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.
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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.
1992
After the Cold War: Living With Lower Defense Spending- Alaskan Water for California?: The Subsea Pipeline Option
- Annual Report to the Congress: Fiscal Year 1991
- The Biology of Mental Disorders
- Building Energy Efficiency
- Building Future Security: Strategies for Restructuring the Defense Technology and Industrial Base
- The CDC’s Case Definition of AIDS: Implications of Proposed Revisions
- Combined Summaries: Technologies To Sustain Tropical Forest Resources and Biological Diversity
- Cystic Fibrosis and DNA Tests: Implications of Carrier Screening
- Difficult-To-Reuse Needles for the Prevention of HIV Infection Among Injecting Drug Abusers
- Disposal of Chemical Weapons: Alternative Technologies
- Do Medicaid and Medicare Patients Sue More Often Than Other Patients?
- Does Health Insurance Make a Difference?
- Evaluation of the Oregon Medicaid Proposal
- Federal and Private Roles in the Development and Provision of Alglucerase Therapy for Gaucher Disease
- Finding a Balance: Computer Software, Intellectual Property and the Challenge of Technological Change
- Forest Service Planning: Accommodating Uses, Producing Outputs, and Sustaining Ecosystems
- Fueling Development: Energy Technologies for Developing Countries
- Genetic Counseling and Cystic Fibrosis Carrier Screening: Results of a Survey
- Genetic Tests and Health Insurance: Results of a Survey
- Global Standards: Building Blocks for the Future
- Green Products by Design: Choices for a Cleaner Environment
- Home Drug Infusion Therapy Under Medicare
- Identifying and Controlling Pulmonary Toxicants
- Lessons in Restructuring Defense Industry: The French Experience
- Managing Industrial Solid Wastes From Manufacturing, Mining, Oil and Gas Production, and Utility Coal Combustion
- The Menopause, Hormone Therapy, and Women’s Health
- Monitoring Limits on Sea-Launched Cruise Missiles
- NASA’s Office of Space Science and Applications: Process, Priorities and Goals
- A New Technological Era for American Agriculture
- Performance Standards for the Food Stamp Employment and Training Program
- Police Body Armor Standards and Testing, Vol. I
- Police Body Armor Standards and Testing, Vol. II-Appendixes
- Remotely Sensed Data From Space: Distribution, Pricing, and Applications
- Retiring Old Cars: Programs To Save Gasoline and Reduce Emissions
- Science and Technology Issues in Coastal Ecotourism
- Special Care Units for People With Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias: Consumer Education, Research, Regulatory, and Reimbursement Issues
- Technology Against Terrorism: Structuring Security
- Testing in American Schools: Asking the Right Questions
- Trade and Environment: Conflicts and Opportunities
- U.S. Banks and International Telecommunications
- U.S.-Mexico Trade: Pulling Together or Pulling Apart?
1991
- The 1992 World Administrative Radio Conference: Issues for U.S. International Spectrum Policy
- Adjusting to a New Security Environment: The Defense Technology and Industrial Base Challenge
- Adolescent Health, Vol. I: Summary and Policy Options
- Adolescent Health, Vol. II: Background and the Effectiveness of Selected Prevention and Treatment Services
- Adolescent Health, Vol. III: Crosscutting Issues in the Delivery of Health and Related Services
- Agricultural Commodities as Industrial Raw Materials
- American Military Power: Future Needs, Future Choices
- Automated Record Checks for Firearm Purchasers: Issues and Options
- Biological Rhythms: Implications for the Worker
- Bioremediation for Marine Oil Spills
- Biotechnology in a Global Economy
- Changing by Degrees: Steps To Reduce Greenhouse Gases
- Competing Economies: America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim
- Complex Cleanup: The Environmental Legacy of Nuclear Weapons Production
- Delivering the Goods: Public Works Technologies, Management, and Financing
- Dioxin Treatment Technologies
- Energy Efficiency in the Federal Government: Government by Good Example?
