Today the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) launched the Office of Technology Assessment Archive, http://fas.org/ota. It includes information about the history of the office and features over 720 reports and documents that were produced by OTA during its 23 year history. In the video section there is a new interview with Congressman Rush Holt, who explains why he has been leading the effort to revive OTA. He also describes some current policy issues that OTA could address.
OTA served as an independent branch of the U.S. Congress that provided nonpartisan science and technology advice from 1972 until it was defunded and forced to close in 1995. The Archive will track efforts to bring back OTA, and individuals can subscribe to receive RSS feeds or email updates as new material is posted. The Federation of American Scientists recently received hundreds of historical documents about OTA that have not been available to the public previously, and plan to highlight them in a regular “Document of the Day” feature. The OTA Archive links to current news articles that mention OTA reports or former OTA staff members. The site also includes a new search engine that allows users to quickly and easily find specific content in OTA reports.
FAS will be happy to host or link to any additional documents or commentary related to the OTA. Use the contact tab at the top of the site to get in touch with this site’s administrator.
Visit the OTA Archive at http://fas.org/ota.
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