Congresss Own Think Tank: Learning from the Legacy of the Office of Technology [Hardcover]

Congress' Own Think Tank recaps the OTA experience?it's creation, operation, and circumstances of its closure? and that of organizations attempting to fill the gap since OTA's closure as well as a number of new forces shaping the current context for science and technology issues facing the Congress.1. Pre-History: Meeting the Need for Science Advice to the U.S. Congress 2. Key Features of the Technology Assessment Act of 1972 3. Startup: Setting the Agenda in OTA's Early Years 4. Growing Pains: Evolution of OTA's Process of Technology Assessment 5. After the Fall: Strengths and Weaknesses of Post OTA Efforts to Fill the Gap 6. Looking Forward: Comparing Future Options 7. Conclusions: Restoring Independent, Authoritative, and Objective Science and Technology Advice to the U.S. Congress

There has been no time since OTA's defunding in 1995 that the Congress needed more an institution through which both parties could jointly base their policy debates on the best scientifically established facts. As Peter Blair knows from experience at both OTA and the National Academies, the key to informing policy alternatives by the best technical knowledge requires scientific analysis that is dependable, understandable, and pertinent to the political context. Blair offers three institutional options; without one of them our democracy will continue to erode. - Lewis M. Branscomb, Professor Emeritus, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA

Peter Blair's carefully researched history of Congress's own think tank - the non-partisan Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) (1972-1995) - chronicles the enduring need of Congress for independent, authoritative, and objective analyses of major public policy issues involving science and technology. His personal observations as a former OTA Assistant Director are poignant lenses on the key people and events that kindled and earned the agency respect around the world until its demise in 1995. Blair lB