Take a few minutes away from politics and read this fascinating article! One would think that Congress would want to have good solid scientific advice and not have to rely on think tanks or the Executive Branch agencies for an understanding of complex scientific issues. Well, in 1972 Congress passed and President Nixon signed a bill that set up the The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) to do just that. Twenty years later, Congress withdrew all funding for the OTA and has never given it a penny since. (Okay. politics is involved…. Sorry.)
Why did this happen? What are the arguments for and against? What lessons can we learn about agencies just being denied funding? Read on!
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Adam Keiper, Science and Congress, The New Atlantis, Number 7 (Fall 2004/Winter 2005), pp. 19-50.
And don’t forget to visit the collection of OTA documents at the UNT CyberCemetery!
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