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.
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.
1989
Adolescent Health Insurance Status: Analyses of Trends in Coverage and Preliminary Estimates of the Effects of an Employer Mandate and Medicaid Expansion on the Uninsured
Advanced Vehicle/Highway Systems and Urban Traffic Problems
Assessing Contractor Use in Superfund
Big Dumb Boosters: A Low-Cost Space Transportation Option?
Biological Effects of Power Frequency Electric and Magnetic Fields
Catching Our Breath: Next Steps for Reducing Urban Ozone
Coming Clean: Superfund Problems Can Be Solved
Competition in Coastal Seas: An Evaluation of Foreign Maritime Activities in the 200-Mile EEZ
The Containment of Underground Nuclear Explosions
Copyright and Home Copying: Technology Challenges the Law
Costs and Effectiveness of Cholesterol Screening in the Elderly
Defining “Rural” Areas: Impact on Health Care Policy and Research
Electric Power Wheeling and Dealing: Technological Considerations for Increasing Competition
Enhancing the Quality of U.S. Grain for International Trade
Facing America’s Trash: What Next for Municipal Solid Waste?
Federal Scientific and Technical Information in an Electronic Age: Opportunities and Challenges
Grain Quality in International Trade: A Comparison of Major U.S. Competitors
High-Performance Computing and Networking for Science 8918.PDF
Higher Education for Science and Engineering
Holding the Edge: Maintaining the Defense Technology Base
Linking for Learning: A New Course for Education
New Developments in Biotechnology: Patenting Life-Special Report
Oil Production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: The Technology and the Alaskan Oil Context
Partnerships Under Pressure: Managing Commercial Low-Level Radioactive Waste
Performance Standards for Secondary School Vocational Education
Polar Prospects: A Minerals Treaty for Antarctica
Round Trip to Orbit: Human Spaceflight Alternatives
Rural Emergency Medical Services
Safer Skies with TCAS: Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System-A Special Report
Statistical Needs for a Changing U.S. Economy
Technologies for Reducing Dioxin in the Manufacture of Bleached Wood Pulp
Technology Transfer to the United States: The MIT-Japan Science and Technology Program
The Use of Preventive Services by the Elderly
1988
Advanced Materials by Design
AIDS and Health Insurance: An OTA Survey
Are We Cleaning Up? 10 Superfund Case Studies
Artificial Insemination: Practice in the United States: Summary of a 1987 Survey
Biology, Medicine, and the Bill of Rights
Book Preservation Technologies
Commercializing High-Temperature Superconductivity
Copper: Technology and Competitiveness
Criminal Justice, New Technologies, and the Constitution
The Defense Technology Base: Introduction and Overview
Educating Scientists and Engineers: Grade School to Grad School
Electronic Delivery of Public Assistance Benefits: Technology Options and Policy Issues
Elementary and Secondary Education for Science and Engineering
Enhancing Agriculture in Africa: A Role for U.S. Development Assistance
An Evaluation of Options for Managing Greater-Than-Class-C Low-Level Radioactive Waste
Gearing Up for Safety: Motor Carrier Safety in a Competitive Environment
Grassroots Development: The African Development Foundation
Healthy Children: Investing in the Future
How Effective Is AIDS Education?
The Impact of AIDS on the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program (Northern California Region)
Infertility: Medical and Social Choices
Informing the Nation: Federal Information Dissemination in an Electronic Age
Institutional Protocols for Decisions About Life-Sustaining Treatments
Issues in Medical Waste Management
Launch Options for the Future: A Buyer’s Guide
Mapping Our Genes-Genome Projects: How Big? How Fast?
Medical Testing and Health Insurance
New Developments in Biotechnology: Field-Testing Engineered Organisms: Genetic and Ecological Issues
New Developments in Biotechnology: U.S. Investment in Biotechnology
Paying the Bill: Manufacturing and America’s Trade Deficit
Pesticide Residues in Food: Technologies for Detection
Power On! New Tools for Teaching and Learning
The Quality of Medical Care: Information for Consumers
Reducing Launch Operation Costs: New Technologies and Practices
Safe Skies for Tomorrow: Aviation Safety in a Competitive Environment
Science, Technology, and the First Amendment
Screening for Open-Angle Glaucoma in the Elderly
SDI: Technology, Survivability, and Software
Seismic Verification of Nuclear Testing Treaties
Technology and the American Economic Transition: Choices for the Future
Urban Ozone and the Clean Air Act: Problems and Proposals for Change
Using Desalination Technologies for Water Treatment
1987
Aid to Developing Countries: The Technology/Ecology Fit
The Border War on Drugs
Commercial Newsgathering From Space
Construction and Materials Research and Development for the Nation’s Public Works
The Costs of AIDS and Other HIV Infections: Review of the Estimates
Defending Secrets, Sharing Data: New Locks and Keys for Electronic Information
Do Insects Transmit AIDS?
