OTA Reports, 1985 – 1989

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.

 

1989

1. Adolescent Health Insurance Status: Analyses of Trends in Coverage and Preliminary Estimates of the Effects of an Employer Mandate and Medicaid Expansion on the Uninsured
2. Advanced Vehicle/Highway Systems and Urban Traffic Problems
3. Assessing Contractor Use in Superfund
4. Big Dumb Boosters: A Low-Cost Space Transportation Option?
5. Biological Effects of Power Frequency Electric and Magnetic Fields
6. Catching Our Breath: Next Steps for Reducing Urban Ozone
7. Coming Clean: Superfund Problems Can Be Solved
8. Competition in Coastal Seas: An Evaluation of Foreign Maritime Activities in the 200-Mile EEZ
9. The Containment of Underground Nuclear Explosions
10. Copyright and Home Copying: Technology Challenges the Law
11. Costs and Effectiveness of Cholesterol Screening in the Elderly
12. Defining “Rural” Areas: Impact on Health Care Policy and Research
13. Electric Power Wheeling and Dealing: Technological Considerations for Increasing Competition
14. Enhancing the Quality of U.S. Grain for International Trade
15. Facing America’s Trash: What Next for Municipal Solid Waste?
16. Federal Scientific and Technical Information in an Electronic Age: Opportunities and Challenges
17. Grain Quality in International Trade: A Comparison of Major U.S. Competitors
18. High-Performance Computing and Networking for Science 8918.PDF
19. Higher Education for Science and Engineering
20. Holding the Edge: Maintaining the Defense Technology Base
21. Linking for Learning: A New Course for Education
22. New Developments in Biotechnology: Patenting Life-Special Report
23. Oil Production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: The Technology and the Alaskan Oil Context
24. Partnerships Under Pressure: Managing Commercial Low-Level Radioactive Waste
25. Performance Standards for Secondary School Vocational Education
26. Polar Prospects: A Minerals Treaty for Antarctica
27. Round Trip to Orbit: Human Spaceflight Alternatives
28. Rural Emergency Medical Services
29. Safer Skies with TCAS: Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System-A Special Report
30. Statistical Needs for a Changing U.S. Economy
31. Technologies for Reducing Dioxin in the Manufacture of Bleached Wood Pulp
32. Technology Transfer to the United States: The MIT-Japan Science and Technology Program
33. The Use of Preventive Services by the Elderly

 

1988

1. Advanced Materials by Design
2. AIDS and Health Insurance: An OTA Survey
3. Are We Cleaning Up? 10 Superfund Case Studies
4. Artificial Insemination: Practice in the United States: Summary of a 1987 Survey
5. Biology, Medicine, and the Bill of Rights
6. Book Preservation Technologies
7. Commercializing High-Temperature Superconductivity
8. Copper: Technology and Competitiveness
9. Criminal Justice, New Technologies, and the Constitution
10. The Defense Technology Base: Introduction and Overview
11. Educating Scientists and Engineers: Grade School to Grad School
12. Electronic Delivery of Public Assistance Benefits: Technology Options and Policy Issues
13. Elementary and Secondary Education for Science and Engineering
14. Enhancing Agriculture in Africa: A Role for U.S. Development Assistance
15. An Evaluation of Options for Managing Greater-Than-Class-C Low-Level Radioactive Waste
16. Gearing Up for Safety: Motor Carrier Safety in a Competitive Environment
17. Grassroots Development: The African Development Foundation
18. Healthy Children: Investing in the Future
19. How Effective Is AIDS Education?
20. The Impact of AIDS on the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program (Northern California Region)
21. Infertility: Medical and Social Choices
22. Informing the Nation: Federal Information Dissemination in an Electronic Age
23. Institutional Protocols for Decisions About Life-Sustaining Treatments
24. Issues in Medical Waste Management
25. Launch Options for the Future: A Buyer’s Guide
26. Mapping Our Genes-Genome Projects: How Big? How Fast?
27. Medical Testing and Health Insurance
28. New Developments in Biotechnology: Field-Testing Engineered Organisms: Genetic and Ecological Issues
29. New Developments in Biotechnology: U.S. Investment in Biotechnology
30. Paying the Bill: Manufacturing and America’s Trade Deficit
31. Pesticide Residues in Food: Technologies for Detection
32. Power On! New Tools for Teaching and Learning
33. The Quality of Medical Care: Information for Consumers
34. Reducing Launch Operation Costs: New Technologies and Practices
35. Safe Skies for Tomorrow: Aviation Safety in a Competitive Environment
36. Science, Technology, and the First Amendment
37. Screening for Open-Angle Glaucoma in the Elderly
38. SDI: Technology, Survivability, and Software
39. Seismic Verification of Nuclear Testing Treaties
40. Technology and the American Economic Transition: Choices for the Future
41. Urban Ozone and the Clean Air Act: Problems and Proposals for Change
42. Using Desalination Technologies for Water Treatment

 

