Update on Office of Technology Assessment

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Last week, I wrote that the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee had restored the funding for the Office of Technology Assessment, a nonpartisan technology research agency that was defunded in 1995. Initially we were told that the subcommittee reestablished the OTA with $2.5 million in funding but as more information has come out I have to change what was reported last week. According to Technology Daily's Aliya Sternstein, the $2.5 million appropriated by the subcommittee was directed to the General Accounting Office to do technology studies. This is still a great step forward as the GAO is respected for its research and, unlike CRS, posts all of its research online for the general public. This is a great victory for anyone wants members of Congress to have access to the best technology research available. The Sunlight Foundation is especially excited about future reports on how Internt techonology can improve the way Congress relates to the public. If you want to look at what these reports might look like check out this OTA report from 1988 titled, "Informing the Nation: Federal Information Dissemination in an Electronic Age."