IEEE-USA backs center to give Congress technological expertise

Washington, D.C.—IEEE-USA has joined a coalition of engineering societies in supporting a bipartisan bill recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would establish a Center for Scientific and Technical Assessment (CSTA) to provide Congress with technological expertise.

By Control Engineering Staff October 19, 2004

Washington, D.C.— IEEE-USA has joined a coalition of engineering societies in supporting a bipartisan bill recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would establish a Center for Scientific and Technical Assessment (CSTA) to provide Congress with technological expertise.

In an Oct. 6 letter to Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) and Rep. Amo Houghton (R-N.Y.), IEEE-USA and its sister organizations wrote that, ‘The sheer volume and complexity of the technological data facing federal legislators necessitate some mechanism for balanced, non-partisan and technologically informed analysis provided in a judicious manner.’

As envisioned in H.R. 4670, CSTA would operate under the Government Accountability Office (GAO) as overseen by the Technical Assessment Board, consisting of members of Congress and the GAO’s comptroller general.

IEEE-USA reports the other members of the coalition to form CSTA include AAES, ASCE, ASHRAE, NSPE and the Optical Society of America. Their joint letter to Congress is posted at https://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/POLICY/2004/100704.pdf .

IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.(IEEE). It was created in 1973 to advance the public good and promote the careers and public-policy interests of the more than 225,000 technology professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE. The IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional society.

Control Engineering Daily News Desk
Jim Montague, news editor
jmontague@reedbusiness.com