News Release

Contact: Pender M. McCarter, APR, Fellow PRSA
Director, IEEE-USA Communications & Public Relations
Phone: + 1 202 785 0017, ext. 8353
E-Mail: p.mccarter@ieee.org

IEEE-USA Backs Center to Provide Congress
With Technological Expertise

WASHINGTON (08 October 2004) — 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 (CTSA) to provide Congress with technological expertise.

In a letter sent on 6 October to Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) and Rep. Amo Houghton (R-N.Y.), IEEE-USA and its sister organizations wrote: "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, the CTSA would operate under the Government Accountability Office (GAO) as overseen by the Technical Assessment Board, consisting of Members of Congress and the Comptroller General of the GAO.

IEEE-USA joined a coalition which included AAES, ASCE, ASHRAE, FMS, NSPE and the Optical Society of America.

The joint letter is posted at www.ieeeusa.org/policy/POLICY/2004/100704.pdf.

IEEE-USA is an organizational unit of the 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. For more information, go to www.ieeeusa.org.

# # #

IEEE-USA
1828 L Street, N.W., Suite 1202
Washington, DC 20036-5104
Phone: 202-785-0017, Fax: 202-785-0835

Last Update:  15 May 2007
Staff Contact: Pender M. McCarter, p.mccarter@ieee.org