(Washington, DC): David Rejeski, Director of the Environmental Law Institute’s Technology, Innovation, and the Environment Program, has been selected to sit on a five-member panel of National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) fellows tasked with providing recommendations on how to improve the science and technology assessment capacity of Congress. Recommendations could include the creation of a new version of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), which was eliminated in 1995. Rejeski has been a fellow with NAPA since 2016.
Last year, Congress directed the Congressional Research Service to contract with NAPA to conduct a review detailing the current resources within the Legislative Branch that are available to members of Congress regarding science and technology policy. The study will accomplish the following:
- Produce a report detailing the current resources available to members of Congress within the Legislative Branch regarding science and technology policy, including the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
- Assess the potential need within the Legislative Branch to create a separate entity charged with the mission of providing nonpartisan advice on issues of science and technology, such as the former Office of Technology Assessment.
- Address whether the creation of a separate entity would duplicate services already available to Members of Congress.
Additional information about the study and the panel is available at https://www.napawash.org/studies/academy-studies/science-and-technology-policy-assessment-for-the-u.s.-congress.
ELI’s Technology, Innovation, and the Environment Program focuses on how we can better understand the environmental impacts and opportunities created through emerging technologies and their underlying innovation systems, structural changes in the economy, and new roles for the public in environmental research and protection. Visit https://www.eli.org/technology-innovation-and-environment-program for more information.