Washington

Science-policy experts met in Washington on 14 June in a bid to revive the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), the science and technology advisory unit that Congress disbanded in 1995.

But before the meeting, which discussed five alternative models for the office, congressmen offered up some advice of their own: don't worry too much about the details, and don't expect action on the matter any time soon.

With law-makers facing a raft of difficult science-related issues, many academics and policy experts say that Congress should restore something akin to the OTA.

But the chair of the House Science Committee, Sherwood Boehlert (Republican, New York ), said that Congress already has too much scientific information. He added that it can also turn to the National Academy of Sciences for detailed advice, and expand the role of the Congressional Research Service and the General Accounting Office if more input is needed.

Boehlert nonetheless co-sponsored a bill introduced last week by Rush Holt (Democrat, New Jersey) to revive the OTA and give it an annual budget of $20 million.

But Vernon Ehlers (Republican, Michigan) warned that many Republicans still think of the OTA as serving Democrats' partisan interests and producing reports too ponderous for practical use. He said that Congress instead needs a means of tapping technical expertise at two or three days' notice, given the speed of legislation.

Granger Morgan of the department of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, who organized the meeting, says Congress needs an independent body to give it a sound basis for decision-making. “They need more than bare facts and brief interactions with technical experts,” he says.