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.
1992
After the Cold War: Living With Lower Defense Spending
Alaskan Water for California?: The Subsea Pipeline Option
Annual Report to the Congress: Fiscal Year 1991
The Biology of Mental Disorders
Building Energy Efficiency
Building Future Security: Strategies for Restructuring the Defense Technology and Industrial Base
The CDC’s Case Definition of AIDS: Implications of Proposed Revisions
Combined Summaries: Technologies To Sustain Tropical Forest Resources and Biological Diversity
Cystic Fibrosis and DNA Tests: Implications of Carrier Screening
Difficult-To-Reuse Needles for the Prevention of HIV Infection Among Injecting Drug Abusers
Disposal of Chemical Weapons: Alternative Technologies
Do Medicaid and Medicare Patients Sue More Often Than Other Patients?
Does Health Insurance Make a Difference?
Evaluation of the Oregon Medicaid Proposal
Federal and Private Roles in the Development and Provision of Alglucerase Therapy for Gaucher Disease
Finding a Balance: Computer Software, Intellectual Property and the Challenge of Technological Change
Forest Service Planning: Accommodating Uses, Producing Outputs, and Sustaining Ecosystems
Fueling Development: Energy Technologies for Developing Countries
Genetic Counseling and Cystic Fibrosis Carrier Screening: Results of a Survey
Genetic Tests and Health Insurance: Results of a Survey
Global Standards: Building Blocks for the Future
Green Products by Design: Choices for a Cleaner Environment
Home Drug Infusion Therapy Under Medicare
Identifying and Controlling Pulmonary Toxicants
Lessons in Restructuring Defense Industry: The French Experience
Managing Industrial Solid Wastes From Manufacturing, Mining, Oil and Gas Production, and Utility Coal Combustion
The Menopause, Hormone Therapy, and Women’s Health
Monitoring Limits on Sea-Launched Cruise Missiles
NASA’s Office of Space Science and Applications: Process, Priorities and Goals
A New Technological Era for American Agriculture
Performance Standards for the Food Stamp Employment and Training Program
Police Body Armor Standards and Testing, Vol. I
Police Body Armor Standards and Testing, Vol. II-Appendixes
Remotely Sensed Data From Space: Distribution, Pricing, and Applications
Retiring Old Cars: Programs To Save Gasoline and Reduce Emissions
Science and Technology Issues in Coastal Ecotourism
Special Care Units for People With Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias: Consumer Education, Research, Regulatory, and Reimbursement Issues
Technology Against Terrorism: Structuring Security
Testing in American Schools: Asking the Right Questions
Trade and Environment: Conflicts and Opportunities
U.S. Banks and International Telecommunications
U.S.-Mexico Trade: Pulling Together or Pulling Apart?
1991
The 1992 World Administrative Radio Conference: Issues for U.S. International Spectrum Policy
Adjusting to a New Security Environment: The Defense Technology and Industrial Base Challenge
Adolescent Health, Vol. I: Summary and Policy Options
Adolescent Health, Vol. II: Background and the Effectiveness of Selected Prevention and Treatment Services
Adolescent Health, Vol. III: Crosscutting Issues in the Delivery of Health and Related Services
Agricultural Commodities as Industrial Raw Materials
American Military Power: Future Needs, Future Choices
Automated Record Checks for Firearm Purchasers: Issues and Options
Biological Rhythms: Implications for the Worker
Bioremediation for Marine Oil Spills
Biotechnology in a Global Economy
Changing by Degrees: Steps To Reduce Greenhouse Gases
Competing Economies: America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim
Complex Cleanup: The Environmental Legacy of Nuclear Weapons Production
Delivering the Goods: Public Works Technologies, Management, and Financing
Dioxin Treatment Technologies
Energy Efficiency in the Federal Government: Government by Good Example?
