Congress’s Own Think Tank

Dr. Peter D. Blair is Executive Director of the National Research Council's Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences. He was previously Assistant Director of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and Director of the agency's Industry, Commerce and International Security Division.

• 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 forcefully argues that today's question is not so much as whether but in what forms science and technology advice can be sought and received by Congress. His book is a valuable source of wisdom for the science and technology community and our citizen governors." - John H. Gibbons, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, 1993-1998; Director Office of Technology Assessment, 1979-1993 "For almost a quarter of a century the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) was one of the most respected, productive, and cost-efficient agencies in history, producing comprehensive reports for the House and Senate on issues relating to climate change, health care policy, agricultural production, telecommunications, space policy, electronic surveillance, national defense, and may more. In a senseless fit of government reduction the agency was closed in 1995, and the country lost a valuable resource. A new mechanism for providing independent, non-partisan, science and technology advice for the Congress is essential for our country. No one is better able than Peter Blair to tell the story of why OTA worked so well for legislators and the general public and what can be done now to revive the service OTA provided. With an insider's view and with science policy expertise he gives a clear, well-documented account that will be invaluable to anyone thinking about how best to legislate in a world teeming with overlapping and incompletely understood technologies." - Rush D. Holt, Jr., U.S. Representative for New Jersey's 12th congressional district