[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 90 (Friday, June 25, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H5139]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF CENTER FOR SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ASSESSMENT ACT OF 
                                  2005

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Holt) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Center For 
Scientific and Technical Assessment Act of 2005. I have introduced the 
creating legislation with the gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton), 
the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran), the gentleman from California 
(Mr. Honda), the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Gordon), the gentleman 
from Washington (Mr. McDermott), the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Waxman), the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver), the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania (Mr. Greenwood), the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. 
Castle), the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen), the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. Frost), the gentleman from California (Mr. Berman), the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Ruppersberger), and the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Ehlers). The Center For Scientific and Technical 
Assessment would be a bicameral and bipartisan resource providing 
Congress with highly respected, impartial analysis and assessment of 
scientific and technical issues. The center would provide Congress with 
early warnings on technology's impacts both here and abroad. The center 
would assess the issues that impact current and future legislation 
encompassing medicine, telecommunications, computer sciences, 
agriculture, materials, transportation, defense, indeed every 
discipline and sector important to the United States and to our work 
here in Congress.
  It would undertake controversial subjects, examining them objectively 
and comprehensively for the Nation's benefit. The center would offer 
much needed sound principles to reap the benefits of technological 
change in industry, in the Federal Government, in the workplace, in our 
schools and look at the estimated economic and social impacts of rapid 
technological change. The center would enable Congress better to 
oversee Federal science and technology programs which now amount to 
over $130 billion. Finally, the center would help Congress better to 
understand complex technological issues by tailoring reports for 
legislative users.
  Today's legislative environment involves highly complex issues of 
science, engineering and technology. High-wage, advanced technology 
workforce growth is a prerequisite to a strong economy whose future is 
predicated on our continuing global dominance in science and 
technology.

                              {time}  1600

  If the United States is to maintain and continue its leading role 
into the 21st Century, then Congress needs to recognize that the future 
is being shaped by new science and technology discoveries arising from 
our past investments in basic and applied research and their deployment 
into present and new industrial sectors. A well-informed Congress with 
the foresight to pass the right legislation must understand the effects 
of that technology on all sectors of our society and must understand 
the scientific aspects of all the legislation understand our 
consideration.
  Our Nation must exploit these new advances or prepare to be exploited 
ourselves by others. Given how technology underlies many aspects of our 
constituents' lives, concerns, and jobs, unbiased technical assessment 
is not a luxury but a necessity.
  Today Congress is deluged with facts, figures, opinions, and 
arguments from thousands of interested citizens. Congress does not need 
more facts and data on these issues of science and technology; it needs 
balanced analysis and synthesis that conclude with a framing of issues 
and extraction of knowledge and insight, a process beyond most Members 
of Congress and our immediate staffs. The Congressional Science Fellows 
program is a help in some respects. For example, Dr. Marti Sokolowski 
in my own office provides some of this, and there are some Fellows 
scattered around other offices around Capitol Hill, but it is not 
enough.
  For 2 decades, Congress could call upon the Office of Technology 
Assessment for nonpartisan scientific and technical advice. OTA 
published dozens of reports a year. Its work ran the gamut of subject 
matter. OTA brought science into the center of many congressional 
discussions. And at times OTA was a major factor in major pieces of 
legislation.
  Unfortunately, OTA closed its doors in September, 1995. However, many 
of its reports are still relevant and useful, but no more such reports 
are being produced. The loss of that technology assessment is great. 
Now we have no advice or sometimes haphazard review panels whose 
composition may tempt some to politicize science. Therefore, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton) and I have introduced a bill to 
establish the Center for Scientific and Technology Assessment.
  We have done much research on the advantages and disadvantages of the 
former Office of Technology Assessment. We have looked at the recent 
successful technical assessment program prepared by the General 
Accounting Office. We have taken into the account the GAO's document 
and its recommendations. Finally, we have examined the study ``Science 
and Technology Advice for Congress'' and considered the lessons of that 
publication in constructing this bill.
  Our country will move into the 21st Century whether we in Congress 
are prepared or not. Congress will have at least the possibility of 
charting the course for our Nation with understanding of the 
applications of science and technology if we enact this legislation.

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