Technology Administration to be Shuttered This Weekend

Congress may be able to use a Continuing Resolution to keep most of the federal government open after the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, but the Technology Administration (TA) will be closing forever this Sunday.

 

TA was established by the Stevenson-Wydler Act of 1980 to “conduct technology policy analyses to improve United States industrial productivity, technology, and innovation, and cooperate with United States industry in the improvement of its productivity, technology, and ability to compete successfully in world markets.” Besides this duty, TA was also originally charged with assisting with the implementation of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, monitoring Japanese scientific innovations, and overseeing the collection and translation of Japanese technical reports and documents, among others.

 

The budget for TA has fallen over the years, with $6 million allocated for fiscal year 2006 and $1.6 million in FY 2007. The budget request for the 2008 fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1, 2007, includes marginal funding for personnel and other costs associated with terminating the agency. The policy activities for which TA is presently responsible will be moved to the Secretary’s office.

 

TA has served as an administrative unit within the U.S. Department of Commerce overseeing the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and the Office of Technology Policy (OTP). NIST and NTIS will be stand-alone units within the Commerce Department. For OTP, however, instead of a maintaining separate office, a senior advisor within the Commerce Department will now chair a department-wide council to manage technology policy for the Department.

 

While small in size, distinct offices for TA and OTP served to coordinate technology policy for the executive branch. OTP objectives and activities over the years have aligned with supporting broader state and regional TBED policy development as well. For several years, it maintained a small pool of funds to support TBED relevant research and projects, including the short-lived but popular Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Technology (EPSCoT) pilot program.

 

TA has produced a number of reports over the years on such subjects as technology transfer at federal laboratories, business incubator performance, science and technology indicators, Japanese patent law, and advanced technologies such as fuel cells and biotechnology. More than 50 of them are currently available for free download at www.technology.gov/reports.htm. It is unknown at the present time how long these reports will be available after Sept. 30.

 

In addition, OTP provided a small grant to SSTI to fund the creation of the TBED Resource Center, an online library of links to more than 4,600 reports, papers, strategic plans and studies relevant to TBED and science and technology policy and program delivery. The TBED Resource Center is accessible through www.tbedresourcecenter.org.