OTA on its way back?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Turner, Jim [Jim.Turner () mail house gov]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 5:03 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: RE: [IP] OTA on its way back?

Congressman Rush Holt has sponsored legislation to resuscitate OTA for
several years.  OTA was not repealed; its funding was cut off, so what
Rush's bill would have done is to revive OTA by refunding it.  He
initially had support from the House Appropriations Committee, but I
believe the money ended up in GAO in the end.  OTA did a series of 3 or
4 technology assessments earlier this decade.  Therefore, OTA is not
back, but the concept still  has some life.  My understanding is that
Hillary Clinton in her technology speech endorsed reviving OTA as well.

Jim Turner

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 4:55 PM
To: ip
Subject: [IP] OTA on its way back?


________________________________________
From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall [joehall () gmail com]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 4:40 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: OTA on its way back?

For IP if you think it's interesting.

I've long heard my respected elders talk about the defunct
Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), killed in 1995
but once with an office of about 200 (at about $22 million per year)
tasked to give Congress real scientific advice and counsel.

Recently, there has been some movement to refund OTA-like functions,
for example, $2.5 million in a recent appropriations bill for
"technology assessments".  (See John Wonderlich's (of the Sunlight
Foundation) quote of that bill here:
http://www.theopenhouseproject.com/2008/01/04/ota-update/ )

I'm wondering if any other IPers are close to the efforts to revive
the OTA and can share with us.  It would be wonderful if we can hope
to see regular scientific input into Congressional debate and
activity.

best, Joe

--
Joseph Lorenzo Hall
UC Berkeley School of Information
http://josephhall.org/

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