Steven Holt: “I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Washington State (Mr. McDermott), who observed the OTA in action in…”

“I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Washington State (Mr. McDermott), who observed the OTA in action in his time here in Congress. Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Chairman, I was one of the 16 people who was on that committee. It used to be a committee with four Republicans from the Senate and four Republicans from the House, four Democrats from the Senate and four Democrats from the House. It was a balanced committee. It looked at the technological questions of what we are spending billions of dollars on. Now we have a choice of where we get our information. The GAO looks backward. All of the government organizations look backward. They don't look forward. That is not their role to imagine what will happen out there. What we need is an organization that can look forward as we proceed to spend billions of dollars in technology. We can either get the information from a nonpartisan organization that is controlled evenly by both sides of the House and the other body, or we could go to industry. They will come in here, and they will give us all of the information of their having the best thing since sliced bread. I think we need the OTA, and I urge you to adopt the amendment.”