Upgrading the Office of Tech Assessment

With Congress inching toward reopening its long-shuttered Office of Technology Assessment, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation to fix what critics say were the office’s flaws back before it was defunded by Newt Gingrich-led Republicans in the 1990s. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Reps. Mark Takano (D-CA) and Bill Foster (D-IL) are sponsoring the bill, aimed at addressing complaints that OTA — designed to equip Congress with technical expertise — moved too slowly, was too political, duplicated work being done by other agencies, and failed to serve the research needs of rank-and-file members. The measure would also rename the shop the “Congressional Office of Technology.” Congress's struggles to regulate companies like Google, Facebook and Apple are revving up interest in a rebooted OTA, with the topic even making it onto the presidential campaign trail. Democratic candidate and entrepreneur Andrew Yang was asked whether the federal government is up to the task of acting as a check on Silicon Valley. Nope, said Yang: "We are 25 years behind on technology, and I know this, because we got rid of the Office of Technology Assessment in 1995.”