160 HISTORY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



with the use of coal-powered dynamos which provide electrical energy 

 but produce the side effects of air pollution; the technology which has 

 produced water-gulping devices at a time when fresh water supplies are 

 rapidly being depleted — to give only a few examples. 



The 1966 report suggested the creation of a Technology Assess- 

 ment Board to serve the same purpose as "early warning" systems do 

 in a military sense. "We are not thinking of the board's authority in 

 terms of a 'stoplight,' but rather in terms of an 'early warning' signal," 

 concluded the report. 



Although the 1966 report was the first time that technology 

 assessment and the early warning concept had been mentioned publicly, 

 the idea had its roots even earlier in subcommittee discussions with 

 representatives of the science community, studies and discussions 

 concerning environmental problems, and a long private conversation 

 with Charles A. Lindbergh. The Lindbergh meeting took place in 

 Daddario's Capitol Hill office under highly unusual circumstances, 

 after many months of delicate negotiations behind the scenes. Lind- 

 bergh had adamantly refused to appear in any public session of the 

 committee, but agreed to converse privately with Daddario. Philip B. 

 Yeager of the committee staff, and Edward Wenk of the Library of 

 Congress' Science Policy Research Division joined the meeting at 

 Daddario's invitation. They met secretly in Daddario's office in the 

 Longworth Building. The thrust of Lindbergh's warning was that 

 the Earth was heading for disaster unless the balance between science 

 and ecology were properly adjusted. 



As a stimulus for discussion, Daddario and Mosher introduced the 

 first bill for a Technology Assessment Board on March 7, 1967. It was 

 a bill "to provide a method for identifying, assessing, publicizing, and 

 dealing with the implications and effect of applied research and 

 technology." 



Using the same pattern of careful assessment of the problem with 

 the aid of professional advice which had been so successfully employed 

 in countless other cases, Daddario convened a seminar on September 21- 

 22, 1967, and also commissioned three studies: 



"Technical Information for Congress," a Library of Congress 

 study published in 1969- 



"Technology: Processes of Assessment and Choice," a report of the 

 National Academy of Sciences to the Committee on Science and Astro- 

 nautics, published in 1969. 



' 'A Study of Technology Assessment, ' ' report of the National Acad- 

 emy of Engineering to the Committee on Science and Astronautics, 

 published in 1969. 



During November and December 1969, the Daddario subcommit- 

 tee held additional hearings on technology assessment, the upshot of 



