510 



as proponents of technical legislation or programs sought by the exec- 

 utive branch. It is important to distinguish between cases in which 

 the Congress took the initiative on the issue and cases in which the 

 initiative came from the Administration. In four cases (Camelot, 

 Office of Coal Research, Thalidomide, water project criteria), the 

 Congress took the initiative over some degree of resistance by the 

 executive branch ; in each of these cases, a very searching inquiry de- 

 veloped with the taking of voluminous testimony, with many wit- 

 nesses, and much useful information. In four cases (Point IV, the Test 

 Ban Treaty, high-energy physics, pesticide bill) , the executive branch 

 took the initiative, with the presentation of a legislative package ; in 

 these cases, there was a tendency for the Congress to raise fewer ques- 

 tions. Testimony did not always resolve the technical issue involved. 



V. Technical Information-Gathering Methodologies Useful 



FOR the Congress 



Congressional decisionmaking on political issues that have a sub- 

 stantial scientific or technological content, generally requires that a 

 technical issue be resolved first in order to provide the basis for dealing 

 with the political issue. To resolve the teclinical issue requires that it 

 be: (a) Identified and defined, (h) separated out from the broader 

 political issue, (c) analyzed to determine subsidiary technical ques- 

 tions, (d) stiTictured for information-gathering, (ej illuminated by 

 factual information, and (/) analyzed in the light of the information. 

 Once the issue has been processed by steps (a) through (d) a search 

 is then made for persons with sound qualifications to provide the 

 needed information. The information can be elicited from these per- 

 sons in many ways : 



By staff literature searches and abstracting of previously re- 

 corded expert opinion and factual evidence ; 

 By interrogation in unstructured hearings ; 

 By communications and prepared statements ; 

 By submitting lists of questions to be answered in writing or 

 in person ; 



By bringing together persons of conflicting views to engage in 

 a dialog, either structured by advance questions or by a modera- 

 tor, or unstructured and relying on inadvertent development of a 

 controversy. 



By assembling a group of persons with various qualifications 

 to testify in sequence, with opportunity for subsequent rebuttals ; 

 By assembling a panel or roundtable discussion of persons with 

 a variety of views, to discuss prepared questions, a provocative, 

 staff- written paper, an outline of issues, etc. ; 

 By contracting for a prepared study in depth ; 

 By arranging for a panel or working group representing a 

 learned society or professional society to examine an issue, a set 

 of questions, or a problem, and to prepare an analysis with 

 recommendations. 

 The accompanying checklist indicates illustrative information 

 sources tapped by congi'essional committees in connection with the 

 14 cases studied ; it also indicates some devices and techniques employed 

 by the committees in information gathering. 



