The Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) closed on September 29, 1995. During its 23-year history, OTA provided Congressional members and committees with analyses of the scientific and technological issues that were increasingly relevant to public policy and legislative action.
OTA occupied a unique role among the Congressional information agencies. Unlike the General Accounting Office, which is primarily concerned with evaluation of ongoing programs, and the Congressional Research Service, which provides rapid information on legislative topics, OTA provided a deeper, more comprehensive, and more technical level of analysis. Through eleven Congressional sessions, OTA became a key resource for Congressional members and staff confronting technological issues in crafting public policy. Its existence brought a healthy balance to the analytical resources available to the executive and legislative branches of government.
The agency’s legacy is found in the many items of legislation it influenced and in the channels of communication its staff helped foster between legislative policymakers and members of the scientific, technical, and business communities.
The Black Vault has archived here the complete collection of reports and data issued by the OTA. Clicking on any document below will take you directly to the report, all in .pdf format. This collection holds 110,670 pages in total.
1984
- Acid Rain and Transported Air Pollutants: Implications for Public Policy
- Africa Tomorrow: Issues in Technology, Agriculture, and U.S. Foreign Aid
- Airport System Development
- Annual Report to the Congress: January 1 to September 30, 1983
- Arms Control in Space
- The Boston Elbow
- Civilian Space Stations and the U.S. Future in Space
- Commercial Biotechnology: An International Analysis
- Computerized Manufacturing Automation: Employment, Education, and the Workplace
- The Contact Lens Industry: Structure, Competition, and Public Policy
- Directed Energy Missile Defense in Space
- Effects of Information Technology on Financial Services Systems
- Environmental Protection in the Federal Coal Leasing Program
- Federal Policies and the Medical Devices Industry
- The Hemodialysis Equipment and Disposables Industry
- Human Gene Therapy
- Impacts of Neuroscience
- Intensive Care Units (ICUs): Clinical Outcomes, Costs, and Decisionmaking
- The Market for Wheelchairs: Innovations and Federal Policy
- Medical Technology and the Costs of the Medicare Program
- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technology: A Clinical, Industrial, and Policy Analysis
- Nuclear Power in an Age of Uncertainty
- Protecting the Nation’s Groundwater from Contamination-Vol. I
- Protecting the Nation’s Groundwater from Contamination-Vol. II
- Remote Sensing and the Private Sector: Issues for Discussion
- Review of Postal Automation Strategy: A Technical and Decision Analysis
- Technologies To Sustain Forest Resources
- Technology and the Future of the U.S. Construction Industry
- Technology, Innovation, and Regional Economic Development
- Technology, Renewable Resources, and American Crafts
- Technology Transfer to the Middle East
- U.S. Vulnerability to an Oil Import Curtailment
- Update of Federal Activities Regarding the Use of Pneumococcal Vaccine
- Wetlands: Their Use and Regulation
- Wood Use: U.S. Competitiveness and Technology-Vol. II
1983
- Agricultural Postharvest Technology and Marketing Economics Research
- Annual Report to the Congress for 1982
- An Assessment of Maritime Trade and Technology
- Assistive Devices for Severe Speech Impairments
- Automation and the Workplace: Selected Labor, Education, and Training Issues
- Census of State Government Initiatives for High-Technology Industrial Development
- Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) and the Medicare Program: Implications for Medical Technology
- The Effectiveness and Costs of Alcoholism Treatment
- Encouraging High-Technology Development
- Habitability of the Love Canal Area: An Analysis of the Technical Basis for the Decision on the Habitability of the Emergency Declaration Area
- The Impact of Randomized Clinical Trials on Health Policy and Medical Practice
- Industrial and Commercial Cogeneration
- Industrial Energy Use
- The Information Content of Premanufacture Notices
- International Competitiveness in Electronics
- Plants: The Potential for Extracting Protein, Medicines, and Other Useful Chemicals
- Quality and Relevance of Research and Related Activities at the Gorges Memorial Laboratory
- The Role of Genetic Testing in the Prevention of Occupational Diseases
- The Safety, Efficacy, and Cost Effectiveness of Therapeutic Apheresis
- SALYUT: Soviet Steps Toward Permanent Human Presence in Space
- Scientific Validity of Polygraph Testing: A Research Review and Evaluation
- Sustaining Tropical Forest Resources: Reforestation of Degraded Lands
- Sustaining Tropical Forest Resources: U.S. and International Institutions
- Technologies and Management Strategies for Hazardous Waste Control
- Technology and East-West Trade: An Update
- Technology and Learning Disabilities
- U.S. Natural Gas Availability: Conventional Gas Supply Through the Year 2000
- U.S. Passenger Rail Technologies
- UNISPACE ’82: A Context for International Cooperation and Competition
- Variations in Hospital Length of Stay: Their Relationship to Health Outcomes
- Water-Related Technologies for Sustainable Agriculture in Arid/Semiarid Lands: Selected Foreign Experience
- Water-Related Technologies for Sustainable Agriculture in U.S. Arid/Semiarid Lands
- Wood Use: U.S. Competitiveness and Technology-Vol. I
1982
- The Air Cargo System
- Air Service to Small Communities
- Airport and Air Traffic Control System
- Annual Report to the Congress for 1981
- The Artificial Heart: Costs, Risks, and Benefits