- Energy in Developing Countries
- Energy Technology Choices: Shaping Our Future
- Exploring the Moon and Mars: Choices for the Nation
- The FBI Fingerprint Identification Automation Program: Issues and Options
- Federally Funded Research: Decisions for a Decade
- Global Arms Trade: Commerce in Advanced Military Technology and Weapons
- HIV in the Health Care Workplace
- Identifying and Controlling Immunotoxic Substances
- Improving Automobile Fuel Economy: New Standards, New Approaches
- Long-Lived Legacy: Managing High-Level and Transuranic Waste at the DOE Nuclear Weapons Complex
- Medical Monitoring and Screening in the Workplace: Results of a Survey
- Miniaturization Technologies
- Moving Ahead: 1991 Surface Transportation Legislation
- New Opportunities for U.S. Universities in Development Assistance: Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Environment
- New Ways: Tiltrotor Aircraft and Magnetically Levitated Vehicles 9132.PDF
- Outpatient Immunosuppressive Drugs Under Medicare
- Redesigning Defense: Planning the Transition to the Future U.S. Defense Industrial Base
- Review of a Protocol for a Study of Reproductive Health Outcomes Among Women Vietnam Veterans
- Rural America at the Crossroads: Networking for the Future
- Screening Mammography in Primary Care Settings: Implications for Cost Access and Quality
- Seeking Solutions: High Performance Computing for Science
- Technology Against Terrorism: The Federal Effort
- U.S. Dairy Industry at a Crossroad: Biotechnology and Policy Choices
- U.S. Oil Import Vulnerability: The Technical Replacement Capability
- Verification Technologies: Cooperative Aerial Surveillance in International Agreements
- Verification Technologies: Managing Research and Development for Cooperative Arms Control Monitoring Measures
1990
- Access to Space: The Future of U.S. Space Transportation Systems
- Affordable Spacecraft: Design and Launch Alternatives
- Agricultural Research and Technology Transfer Policies for the 1990s
- Arming Our Allies: Cooperation and Competition in Defense Technology
- Beneath the Bottom Line: Agricultural Approaches To Reduce Agrichemical Contamination of Groundwater
- The Big Picture: HDTV and High-Resolution Systems
- Children’s Dental Services Under the Medicaid Program
- Computer Software and Intellectual Property
- Confused Minds, Burdened Families: Finding Help for People With Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias
- Coping With an Oiled Sea
- The Costs and Effectiveness of Cervical Cancer Screening in Elderly Women
- Costs and Effectiveness of Colorectal Cancer Screening in the Elderly
- Critical Connections: Communication for the Future
- The Effectiveness of Drug Abuse Treatment: Implications for Controlling AIDS/HIV Infection
- Electronic Bulls and Bears: U.S. Securities Markets and Information Technology
- Energy Use and the U.S. Economy
- Evaluating Defense Department Research
- Finding the Rx for Managing Medical Wastes
- Forest Service Planning: Setting Strategic Direction Under RPA
- Genetic Monitoring and Screening in the Workplace
- Genetic Witness: Forensic Uses of DNA Tests
- Health Care in Rural America
- Helping America Compete: The Role of Federal Scientific and Technical Information
- High-Temperature Superconductivity in Perspective
- Holding the Edge: Maintaining the Defense Technology Base-Vol. II, Appendices
- How Has Federal Research on AIDS/HIV Disease Contributed to Other Fields?
- Indian Adolescent Mental Health
- Making Things Better: Competing in Manufacturing
- Neural Grafting: Repairing the Brain and Spinal Cord
- Neurotoxicity: Identifying and Controlling Poisons of the Nervous System
- Nonferrous Metals: Industry Structure
- Orbiting Debris: A Space Environmental Problem
- Physical Vulnerability of Electric Systems to Natural Disasters and Sabotage
- Plague of Locusts-Special Report
- Preventive Health Services for Medicare Beneficiaries: Policy and Research Issues
- Proposal Pressure in the 1980s: An Indicator of Stress on the Federal Research System
- Rebuilding the Foundations: A Special Report on State and Local Public Works Financing and Management
- Recombinant Erythropoietin: Payment Options for Medicare
- Replacing Gasoline: Alternative Fuels for Light-Duty Vehicles
- Royalty Management Program’s Auditing and Financial System: Technical Issues
- Trading Around the Clock: Global Securities Markets and Information Technology
- Unconventional Cancer Treatments
- The Use of Integrity Tests for Pre-Employment Screening
- Verification Technologies: Measures for Monitoring Compliance with the START Treaty
- Worker Training: Competing in the New International Economy
