On the recordJune 10, 2016
I rise in support of the amendment to revive the Office of Technology Assessment. When I was chair of the subcommittee, we tried to restart it within the Government Accountability Office. In fiscal years 2008 to 2010, I included $2.5 million in this bill with GAO to support that initiative. However, the supporters of the amendment make an impassioned case that the Office of Technology Assessment should be a part of Congress itself, rather than GAO, in order to provide objective analysis of complex, scientific, and technical issues which certainly, I think we can all agree, actually exist today. We are not trying to go back to 20th century technology. We have important issues that need to be reviewed, and we don't always have the expertise in Congress necessary to be able to make sure we can get that cogent analysis, particularly when we are still at funding levels back to 2010 in the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill. This is a bill in which we are tackling copyright modernization, specifically dealing with technology challenges, and an OTA would add to the rigor of our analysis on that topic and others. I urge support of the amendment.
