1902 



existing institutions: the General Accounting Office, the Congressional 

 Research Service, and the Office of Technology Assessment. To assist 

 Congress in coordinating major studies of these three offices and the 

 Congressional Budget Office in all public policy fields, a new system of 

 recordkeeping has been established as of January 1976. The purpose 

 is primarily to avoid unnecessary duplication. The records may also 

 indicate, however, where coverage is weak, and thereby serve to 

 point to capabilities in need of strengthening. 



The evidence presented in the Science, Technology, and American 

 Diplomacy series of studies tends to support the frequently expressed 

 opinion that existing analytical resources available to Congress in the 

 foreign policy field are not adequate. It is for Congress to judge the 

 extent of any related gaps or weaknesses and to decide whether the 

 remedy lies in further strengthening existing organizations, adding 

 new ones, or both. Congress is currently engaged in absorbing several 

 new resources already available to it — the OTA, the CBO, and im- 

 portant new committees and subcommittees in both Houses. However, 

 although many of these contribute to meeting the need for foreign 

 policy analysis, collectively they fall short of providing full and 

 balanced coverage. 



One reason for the deficiency may be that there is no resource 

 available to Congress which concentrates solely and comprehensively 

 on the foreign policy/foreign affairs/international relations area. A 

 sense that such a need may exist has given rise to various proposals 

 for creation of a congressional office of foreign policy and national 

 security analysis. If such proposals are considered unrealistic or pre- 

 mature, an alternative option might be to strengthen the foreign affairs 

 component of CRS and couple w^ith it a congressional service unit in 

 the Department of State to assure that legislative needs for field 

 research are met systematically and responsively. 



Another possibility is that a study might be placed under contract 

 with one or more outstanding academic or not-for-profit institutions 

 to advise the Congress specifically on appropriate mechanisms for 

 congressional acquisition and analysis of the flow of foreign policy 

 information. 



The Murphy Commission suggested the creation of a joint com- 

 mittee to weigh the interrelations among political, military, and 

 economic aspects of foreign policy. It would include "leaders of the 

 key foreign, military, and international economic policy committees 

 from each House" and would receive and analyze reports from the 

 President and from the intelligence community. However, there was 

 no discussion of the staffing of such a committee. Since the effectiveness 

 of the committee, and the calculations as to whether to establish it, 

 could depend on the caliber of its staff and the nature of their proposed 

 assignments, further exploration of this matter (e.g., by the House 

 International Relations Committee) would seem appropriate as a 

 guide to possible future action. 



One indispensable element of analysis is continuity of information 

 flow. The analyst in the process of reviewing and assessing the data 

 given him must be in a position to go back to the source at any time 

 for clarification or amplification of the facts at hand. It is a truism 

 that policy is always made on the basis of incomplete information, but 

 it is also true that improved completeness and reliability of information 



