2 U.S.C. § 471 : US Code - Section 471: Congressional findings and declaration of purpose

Search 2 U.S.C. § 471 : US Code - Section 471: Congressional findings and declaration of purpose

The Congress hereby finds and declares that:
(a) As technology continues to change and expand rapidly, its
applications are - 
(1) large and growing in scale; and
(2) increasingly extensive, pervasive, and critical in their
impact, beneficial and adverse, on the natural and social
environment.
(b) Therefore, it is essential that, to the fullest extent
possible, the consequences of technological applications be
anticipated, understood, and considered in determination of public
policy on existing and emerging national problems.
(c) The Congress further finds that:
(1) the Federal agencies presently responsible directly to the
Congress are not designed to provide the legislative branch with
adequate and timely information, independently developed,
relating to the potential impact of technological applications,
and
(2) the present mechanisms of the Congress do not and are not
designed to provide the legislative branch with such information.
(d) Accordingly, it is necessary for the Congress to - 
(1) equip itself with new and effective means for securing
competent, unbiased information concerning the physical,
biological, economic, social, and political effects of such
applications; and
(2) utilize this information, whenever appropriate, as one
factor in the legislative assessment of matters pending before
the Congress, particularly in those instances where the Federal
Government may be called upon to consider support for, or
management or regulation of, technological applications.