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.
1995
Advanced Automotive Technology: Visions of a Super-Efficient Family Car
Adverse Reactions to HIV Vaccines: Medical, Ethical, and Legal Issues
Agriculture, Trade, and Environment: Achieving Complementary Policies
Annual Report to the Congress: Fiscal Year 1994
Assessing the Potential for Civil-Military Integration: Selected Case Studies
Biologically Based Technologies for Pest Control
Bringing Health Care Online: The Role of Information Technologies
Challenges for U.S. Agricultural Research Policy
Cleaning Up Contaminated Wood-Treating Sites
The Cost-Effectiveness of Colorectal Cancer Screening in Average-Risk Adults
Costs and Effectiveness of Prostate Cancer Screening in Elderly Men
Coverage of Laser Technology by Health Insurers
Current Status of Federal Involvement in U.S. Aquaculture
Distributed Interactive Simulation of Combat
Does Vocational Education Help the “Forgotten Half”?: Short-term Economic Consequences of High School Vocational Education for Non-College Students
Education and Technology: Future Visions
Effectiveness and Costs of Osteoporosis Screening and Hormone Replacement Therapy, Vol. I: Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
Effectiveness and Costs of Osteoporosis Screening and Hormone Replacement Therapy, Vol. II: Evidence on Benefits, Risks, and Costs
The Effectiveness of AIDS Prevention Efforts
The Effectiveness of Research and Experimentation Tax Credits
Electronic Surveillance in a Digital Age
Environmental Monitoring for Nuclear Safeguards
Environmental Policy Tools: A User’s Guide
Environmental Technology: Analysis of Selected Federal R&D Programs
EPA Superfund Actions and ATSDR Public Health Data
Federal Technology Transfer and the Human Genome Project
Fish Passage Technologies: Protection at Hydropower Facilities
Flat Panel Displays in Perspective
Foreign Eligibility for U.S. Technology Funding
The Fusion Energy Program: The Role of TPX and Alternate Concepts
Gauging Control Technology and Regulatory Impacts in Occupational Safety and Health: An Appraisal of OSHA’s Analytic Approach
Global Communications: Opportunities for Trade and Aid
Health Care Technology and Its Assessment in Eight Countries
A History of the Department of Defense Federally Funded Research and Development Centers
Hospital Financing in Seven Countries
Impact of Health Reform on Rural Areas: Lessons From the States
Impacts of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
Improving the Prospects for Future International Peace Operations: Workshop Proceedings
Information Technologies for the Control of Money Laundering
Innovation and Commercialization of Emerging Technologies
International Partnerships in Large Science Projects
Issue Update on Information Security and Privacy in Network Environments
Learning To Work: Making the Transition From School to Work
The Lower Tiers of the Space Transportation Industrial Base
The National Space Transportation Policy: Issues for Congress
Nuclear Safeguards and the International Atomic Energy Agency
Nuclear Wastes in the Arctic: An Analysis of Arctic and Other Regional Impacts From Soviet Nuclear Contamination
Occupational Training for Young People in the United Kingdom
Other Approaches to Civil-Military Integration: The Chinese and Japanese Arms Industries
Reducing Earthquake Losses
Reducing the Costs of Collecting Meteorological Data: A Workshop Summary
Renewing Our Energy Future
Risks to Students in School
Screening and Testing Chemicals in Commerce
Selected Technology Issues in U.S. Aquaculture
State of the States on Brownfields: Programs for Cleanup and Reuse of Contaminated Sites
Targeting Environmental Priorities in Agriculture: Reforming Program Strategies
Teachers and Technology: Making the Connection
The Technological Reshaping of Metropolitan America
Technology and Policy for Suppressing Grain Dust Explosions in Storage Facilities
Telecommunications Technology and Native Americans: Opportunities and Challenges
U.S.-Russian Cooperation in Space
Wireless Technologies and the National Information Infrastructure
1994
An Alaskan Challenge: Native Village Sanitation
Annual Report to the Congress: Fiscal Year 1993
Assessing the Potential for Civil-Military Integration: Technologies, Processes, and Practices
Civilian Satellite Remote Sensing: A Strategic Approach
Climate Treaties and Models: Issues in the International Management of Climate Change
Defensive Medicine and Medical Malpractice
The Department of Defense Kuwait Oil Health Fire Risk Assessment (The “Persian Gulf Veterans’ Registry”)
Electronic Enterprises: Looking to the Future
Energy Efficiency in Federal Facilities: Update on Funding and Potential Savings
Export Controls and Nonproliferation Policy
External Review of the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s HIV Prevention Program: Summary and Overview
Federal Research and Technology for Aviation
Fueling Reform: Energy Technologies for the Former East Bloc
Hip Fracture Outcomes in People Age 50 and Over
Identifying Health Technologies That Work: Searching for Evidence
Industry, Technology, and the Environment: Competitive Challenges and Business Opportunities
Information Security and Privacy in Network Environments
International Comparisons of Administrative Costs in Health Care
International Health Statistics: What the Numbers Mean for the United States
Managed Care and Competitive Health Care Markets: The Twin Cities Experience
Mental Disorders and Genetics: Bridging the Gap Between Research and Society
Multinationals and the U.S. Technology Base
Perspectives on the Role of Science and Technology in Sustainable Development
Power Sources for Remote Arctic Applications
Proliferation and the Former Soviet Union
Psychiatric Disabilities, Employment and the Americans With Disabilities Act
Public Information About Osteoporosis: What’s Available, What’s Needed?
