5. OTA's work is used in the legislative process in a variety of ways. Besides the direct flow of formal reports and summaries, testimony, and briefings to Committees and Members, OTA staff often are asked to assist Committee staff in preparing materials for hearings or other Committee actions on subject matters related to current or recent OTA assessments. 6. In addition, OTA reports are sold to the public by GPO. They are frequently reprinted by commercial publishers, used as texts in universities, and are widely used by the print media in providing information to the public. 7. OTA, with its broad technical expertise, serves as a "shared staff" to the Committees of both Senate and House. Many of OTA's studies are carried out in response to requests and expressions of interest from more than one Committee because the issues they contain usually lie within the jurisdiction of several Committees. For example, the requesters for Technologies for Sustaining Tropical Forest Resources include the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, with endorsements from the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs (Subcommittee on Insular Affairs) and the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (Subcommittee on Environmental Pollution). For the Commercial Development of Biotechnology, requesters include the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, the House Committee on Science and Technology, and the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. High-level Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal requesters include the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, the House Committee on Science and Technology, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The recently-completed assessment on Technology and Soviet Energy Availability was conducted for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and the House Committee on Science and Technology. 8. OTA's reports have been found to have long-lasting value. To the extent that OTA can get a head start by anticipating heightened interest in a technology or importance of an issue and starting advance work on it, the Congress is even better served. Frequently, OTA studies have reached completion just as an issue has come to the forefront of national attention. For example, OTA's work on Technology and Soviet Energy Availability, which required 18 months from request to publication, was delivered to Congress (November 1981) in time to make a major contribution to the debate over the Soviet gas pipeline to Western Europe. Its work on Managing Commercial HighLevel Radioactive Waste is currently being extensively used in both Senate and House Committees. 9. As specified in its statute, OTA makes extensive use of information from the private sector as well as from government sources. For each assessment, we emphasize the process of pulling together and analyzing information from diverse sources. Help is sought from all the major viewpoints and economic interests concerned with a particular issue. OTA then analyzes and prepares a comprehensive report which goes through an intensive internal and external review process to assure quality, accuracy, and objectivity. During 1981, more than 2000 different experts gave assistance to OTA in its work. This process guarantees that OTA fully draws upon, but does not duplicate, the work of others in industry, academia, and government. (B) Purpose and Function of OTA OTA under its statute is charged with providing Congress with expert, unbiased, and timely information concerning the potential impacts of technologies, programs, and policies relating to science and technology. OTA's role as the analytical arm of Congress on technology is now more necessary than ever before as the United States relies increasingly on technological innovation to strengthen national security, foster economic growth, and assure human health and a healthful, safe environment. The function of OTA is to help Congress understand complex scientific and technological issues and provide both insight and foresight about how present and emerging technologies may affect or be affected by government policy. OTA does not take sides or recommend specific policy actions to the Congress; rather it analyzes alternative Federal policy responses and their respective implications. OTA's aim is to help focus the policy debate by making the facts clear and the implications of choices explicit. This contributes to resolution of policy issues. (C) OTA's Performance An evaluation of OTA's performance ultimately rests on the answer to four basic questions: (1) Does OTA address important national issues important to Congress now or within a few years? (2) What is the quality of OTA work: is it reliable, authoritative, and fair? (3) How useful is OTA to the Congress? (4) Does OTA have an impact on national policy? These questions are addressed below: Importance of Issues There is no dispute that issues such as the international competitiveness of U.S. industries, MX missile basing, the productivity of American farm and rangeland, the future for synthetic fuels, hazardous waste management, the use and availability of fresh water for agriculture, and the impact of computer and telecommunication technology are of critical national Not coincidentally, they all involve major controversies. importance. Quality To assure quality (that is, reliability, accuracy, comprehensiveness, and fairness), OTA depends on the wisdom of its Congressional Board and Advisory Council; the expertise of its staff, contractors, and advisors; and upon an extensive formal review process involving OTA management and staff, project advisory panels, and numerous outside experts. The result has been nearly 10 years of existence free from serious factual or analytical error or sustainable criticism of bias in OTA reports. The quality of OTA's work is suggested indirectly by the following observations: (1) GPO sales of OTA reports are running at an average of $200,000 a year. (OTA makes only very limited numbers of its reports addressed, OTA has done its job. By this key criterion numerous OTA studies have had a substantial impact. A few recent examples include OTA's work on Soviet energy, high-level nuclear waste management and disposal, air traffic control, cancer risks from the environment, patent term restoration, atmospheric alterations, coal exports, U.S. Food and Agricultural Research, the World Administrative Radio Conference, solar power satellites, standardization of nuclear reactors, direct uses of coal, nuclear proliferation, enhanced oil recovery, and the competitiveness of U.S. steel, automobile, and electronics industries in international markets. I find these Mr. Chairman, as we have pointed out in our budget document, during FY 1981, I met with 22 Senators and 19 Representatives to discuss OTA activities in general and the Members' interests in OTA in particular. meetings extremely valuable as indications of what issues the Congress sees as important and as a source of direct feedback to these Members on OTA's current activities and future plans. (In We receive frequent requests to testify at Congressional hearings. 1981, I or members of my staff testified a total of 37 times before 8 House and 9 Senate Committees.) We have testified 22 times since the beginning of the second session. In addition, we receive regular inquiries from Congressional offices and Committees concerning issues that are the subject of past or current OTA work. These requests result primarily in briefings, presentations, and informal discussions with Committee Members and staff. Similar communications are being developed and strengthened with the National Academies, science and advisory groups within the Executive Branch, and a broad array of groups in the private and public interest sector. Further evidence of the growing impact of OTA is the widespread use by state and local governments of OTA work and the close attention paid to it by foreign governments. In 1981, for example, hardly a week passed without a visit to OTA by a senior official or delegation from a foreign government. Government institutions analogous to OTA have been established in France, Great Britain, and Mexico, and are under active consideration in Germany, Sweden, Japan, and elsewhere. appendices. In order to accurately convey the essential results, careful summaries (including one-page executive summaries) of these assessments are prepared. In addition, 35 to 40 Technical Memoranda, Background Papers, and staff memoranda are prepared annually. These products average 50 pages. OTA testifies an average of once a week at Committee hearings when Congress is in session. In addition, OTA conducts many briefings for Committee staff. Twelve different Senate and eleven different House Committees plus numerous Subcommittees were recipients of one or more OTA written products during 1981. Finally, there is a great deal of telephone and face-to-face informal communication with Members and Committee staffers directly concerning the contents of both ongoing and completed assessments (estimated at 100-200 per week when Congress is in session). There is As of May 6, 1982, OTA had 32 formal assessments in process. an ever-increasing demand for testimony, briefings, staff papers, and other assessment-related information. OTA is constantly evaluating which questions and issues it should respond to and which should be referred to its sister agencies. We also have received expressions of interest for many new studies, mostly dealing with foresight issues and technologies, which we view as a backlog of priority work. Impact OTA's responsibility is not to try to tell Members of Congress how or what to legislate, but rather to provide information that will help Members to make more informed judgments on issues related to science and technology. OTA does not recommend particular courses of action; rather it seeks to identify the issues, develop viable policy alternatives, and spell out the consequences that will attend the various choices. Consequently, OTA's most valuable contribution is to help Congress establish the terms of reference, narrow the focus of the debate, explain technical controversies that cannot be resolved with existing data, separate the important from the trivial, and distinguish what is feasible and factual from what is impractical and incorrect. If OTA's analyses become part of the language of discourse in the Congress and at senior levels elsewhere in the Government as major issues are |