Still Alive: The Movement to Un-Shutter the Office of Technology Assessment
Twenty-one years after “Contract with America” House Republicans abolished the Office of Technology Assessment, a revival movement of sorts persists among lawmakers, their staffs and Washington think tanks.
The OTA (1972-1995), with its exuberantly loyal staff of 100 who helped Congress address tech questions from a two-floor office in Southeast Washington, at its peak was producing 20 meaty reports a year. But in 1995 then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and others deemed it a liberal fillip unneeded at the dawn of the Internet age.
On Wednesday, Government Executive was permitted to sit in on a discussion of reviving OTA at which several dozen congressional staff, business and advocacy group representatives gathered under the auspices of a Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group formed by the nonprofits New America and the R Street Institute.
