Noteworthy new congressional hearing records on intelligence, national security or secrecy that have been published in the last month or two include the following.
“Congressional Oversight of Intelligence Activities,” hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, November 13, 2007.
“Implementation of the Office of Government Information Services,” hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, September 17, 2008.
“FISA for the 21st Century” (pdf), hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, July 26, 2006 (includes over a hundred questions and answers for the record from OLC head Steven G. Bradbury [pdf], among others).
“Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2007” (pdf), hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, September 27, 2007.
“From the Department of Justice to Guantanamo Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration Interrogation Rules (Part III)” (pdf), hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, June 26, 2008 (including testimony by David S. Addington and John Yoo).
“From the Department of Justice to Guantanamo Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration Interrogation Rules (Part IV),” hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, July 15, 2008 (including testimony by Douglas Feith).
The proposed Office will resurrect the long-closed Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), the archive of which has been maintained by FAS for decades at https://ota.fas.org/.
If Congress needs help understanding the risks and rewards of a piece of technology, they shouldn’t have to rely solely on the sparknotes from a salesman. The rub is much simpler: Congress needs nerds.
If we set up the new OTA to do its job well, members will see it as the first stop to see what issues are lurking around the corner. They will bring their questions early. And they will keep coming back for more.
Even the best-designed policy rests on assumptions about who will staff it, how it will be funded, whether the responsible institutions have ever coordinated, and if the goals are achievable.