With such intense scrutiny directed at the current state of government reform and Presidential Transitions, I’ve found myself wondering how much of this ground has been covered before.

With a little searching, it turns out that there are pieces strewn about the legal and legislative terrain, leftovers of transformations either competed or abandoned, striking me as a bit like a wrench left sitting next to a leaking faucet.

Throughout the 1990s, government reform efforts saw the “Reinventing Government” initiative, spearheaded by Vice President Gore. This effort was largely focused on government waste and management issues, and had very little to do with Sunlight’s issues or technology. A good review of the initiative is available from Brookings, who published a 5 year review of the project.

The mid nineties also saw the death of ACUS, the Administrative Conference of the United States, which coordinated regulatory and administrative procedures across government. OMB watch covered the demise of ACUS, and recent efforts to resuscitate it.

Similarly, from 1959 to 1996 the US had an Advisory Committee on Intergovernmental Relations, which gave recommendations and advice, working across compex jurisdictions. The Univeristy of North Texas has a great collection of ACIR documents, including this one (pdf) from 1980 on participation in American government. (h/t to Valerie Glenn.)

The Government Information Locator Service, or GILS system was set up in the 1990s, but appears to be largely ignored or ineffective, despite having a portal still set up on GPOAccess.

We’ve seen a recent attempt to revive the Office of Technology Assessment, which provided technological advice to Congress in a manner similar to what CRS does. This advice is sorely needed, and we saw a small appropriation to the GAO this last year. FAS recently released a new database of OTA reports.

Finally, the e-government act of 2002 created a temporary body called the Intergovernmental Committee on Government Information, or ICGI, which gave recommendations on implementing the e-gov act and general coordination. It appears to have been active through part of 2004, and then went silent.

With so many options for coordinating or institutionalizing advice, recommendations, and reform, the incoming Obama administration has a long history to consider, and a plethora of options at hand.

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The Federation of American Scientists has just launched a new collection of reports from the (currently) defunct Office of Technology Assessment.

The site, called the OTA Archive, indexes “over 720 reports and documents that were produced by OTA during its 23 year history.”  In an effort somewhat similar to OpenCRS, the site features exhaustively researched reports prepared by a legislative support agency.  In the case of the OTA, however, the reports haven’t been published since 1995, when the office stopped receiving funding.

As we’ve described before, and as described in great detail by FAS here, the OTA served an essential function that has only gained importance in the years since it lost support.  Negotiating complex technological issues requires technological knowledge, and institutional support is a necessary component of adequate technological policy.  CRS serves general policy needs, GAO presents oversight information, CBO does cost estimates, and Joint Tax gives tax assessments.  Clearly there’s a need for continuing support of scientific and tecnological substance, and the $2.5 million appropriated in this year’s legislative branch approps bill is only a very small step in the right direction.

The FAS site presents a compelling argument, along with all the evidence necessary, to prod Congress to support a reinstated OTA.

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