief political correspondent of The Washington Times and a columnist nationally syndicated by United Feature Syndicate....
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
Contract with America
The Contract with America was a document released by the United States Republican Party during the 1994 Congressional election campaign. Written by Larry Hunter, who was aided by Newt Gingrich, Robert Walker, Richard Armey, Bill Paxon, Tom DeLay, John Boehner and Jim Nussle, and in part using text...
" period of Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
's Republican ascendancy in Congress.
At the time that 104th Congress withdrew funding for OTA, it had a full-time staff of 143 people and an annual budget of $21.9 million. The Office of Technology Assessment closed on September 29, 1995. The move 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 such as biologist PZ Myers
PZ Myers
Paul Zachary "PZ" Myers is an American biology professor at the University of Minnesota Morris and the author of the Pharyngula science blog. He is currently an associate professor of biology at UMM, works with zebrafish in the field of evolutionary developmental biology , and also cultivates an...
have called for the agency's reinstatement.
Subsequent developments
While the OTA was closed down, the very idea of technology assessmentTechnology assessment
Technology assessment Technology assessment Technology assessment (TA, German Tenteractive, and communicative process that aims to contribute to the formation of public and political opinion on societal aspects of science and technology.- General description :...
survived, in particular in Europe, see for instance the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment
European Parliamentary Technology Assessment
The European Parliamentary Technology Assessment is a network of technology assessment institutions specialising in advising parliamentary bodies in Europe.- Objectives :...
(EPTA) network with members of technology assessment
Technology assessment
Technology assessment Technology assessment Technology assessment (TA, German Tenteractive, and communicative process that aims to contribute to the formation of public and political opinion on societal aspects of science and technology.- General description :...
units working for various European parliaments. The US Government Accountability Office
Government Accountability Office
The Government Accountability Office is the audit, evaluation, and investigative arm of the United States Congress. It is located in the legislative branch of the United States government.-History:...
has meanwhile established a TA unit, somehow taking on former duties of the OTA. Washington insiders with long memories viewed this as an ironic twist, as it was the GAO's former Chief Budget and Finance Officer, Sanford Cornett, who was called out of retirement to oversee OTA's budget after it was created.
While campaigning, Hillary Clinton pledged to work to restore the OTA if elected President. On April 29, 2009, House of Representatives member Rush Holt
Rush D. Holt, Jr.
Rush Dew Holt, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for . He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is currently the only Quaker in Congress.-Early life and education :Rush D. Holt was born to Rush D...
of New Jersey wrote an Op-Ed articulating the argument for restoring the OTA.
In April 2010 The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars , located in Washington, D.C., is a United States Presidential Memorial that was established as part of the Smithsonian Institution by an act of Congress in 1968...
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
Darlene Cavalier is an advocate for science literacy, a writer, and an entrepreneur. She is the founder of Science Cheerleader, a blog that promotes science in popular culture and plays on her former position as a cheerleader for the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team...
, 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.
External links
- Office of Technology Assessment former website - now defunct
- Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) Legacy via Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International AffairsWoodrow Wilson School of Public and International AffairsThe Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school has granted undergraduate A.B. degrees since 1930 and graduate degrees since 1948...
at Princeton UniversityPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
- OTA publications
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- US Congress 1994. Perspectives on the Role of Science and Technology in Sustainable Development. OTA-ENV-609. NTIS order #PB95-109674. GPO stock #052-003-01396-7 Govinfo.library.unt.edu.
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- The Office of Technology Assessment Archive hosted by The Federation of American Scientists
- Technology Assessment in Congress: History and Legislative Options, Congressional Research ServiceCongressional Research ServiceThe Congressional Research Service , known as "Congress's think tank", is the public policy research arm of the United States Congress. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS works exclusively and directly for Members of Congress, their Committees and staff on a...
report (PDF).
- Technology Assessment in Congress: History and Legislative Options, Congressional Research Service
- 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 at Earth Ops Dot Org
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
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- OTA publications