Energy in Developing Countries
Energy Technology Choices: Shaping Our Future
Exploring the Moon and Mars: Choices for the Nation
The FBI Fingerprint Identification Automation Program: Issues and Options
Federally Funded Research: Decisions for a Decade
Global Arms Trade: Commerce in Advanced Military Technology and Weapons
HIV in the Health Care Workplace
Identifying and Controlling Immunotoxic Substances
Improving Automobile Fuel Economy: New Standards, New Approaches
Long-Lived Legacy: Managing High-Level and Transuranic Waste at the DOE Nuclear Weapons Complex
Medical Monitoring and Screening in the Workplace: Results of a Survey
Miniaturization Technologies
Moving Ahead: 1991 Surface Transportation Legislation
New Opportunities for U.S. Universities in Development Assistance: Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Environment
New Ways: Tiltrotor Aircraft and Magnetically Levitated Vehicles 9132.PDF
Outpatient Immunosuppressive Drugs Under Medicare
Redesigning Defense: Planning the Transition to the Future U.S. Defense Industrial Base
Review of a Protocol for a Study of Reproductive Health Outcomes Among Women Vietnam Veterans
Rural America at the Crossroads: Networking for the Future
Screening Mammography in Primary Care Settings: Implications for Cost Access and Quality
Seeking Solutions: High Performance Computing for Science
Technology Against Terrorism: The Federal Effort
U.S. Dairy Industry at a Crossroad: Biotechnology and Policy Choices
U.S. Oil Import Vulnerability: The Technical Replacement Capability
Verification Technologies: Cooperative Aerial Surveillance in International Agreements
Verification Technologies: Managing Research and Development for Cooperative Arms Control Monitoring Measures
1990
Access to Space: The Future of U.S. Space Transportation Systems
Affordable Spacecraft: Design and Launch Alternatives
Agricultural Research and Technology Transfer Policies for the 1990s
Arming Our Allies: Cooperation and Competition in Defense Technology
Beneath the Bottom Line: Agricultural Approaches To Reduce Agrichemical Contamination of Groundwater
The Big Picture: HDTV and High-Resolution Systems
Children’s Dental Services Under the Medicaid Program
Computer Software and Intellectual Property
Confused Minds, Burdened Families: Finding Help for People With Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias
Coping With an Oiled Sea
The Costs and Effectiveness of Cervical Cancer Screening in Elderly Women
Costs and Effectiveness of Colorectal Cancer Screening in the Elderly
Critical Connections: Communication for the Future
The Effectiveness of Drug Abuse Treatment: Implications for Controlling AIDS/HIV Infection
Electronic Bulls and Bears: U.S. Securities Markets and Information Technology
Energy Use and the U.S. Economy
Evaluating Defense Department Research
Finding the Rx for Managing Medical Wastes
Forest Service Planning: Setting Strategic Direction Under RPA
Genetic Monitoring and Screening in the Workplace
Genetic Witness: Forensic Uses of DNA Tests
Health Care in Rural America
Helping America Compete: The Role of Federal Scientific and Technical Information
High-Temperature Superconductivity in Perspective
Holding the Edge: Maintaining the Defense Technology Base-Vol. II, Appendices
How Has Federal Research on AIDS/HIV Disease Contributed to Other Fields?
Indian Adolescent Mental Health
Making Things Better: Competing in Manufacturing
Neural Grafting: Repairing the Brain and Spinal Cord
Neurotoxicity: Identifying and Controlling Poisons of the Nervous System
Nonferrous Metals: Industry Structure
Orbiting Debris: A Space Environmental Problem
Physical Vulnerability of Electric Systems to Natural Disasters and Sabotage
Plague of Locusts-Special Report
Preventive Health Services for Medicare Beneficiaries: Policy and Research Issues
Proposal Pressure in the 1980s: An Indicator of Stress on the Federal Research System
Rebuilding the Foundations: A Special Report on State and Local Public Works Financing and Management
Recombinant Erythropoietin: Payment Options for Medicare
Replacing Gasoline: Alternative Fuels for Light-Duty Vehicles
Royalty Management Program’s Auditing and Financial System: Technical Issues
Trading Around the Clock: Global Securities Markets and Information Technology
Unconventional Cancer Treatments
The Use of Integrity Tests for Pre-Employment Screening
Verification Technologies: Measures for Monitoring Compliance with the START Treaty
Worker Training: Competing in the New International Economy