Research

The Case for a Congressional Office of Science and Technology Analysis

April 14, 2020 | Jon Peha

Learning from the old OTA model This paper is part of Lincoln’s Technology Assessment Symposium, which was made possible with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The paper was authored by Jon Peha and M. Granger Morgan. Peha is a professor of engineering and public policy, and of electrical and

April 7, 2020 | Dan Lips

Vice President Mike Pence stated that the government was committed to answering requests from governors for additional capacity by “creating field hospitals” or “retrofitting existing buildings,” with support from the Army Corps of Engineers. In addition to constructing field hospitals and expanding existing hospital capacity, the US government should identify potential surplus federal real property

March 4, 2020 | Zach Graves

Conservatives are right to challenge libertarians, but they must avoid Hawleyism. The editors of influential conservative publications—including The American Mind, First Things, the American Conservative, and others—have called for a “tech new deal,” arguing the right has lost its ability to meet the challenges of the digital era. Like its original namesake, or the more

Congress Re-Empowered

February 27, 2020 | Wayne Brough

Why the legislative branch needs better science and technology policy advice—and how it can get it. This paper is part of Lincoln’s Technology Assessment Symposium, which was made possible with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The paper was authored by Dr. Wayne T. Brough, president of the Innovation Defense

A Fresh Start for OTA

February 27, 2020 | Robert Atkinson

Creating the lean, dynamic technology assessment agency Congress needs today. This paper is part of Lincoln’s Technology Assessment Symposium, which was made possible with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The paper was authored by Robert D. Atkinson. Dr. Atkinson is the president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

February 27, 2020 | M. Anthony Mills

Learning from the founding and early history of OTA. This paper is part of Lincoln’s Technology Assessment Symposium, which was made possible with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The paper was authored by M. Anthony Mills. Mills is director of science policy at the R Street Institute. You can

February 27, 2020 | Chris Tyler

Lessons for the United States This paper is part of Lincoln’s Technology Assessment Symposium, which was made possible with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The paper was authored by Chris Tyler. Dr. Tyler is the director of research and policy in the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public

February 27, 2020 | Kathryn Wagner Hill

OTA doesn’t get enough credit for the variety, timeliness, and impact of its work. This paper is part of Lincoln’s Technology Assessment Symposium, which was made possible with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The paper was authored by Kathryn Wagner Hill and edited by Adam Keiper and Elizabeth Foz.

Governance Over Ideology

February 12, 2020 | Zach Graves

Replying to Marco Rubio’s “American Industrial Policy and the Rise of China” Read the full article at the Claremont Institute’s American Mind.

February 11, 2020 | Zach Graves

This one pager was written to compliment Zach Graves and Daniel Schuman’s recent paper with the Harvard Ash Center on building science and technology capacity in Congress.

January 27, 2020 | Zach Graves

This paper was authored by Daniel Schuman and Zach Graves, and published by the Harvard Ash Center. Click here to read the paper. Or read the one page summary here. Key Takeaways Congress must overcome political obstacles to invest in its own S&T capacity. This should include the creation of a new technology assessment capability

December 4, 2019 | Zach Graves

The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) released its congressionally directed report on science and technology (S&T) expertise and capacity in Congress in October 2019. In this paper, Daniel Schuman and Zach Graves review the report’s conclusions and offer an analysis of its findings. Click here to read the full report.

Reviving Expertise in a Populist Age

November 25, 2019 | Zach Graves

Zach Graves is the head of policy at Lincoln Network and an associate fellow at the R Street Institute. M. Anthony Mills is associate vice president of policy and a senior fellow at the R Street Institute. Though we have heard laments for decades that American democracy is sliding into idiocracy, never has more ink been spilled on

November 21, 2019 | Will Upton

From August 1st to 3rd, 2019, Lincoln Network in conjunction with Morning Consult polled Republican voters on a series of questions regarding the major technology/social media platforms (including Google, Facebook, and Twitter) in order to decipher what impact voter opinion could have on the 2020 elections. The data shows that, overwhelmingly, Republican voters approve of

September 30, 2019 | Zach Graves

The article, “Incorporating Ethics Into Technology Assessment,” was co-authored by Zach Graves and Robert Cook-Deegan. It appears in the Fall 2019 issue of Issues in Science and Technology. Visit the Issues website here, or click here to read the full version of the article.

September 29, 2019 | Zach Graves

The following one pager was co-authored by Lincoln Network’s Zach Graves and Demand Progress’s Daniel Schuman. Click here to download a printer-friendly PDF version. The Office of Technology Assessment From 1974-1995, the Office of Technology Assessment served as a legislative branch support agency tasked with providing Congress with technology assessments: multi-disciplinary, authoritative analyses of science

March 4, 2019 | Garrett Johnson

Click here to see the full report as well as additional resources.

January 14, 2019 | Ryan Radia

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft. These are America’s five most valuable tech companies, and they have a public policy challenge in common: antitrust. When antitrust makes headlines, it’s often because one of these five companies is looking to buy a smaller firm or facing some sort of investigation from the Federal Trade Commission or Department

Doing Business with Congress

December 15, 2018 | Zach Graves

Of the three branches of the federal government, Congress is the most responsive to the American people. On a daily basis, congressional offices hear from constituents, industry groups, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders across a broad range of issues. While digital tools have lowered barriers to communication with our elected representatives, Congress’s information technology

September 25, 2018 | Zach Graves

The following policy study by Lincoln Network head of policy Zach Graves was published by the R Street Institute on September 25, 2018. Click here to read it.

January 1, 2017 | Garrett Johnson

Executive Summary: The following are findings from a preliminary survey of founders of technology startups on government regulation and emerging policy issues. The data illustrates how the Trump Administration and new Congress can craft policy that is consistent with the perspective of tech industry leaders. The overarching conclusion is that the stereotypical conflict between small

Lobbying for the Future

June 6, 2015 | Garrett Johnson

The United States economy is barely growing. The engine of economic growth, entrepreneurship, and new firm creation has been declining for the past three decades. Today, we are the lobbyists for the future, advocating on behalf of start-ups that don’t exist yet. We can grow the economy through unleashing the full forces of innovation across

How to Fix Patents

June 6, 2015 | Derek Khanna

Patent policy is increasingly failing in its constitutionally enumerated purpose of “promoting the progress of the sciences and useful arts” as a result of patent trolling and an epidemic of granting low-quality patents. For conservatives and libertarians, this should be striking, as the Progress Clause is the only clause in the Constitution that provides a