472 



Page 



IV. Some elements of technical information for political decisionmaking 506 



Priority of a technical issue embedded in a political issue 506 



Some obstacles to the receiving by Congress of technical information... 507 



Hypotheses 507 



Sensationalism 507 



Outstanding personalities as witnesses 508 



A list of "near impossibilities" 508 



Technical differences of opinion 509 



Administration versus Congress 509 



V. Technical information-gathering methodologies useful for the Con- 

 gress 510 



Congressional information sources on technical issues 511 



Congressional requirements for technical information 513 



Ways to secure information pertinent to the issue 513 



Assuring authoritative, accurate, objective, technically sound 



information 514 



Authoritative 514 



Accurate 514 



Objective 514 



Technically sound 515 



Arrangements to assure completeness of technical information 515 



Staff functions 516 



Classes of witnesses 517 



Modes of information gathering 518 



Data analysis 518 



Iterative nature of the process 519 



Achievement of maturity and full development of structured informa- 

 tion 519 



Organization of a svstem to achieve and maintain technical perspec- 

 tive 519 