1987

1. Aid to Developing Countries: The Technology/Ecology Fit
2. The Border War on Drugs
3. Commercial Newsgathering From Space
4. Construction and Materials Research and Development for the Nation’s Public Works
5. The Costs of AIDS and Other HIV Infections: Review of the Estimates
6. Defending Secrets, Sharing Data: New Locks and Keys for Electronic Information
7. Do Insects Transmit AIDS?
8. The Electronic Supervisor: New Technology, New Tensions
9. From Pollution to Prevention: A Progress Report on Waste Reduction
10. Hospital Information Systems at the Veterans Administration
11. Identifying and Regulating Carcinogens
12. Integrated Renewable Resource Management for U.S. Insular Areas
13. International Competition in Services: Banking, Building, Software, Know-How
14. Life-Sustaining Technologies and the Elderly
15. Losing a Million Minds: Confronting the Tragedy of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias
16. Marine Minerals: Exploring Our New Ocean Frontier
17. Neonatal Intensive Care for Low Birthweight Infants: Costs and Effectiveness
18. New Developments in Biotechnology: Ownership of Human Tissues and Cells
19. New Developments in Biotechnology: Public Perceptions of Biotechnology
20. New Technology for NATO: Implementing Follow-On Forces Attack
21. Preparing for Science and Engineering Careers: Field Level Profiles
22. Science, Technology, and the Constitution
23. Starpower: The U.S. and the International Quest for Fusion Energy
24. State Educational Testing Practices
25. Technologies for the Preservation of Prehistoric and Historic Landscapes
26. Technologies for Underwater Archaeology and Maritime Preservation
27. Technologies To Maintain Biological Diversity
28. Technology Dependent Children: Hospital Vs. Home Care
29. Technology Transfer to China
30. Trade Adjustment Assistance: New Ideas for an Old Program
31. Trends and Status of Computers in Schools: Use in Chapter 1 Programs and Use With Limited English Proficient Students
32. U.S. Oil Production: The Effect of Low Oil Prices
33. The U.S. Textile and Apparel Industry: A Revolution in Progress
34. Wastes in Marine Environments

 

1986

1. Alternatives to Animal Use in Research, Testing, and Education
2. Annual Report to the Congress: Fiscal Year 1985
3. Assessing Biological Diversity in the United States: Data Considerations
4. Children’s Mental Health: Problems and Services
5. Continuing the Commitment: Agricultural Development in the Sahel
6. Effects of Federal Policies on Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy
7. Electronic Record Systems and Individual Privacy
8. Federal Government Information Technology: Management, Security, and Congressional Oversight
9. Grassroots Conservation of Biological Diversity in the United States
10. Hearing Impairment and Elderly People
11. Indian Health Care
12. Intellectual Property Rights in an Age of Electronics and Information
13. Marine Applications for Fuel Cell Technology
14. Microelectronics Research and Development
15. New Structural Materials Technologies: Opportunities for the Use of Advanced Ceramics and Composites
16. Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and Certified Nurse-Midwives: A Policy Analysis
17. Ocean Incineration: Its Role in Managing Hazardous Waste
18. Passive Smoking in the Workplace: Selected Issues
19. Payment for Physician Services: Strategies for Medicare
20. Plant Closing: Advance Notice and Rapid Response
21. Potential Effects of Section 3 of the Federal Coal Leasing Amendments Act of 1976
22. The Regulatory Environment for Science
23. Research Funding as an Investment: Can We Measure the Returns?
24. A Review of U.S. Competitiveness in Agricultural Trade
25. Scientific Equipment for Undergraduates: Is It Adequate?
26. Serious Reduction of Hazardous Waste: for Pollution Prevention and Industrial Efficiency
27. The Social Security Administration and Information Technology
28. Space Stations and the Law: Selected Legal Issues
29. Supercomputers: Government Plans and Policies
30. Technologies for Detecting Heritable Mutations in Human Beings
31. Technologies for NATO’s Follow-On Forces Attack Concept
32. Technologies for Prehistoric and Historic Preservation
33. Technology and Structural Unemployment: Reemploying Displaced Adults
34. Technology, Public Policy, and the Changing Structure of American Agriculture
35. Technology, Trade, and the U.S. Residential Construction Industry
36. Trade in Services: Exports and Foreign Revenues
37. Transportation of Hazardous Materials
38. Transportation of Hazardous Materials: State and Local Activities
39. Western Surface Mine Permitting and Reclamation

 

1985

1. Alternative Approaches to Cargo Policy: A Supplement to an Assessment of Maritime Trade and Technology
2. Annual Report to the Congress: Fiscal Year 1984
3. Anti-Satellite Weapons, Countermeasures, and Arms Control
4. Automation of America’s Offices, 1985-2000
5. Ballistic Missile Defense Technologies
6. Blood Policy and Technology
7. The Cost Effectiveness of Digital Subtraction Angiography in the Diagnosis of Cerebrovascular Disease
8. Demographic Trends and the Scientific and Engineering Workforce
9. Displaced Homemakers: Programs and Policy
10. The Effectiveness and Costs of Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD)
11. Electronic Surveillance and Civil Liberties
12. Energy Technology Transfer to China
13. Information Technology R&D: Critical Trends and Issues
14. Innovative Biological Technologies for Lesser Developed Countries
15. International Cooperation and Competition in Civilian Space Activities
16. Managing the Nation’s Commercial High-Level Radioactive Waste
17. Medical Devices and the Veterans Administration
18. Medicare’s Prospective Payment System: Strategies for Evaluating Cost, Quality, and Medical Technology
19. New Electric Power Technologies: Problems and Prospects for the 1990s
20. Oil and Gas Technologies for the Arctic and Deepwater
21. Preventing Illness and Injury in the Workplace
22. R&D in the Maritime Industry: A Supplement to an Assessment of Maritime Trade and Technology
23. Reproductive Health Hazards in the Workplace
24. Reproductive Health Hazards in the Workplace: Selected Aspects of Reproductive Health Hazards Regulations
25. Review of the Public Health Service’s Response to AIDS
26. Status of Biomedical Research and Related Technology for Tropical Diseases
27. Strategic Materials: Technologies To Reduce U.S. Import Vulnerability
28. Superfund Strategy
29. Technologies for Managing Urinary Incontinence
30. Technologies To Benefit Agriculture and Wildlife
31. Technology and Aging in America
32. Technology, Public Policy, and the Changing Structure of American Agriculture: A Special Report for the 1985 Farm Bill
33. U.S. Natural Gas Availability: Gas Supply Through the Year 2000
34. U.S.-Soviet Cooperation in Space

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