Early warning? The United States Congress and technology assessment

The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) was established by the United States Congress in 1972. The idea of technology assessment was originally proposed by Connecticut Congressman Emilio Daddario in 1966, placing the concept amidst the various re-evaluations of technology and its role in society that abounded in the 1960s. Motivated by the deleterious environmental impacts of technology, Daddario presented the idea of technology assessment, designed to provide Congress and the people of the United States with an "early warning" of the potential negative side-effects of technological applications. After a series of hearings, seminars, and studies, Congress formally established the OTA.; More than concern for the environment entered into the development of the technology-assessment idea, however. Influenced by the increasing difficulties of managing the space program in the wake of Sputniks I and II, many members of Congress desired to shore-up the position of the national legislature vis-a-vis the expertise of the executive branch. Further configured by ongoing scientific and technological controversies including the Antiballistic Missile and Supersonic Transport debates, champions of the OTA concept promised it as a solution to the Congress's lack of independent scientific and technical advice.; As the office moved from idea into practice in the 1970s, it evolved under the close watch of its congressional overseers who composed the office's supervisory board. Accordingly, its role devolved into an agency for advice on technical matters of interest to congressional committees, as opposed to providing an "early warning" function, as the technology-assessment idea had been originally advocated. Thus, rather than a response to the concerns about technology that had been aired in the era when the technology-assessment concept first emerged, the OTA is more properly understood as one of the first of the several congressional reforms undertaken in the 1970s, but one with characteristics that pre-date other reforms of the era.