For a time, Congress had exactly that, in the form of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). But lawmakers shuttered it 30 years ago, and we’re still feeling its absence today.
Created in 1972, the Office of Technology Assessment gave Congress something it almost never has: a reliable way to understand the science and technologies reshaping the world. The office’s reports didn’t tell lawmakers what to do. Instead, they laid out the risks and the benefits (so cleanly that members on opposite sides of an issue could wave the same report to make their case). The OTA was overseen by a 12‑member board, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, with equal representation from the House and the Senate. In just over two decades, it produced over 750 studies, on everything from Alzheimer’s to automation.
“It was an impartial repository of interdisciplinary experts who would proactively assist Congress in understanding emerging technology,” says University of Washington law professor Ryan Calo, “and to do so at a time early enough in its life cycle that it had not become full of special interests that had not grown around it, like barnacles.”