- An Assessment of Alternatives for a National Computerized Criminal History System
- Cardiac Radionuclide Imaging and Cost Effectiveness
- Civilian Space Policy and Applications
- Energy Efficiency of Buildings in Cities
- Environmental Issues of Synthetic Transportation Fuels From Coal
- Exploratory Workshop on the Social Impacts of Robotics: Summary and Issues
- Financing and Program Alternatives for Advanced High-Speed Aircraft
- Four Common X-Ray Procedures: Problems and Prospects for Economic Evaluation
- Global Models, World Futures, and Public Policy: A Critique
- Impacts of Technology on U.S. Cropland and Rangeland Productivity
- Implications of Electronic Mail and Message Systems for the U.S. Postal Service
- Increased Automobile Fuel Efficiency and Synthetic Fuels: Alternatives for Reducing Oil Imports
- Informational Technology and Its Impact on American Education
- Mandatory Passive Restraint Systems in Automobiles: Issues and Evidence
- Medical Technology Under Proposals To Increase Competition in Health Care
- MEDLARS and Health Information Policy
- Postmarketing Surveillance of Prescription Drugs
- Radiofrequency Use and Management: Impacts From the World Administrative Radio Conference of 1979
- Review of the FAA 1982 National Airspace System Plan
- Selected Electronic Funds Transfer Issues: Privacy, Security, and Equity
- Selected Technical and Economic Comparisons of Synfuel Options
- Selected Telecommunications Devices for Hearing-Impaired Persons
- Space Science Research in the United States
- Strategies for Medical Technology Assessment
- Synthetic Fuels for Transportation: The Future Potential of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles
- Technology and Handicapped People
- Technology Transfer at the National Institutes of Health
- Use of Models for Water Resources Management, Planning, and Policy
- Water Availability for Synthetic Fuels: An Assessment of Current Studies
- World Population and Fertility Planning Technologies: The Next 20 Years
1981
- Allocating Costs and Benefits in Disease Prevention Programs: An Application to Cervical Cancer Screening
- Annual Report to the Congress for 1980
- Assessing Selected Respiratory Therapy Modalities: Trends and Relative Costs in the Washington, D.C., Area
- An Assessment of Development and Production Potential of Federal Coal Leases
- Assessment of Technologies for Determining Cancer Risks From the Environment
- An Assessment of Technology for Local Development
- An Assessment of the United States Food and Agricultural Research System
- Benefit-And-Cost Analysis of Medical Interventions: The Case of Cimetidine and Peptic Ulcer Disease
- Coal Exports and Port Development Computer-Based National Information Systems: Technology and Public Policy Issues
- Cost Benefit/Cost Effectiveness of Medical Technologies: A Case Study of Orthopedic Joint Implants
- Cost Effectiveness of Automated Multichannel Chemistry Analyzers
- The Cost Effectiveness of Bone Marrow Transplant Therapy and Its Policy Implications
- Cost Effectiveness of Influenza Vaccination
- The Cost Effectiveness of Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
- The Costs and Effectiveness of Neonatal Intensive Care
- The Costs and Effectiveness of Nurse Practitioners
- Elective Hysterectomy: Costs, Risks, and Benefits
- The Feasibility of Economic Evaluation of Diagnostic Procedures: The Case of CT Scanning
- Formal Analysis, Policy Formulation, and End-Stage Renal Disease
- Impacts of Applied Genetics: Micro-Organisms, Plants, and Animals
- MX Missile Basing
- Nonnuclear Industrial Hazardous Waste: Classifying for Hazard Management
- Nuclear Powerplant Standardization: Light Water Reactors
- Patent-Term Extension and the Pharmaceutical Industry
- Patterns and Trends in Federal Coal Lease Ownership, 1950-80
- Periodontal Disease: Assessing the Effectiveness and Costs of the Keyes Technique
- Policy Implications of the Computed Tomography (CT) Scanner: An Update
- Screening for Colon Cancer: A Technology Assessment
- Solar Power Satellites
- Surgery for Breast Cancer
- Technology and Oceanography: An Assessment of Federal Technologies for Oceanographic Research and Monitoring
- Technology and Soviet Energy Availability
- U.S. Industrial Competitiveness: A Comparison of Steel, Electronics, and Automobiles
1980
- Advanced High-Speed Aircraft
- Alternative Energy Futures: Part I-The Future of Liquefied Natural Gas Imports
- Annual Report to the Congress for 1979
- An Assessment of Oil Shale Technologies
- Assessment of Oil Shale Technologies-Vol. II: A History and Analysis of the Federal Prototype Oil Shale Leasing Program
- Compensation for Vaccine-Related Injuries
- Conservation and Solar Energy Programs of the Department of Energy: A Critique
- Criteria for Evaluating the Implementation Plan Required By the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977
- The Efficacy and Cost Effectiveness of Psychotherapy
- Energy From Biological Processes
- Energy from Biological Processes: Volume II-Technical and Environmental Analyses
- Forecasts of Physician Supply and Requirements Impact of Advanced Group Rapid Transit Technology
- The Implications of Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Medical Technology
- The Implications of Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Medical Technology: Methodological Issues and Literature Review
- Issues and Options in Flood Hazards Management
- The Management of Health Care Technology in Ten Countries
- Ocean Margin Drilling
- Proceedings of the OTA Seminar on the Discrete Address Beacon System (DABS)
- Recent Developments in Ocean Thermal Energy
- Taggants in Explosives
- Technology and Steel Industry Competitiveness
- U.S. Disaster Assistance to Developing Countries: Lessons Applicable to U.S. Domestic Disaster Programs
- World Petroleum Availability 1980-2000