Remotely Sensed Data: Technology, Management and Markets
Review of the Medical Follow-Up Agency
Saving Energy in U.S. Transportation
The Social Security Administration’s Decentralized Computer Strategy: Issues and Options
Studies of the Environmental Costs of Electricity
Technical Options for the Advanced Liquid Metal Reactor
Technologies for Understanding and Preventing Substance Abuse and Addiction
Testing and Assessment in Vocational Education
Tools for Evaluating Health Technologies: Five Background Papers
Understanding Estimates of National Health Expenditures Under Health Reform
Understanding Estimates of the Impact of Health Reform on the Federal Budget
Universal Health Insurance and Uninsured People: Effects on Use and Cost
Virtual Reality and Technologies for Combat Simulation
Wage Record Information Systems
1993
The 1992 World Administrative Radio Conference: Technology and Policy Implications
Access to Over-the-Road Buses for Persons With Disabilities
Accessibility and Integrity of Networked Information Collections
Adult Literacy and New Technologies: Tools for a Lifetime
Advanced Network Technology
Aging Nuclear Power Plants: Managing Plant Life and Decommissioning
Aircraft Evacuation Testing: Research and Technology Issues
Alternative Coca Reduction Strategies in the Andean Region
Benefit Design in Health Care Reform: Clinical Preventive Services
Benefit Design in Health Care Reform: Patient Cost-Sharing
Biological Components of Substance Abuse and Addiction
Biopolymers: Making Materials Nature’s Way
The Chemical Weapons Convention: Effects on the U.S. Chemical Industry
Compilation of Abbreviations and Terms
The Continuing Challenge of Tuberculosis
Contributions of DOE Weapons Labs and NIST to Semiconductor Technology
Coverage of Preventive Services: Provisions of Selected Current Health Care Reform Proposals
Data Format Standards for Civilian Remote Sensing Satellites
Defense Conversion: Redirecting R&D
The Department of Veterans Affairs Persian Gulf Veterans’ Health Registry
Development Assistance, Export Promotion, and Environmental Technology
Dismantling the Bomb and Managing the Nuclear Materials
Drug Labeling in Developing Countries
Energy Efficiency: Challenges and Opportunities for Electric Utilities
Energy Efficiency Technologies for Central and Eastern Europe
The Future of Remote Sensing From Space: Civilian Satellite Systems and Applications
Global Change Research and NASA’s Earth Observing System
Harmful Non-Indigenous Species in the United States
Hazards Ahead: Managing Cleanup Worker Health and Safety at the Nuclear Weapons Complex
Health Insurance: The Hawaii Experience
Impact of Legal Reforms on Medical Malpractice Costs
An Inconsistent Picture: A Compilation of Analyses of Economic Impacts of Competing Approaches to Health
Care Reform by Experts and Stakeholders
Industrial Energy Efficiency
Information Systems Related to Technology Transfer: A Report on Federal Technology Transfer in the United States
Making Government Work: Electronic Delivery of Federal Services
Multinationals and the National Interest: Playing by Different Rules
Pharmaceutical R&D: Costs, Risks, and Rewards
Potential Environmental Impacts of Bioenergy Crop Production
Preparing for an Uncertain Climate-Vol. I
Preparing for an Uncertain Climate-Vol. II
Proceedings: Technology and Governance in the 1990s. Papers Presented at the OTA 20th Anniversary Forum on Technology and Governance in the 1990s
Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Assessing the Risks
Protecting Privacy in Computerized Medical Information
Pulling Together for Productivity: A Union-Management Initiative at US West, Inc.
Researching Health Risks
Technologies Underlying Weapons of Mass Destruction
U.S. Telecommunications Services in European Markets
Water for Walker Lake
Who Goes There: Friend or Foe?