1501 



■charging it with responsibilitA^ for performing the kind of large, long- 

 range, future-oriented studies needed in charting the future course of 

 American technolog3'-oriented diplomac}^? 



While the use of an existing organization is usually an attractive 

 alternative in preference to creating a new one, there are several 

 difficulties in the way of this use of CRS. For one thing, CR8 has 

 many competing committee and member calls for its services and has 

 been charged with responding to them all — i.e., with making its whole 

 spectrum of informational, research, and analytical services as widely 

 available as possible to both members and committees. Moreover, 

 most of the congressional requests are for partial summaries or 

 brief analyses related to immediate problems and pending legislation. 

 Under these conditions it has been difficult to isolate study teams, 

 freeing them from other tasks and supporting them for continuing 

 service on policy studies requiring months or even j^ears. Neverthe- 

 less, recent developments and current aims are pointing CRS in this 

 direction. According to testimony by CRS Director Lester S. Jayson 

 before the Joint Committee on Congressional Operations on Ma}^ 16, 

 1974: "[A problem with which CRS hasl wrestled in recent years is 

 that of freeing our staff to produce more indepth analytical studies on 

 appropriate public policy issues. Up to this point we have increased 

 our staff to respond to the specific requests of the committees and 

 Members of Congress. In the future, we should — on our own initia- 

 tive — be exploring ways of pinpointing subjects of longer range in- 

 terest to the Congress. The Reorganization Act tells us to engage in 

 anticipatory work. The same act tells us to discuss emerging issues 

 with committees. Our senior staff are enormously knowledgeable in 

 their fields of specialization. They can and should be identifying 

 problems of this kind. Perhaps on the basis of such identification, 

 followed by consultations with committee chairmen or the leader- 

 ship, they could designate longer range issues worthy of intense and 

 exhaustive study. With the subjects chosen, appropriate senior staff 

 or multidisciplinary teams could be insulated from the daily activities 

 of tire Service to undertake such studies. When appropriate, they could 

 be augmented by outside specialists, by outstanding experts from the 

 private sector, by scholars from the universities, and by services 

 provided through contract with research organizations. The Re- 

 organization Act gave us the charter and the authority to engage in 

 activities of this kind, and there is no doubt that broader studies like 

 these could be beneficial to the Congress." ^** 



OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT 



Another possibility might be the use of the Office of Technology 

 Assessment (OTA) by extending its studies of technological impacts 

 into the foreign field. OTA, created pursuant to the Technology 

 Assessment Act of 1972,^*^ contains (sec. 2) "findings and declaration 

 of purpose" altogether germane to the subject at hand. The text reads: 



(a) As technology continues to change and expand rapidly, its applications are — • 

 (1) large and growing in scale; and 



SM U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Congressional Operations, Congressional Research Support and 

 Information Services. Hearings, 93rd Congress, 2d sess., May 16, 1974, pp. 7-8, 

 '2« Public Law 92-4»4, approved October 13, 1972. 



