Contact: Chriss Swaney
(412) 268-5776

For immediate release:
June 11, 2001

Carnegie Mellon Researcher Coordinates Efforts To Improve Science and Technology Advice for Congressional Leaders

PITTSBURGH‹Carnegie Mellon Professor Granger Morgan is leading an effort to develop better ways to advise Congress about current and future issues in science and technology. Approximately 100 Congressional staff members and leaders from the science and technology policy community will meet in Washington, D.C. to evaluate several proposed strategies.

Morgan, head of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, said the approaches being considered include creating a venue for Congress to farm out analysis to think tanks and universities nationwide, setting up a new analysis group inside one of the existing Congressional agencies like the Library of Congress, creating a new analysis group within Congress, improving the way Congress uses the analysis capabilities of the National Academies of Science and Engineering and creating an outside think-tank which would work exclusively for Congress.

The independent technical advice would cover issues such as improving the nation's air traffic control system, how to manage genetically modified crops and how to improve computer security.

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday, June 14.
WHERE: Washington, D.C., AAAS Building, 1200 New York Ave.