Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), one of two physicists in Congress, believes the cloning experience highlights the need for better scientific and technical information on Capitol Hill. He has introduced legislation (HR 2148) to bring back the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), a congressional entity that had provided legislators with information and reports on a variety of scientific and technical topics for more than 20 years. Until it was disbanded in 1995, a victim of politics and budget cuts, OTA employed some 200 staffers and published up to 55 reports per year, some book-length, and had another 30 to 60 projects in progress. OTA's work "ran the gamut of subject matter, with approaches tailored for each topic and congressional request," wrote Rep. Amo Houghton (R-N.Y.), "in memoriam" in 1995. "The agency took on controversial subjects, examining them objectively and comprehensively. It helped us to better understand complex technical issues." Courtesy of ...
Informing Congress: A Return of the OTA?
In the midst of this summer's rancorous US House of Representatives debate over the legality of cloning, an exasperated Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) complained, "Mr. Speaker, we really should not be debating this at all. None of us is equipped to do so. We simply do not know enough." Rep. Peter Deutsch (D-Fla.) agreed. "In my nine years in this chamber, this is the least informed collectively that the 435 members of this body have ever been on any issue." In the end, the July 31, 265-162 vote
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