Bring in the Nerds: Reviving the Office of Technology Assessment

In 1994, Congress ceased appropriations for its Office of Technology Asssessment (OTA). The agency’s 120 nonpartisan staff were directed to leave thier offices and left to find new jobs. It was a remarkable development, seeing as these nerds had the job of helping Congress by studying and explaining complex scientific and technological issues. This paper gives a brief history of the OTA and the forces that brought it down. It argues for reestablishing OTA or something like it.