US Congressional Watchdog Launches Team For Sci/Tech Analysis

By Beatrice Marone for Intellectual Property Watch

A new chapter begins. The business of technology and science has been, and will increasingly be, the business of government: with this in mind, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has launched a new Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics (STTA) team with the aim to expand the support to lawmakers on topics whose importance has exponentially increased in the world of today.

The GAO is a US congressional watchdog agency which produces reference analyses on a range of topics in support of the legislative process.

“Since 2002 GAO has provided technology assessment and direct scientific support to Congress on emerging and emergent innovations” Tim Persons, GAO’s chief scientist and a managing director of the team, said in a blog.

“We have routinely reviewed federal programs and initiatives concerning science and technology; now we are creating a new team within GAO to enhance our technology and science function” added another managing director, John Neumann.

The focus will be on four key areas: technology assessment and technical services for and to the Congress, reviewing science and technology programs that exist within the federal government, compiling and utilizing best practices in the engineering sciences and, last but not least, establishing an audit innovation lab to explore, pilot and deploy new advanced analytic capabilities and innovating auditing practices.

“As GAO responds to a greater federal focus on science and technology issues, we plan to continue to grow and enhance our expertise in this essential area; we expect to meet this mission by both hiring new staff and reorganize the experienced people we already have,” stated Gene Dodaro, comptroller general of the US. “We look forward to bringing even more of our objective, fact-based analysis to the technology and science issues and their public policy implications facing government in the 21^st century and beyond.”