The Electronic Supervisor: New Technology, New Tensions
From Pollution to Prevention: A Progress Report on Waste Reduction
Hospital Information Systems at the Veterans Administration
Identifying and Regulating Carcinogens
Integrated Renewable Resource Management for U.S. Insular Areas
International Competition in Services: Banking, Building, Software, Know-How
Life-Sustaining Technologies and the Elderly
Losing a Million Minds: Confronting the Tragedy of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias
Marine Minerals: Exploring Our New Ocean Frontier
Neonatal Intensive Care for Low Birthweight Infants: Costs and Effectiveness
New Developments in Biotechnology: Ownership of Human Tissues and Cells
New Developments in Biotechnology: Public Perceptions of Biotechnology
New Technology for NATO: Implementing Follow-On Forces Attack
Preparing for Science and Engineering Careers: Field Level Profiles
Science, Technology, and the Constitution
Starpower: The U.S. and the International Quest for Fusion Energy
State Educational Testing Practices
Technologies for the Preservation of Prehistoric and Historic Landscapes
Technologies for Underwater Archaeology and Maritime Preservation
Technologies To Maintain Biological Diversity
Technology Dependent Children: Hospital Vs. Home Care
Technology Transfer to China
Trade Adjustment Assistance: New Ideas for an Old Program
Trends and Status of Computers in Schools: Use in Chapter 1 Programs and Use With Limited English Proficient Students
U.S. Oil Production: The Effect of Low Oil Prices
The U.S. Textile and Apparel Industry: A Revolution in Progress
Wastes in Marine Environments
1986
Alternatives to Animal Use in Research, Testing, and Education
Annual Report to the Congress: Fiscal Year 1985
Assessing Biological Diversity in the United States: Data Considerations
Children’s Mental Health: Problems and Services
Continuing the Commitment: Agricultural Development in the Sahel
Effects of Federal Policies on Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy
Electronic Record Systems and Individual Privacy
Federal Government Information Technology: Management, Security, and Congressional Oversight
Grassroots Conservation of Biological Diversity in the United States
Hearing Impairment and Elderly People
Indian Health Care
Intellectual Property Rights in an Age of Electronics and Information
Marine Applications for Fuel Cell Technology
Microelectronics Research and Development
New Structural Materials Technologies: Opportunities for the Use of Advanced Ceramics and Composites
Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and Certified Nurse-Midwives: A Policy Analysis
Ocean Incineration: Its Role in Managing Hazardous Waste
Passive Smoking in the Workplace: Selected Issues
Payment for Physician Services: Strategies for Medicare
Plant Closing: Advance Notice and Rapid Response
Potential Effects of Section 3 of the Federal Coal Leasing Amendments Act of 1976
The Regulatory Environment for Science
Research Funding as an Investment: Can We Measure the Returns?
A Review of U.S. Competitiveness in Agricultural Trade
Scientific Equipment for Undergraduates: Is It Adequate?
Serious Reduction of Hazardous Waste: for Pollution Prevention and Industrial Efficiency
The Social Security Administration and Information Technology
Space Stations and the Law: Selected Legal Issues
Supercomputers: Government Plans and Policies
Technologies for Detecting Heritable Mutations in Human Beings
Technologies for NATO’s Follow-On Forces Attack Concept
Technologies for Prehistoric and Historic Preservation
Technology and Structural Unemployment: Reemploying Displaced Adults
Technology, Public Policy, and the Changing Structure of American Agriculture
Technology, Trade, and the U.S. Residential Construction Industry
Trade in Services: Exports and Foreign Revenues
Transportation of Hazardous Materials
Transportation of Hazardous Materials: State and Local Activities
Western Surface Mine Permitting and Reclamation
1985
Alternative Approaches to Cargo Policy: A Supplement to an Assessment of Maritime Trade and Technology
Annual Report to the Congress: Fiscal Year 1984
Anti-Satellite Weapons, Countermeasures, and Arms Control
Automation of America’s Offices, 1985-2000
Ballistic Missile Defense Technologies
Blood Policy and Technology
The Cost Effectiveness of Digital Subtraction Angiography in the Diagnosis of Cerebrovascular Disease
Demographic Trends and the Scientific and Engineering Workforce
Displaced Homemakers: Programs and Policy
The Effectiveness and Costs of Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD)
Electronic Surveillance and Civil Liberties
Energy Technology Transfer to China
Information Technology R&D: Critical Trends and Issues
Innovative Biological Technologies for Lesser Developed Countries
International Cooperation and Competition in Civilian Space Activities
Managing the Nation’s Commercial High-Level Radioactive Waste
Medical Devices and the Veterans Administration
Medicare’s Prospective Payment System: Strategies for Evaluating Cost, Quality, and Medical Technology
New Electric Power Technologies: Problems and Prospects for the 1990s
Oil and Gas Technologies for the Arctic and Deepwater
Preventing Illness and Injury in the Workplace
R&D in the Maritime Industry: A Supplement to an Assessment of Maritime Trade and Technology
Reproductive Health Hazards in the Workplace
Reproductive Health Hazards in the Workplace: Selected Aspects of Reproductive Health Hazards Regulations
Review of the Public Health Service’s Response to AIDS
Status of Biomedical Research and Related Technology for Tropical Diseases
Strategic Materials: Technologies To Reduce U.S. Import Vulnerability
Superfund Strategy
Technologies for Managing Urinary Incontinence
Technologies To Benefit Agriculture and Wildlife
Technology and Aging in America
Technology, Public Policy, and the Changing Structure of American Agriculture: A Special Report for the 1985 Farm Bill
U.S. Natural Gas Availability: Gas Supply Through the Year 2000
U.S.-Soviet Cooperation in Space