tation for objectivity. The project
team judged that''empirically based
policy prescriptions'' (sometimes
labeled options) were present and
well supported in three of the 18
reports in its sample (see ch. 5).
TiinelinessofOTA reports. Timeliness is vital for the-effective use by
Congress of OTA's policy analysis: From the congressional perspective. a report with solid analYsis that comes too late may not be
useful.j Congressional staff interviewed for this project said that
timeliness in the delivery of OT A
reports was a problem they sometimes encountered in OTA's process, if not its policy analysis (see
ch. 3).
An OT A report may be late for
several reasons. Sometimes the
agency commits to a schedule that
it is unable to meet, either because
the necessary staff are unavailable
or because the time needed to complete an assessment was underestimated. In other cases, the responsibility may lie with the requesting
committee. The committee may not
anticipate its needs early enou·gh to
allow OT A adequate time to complete a full-scale assessment. The
'Sometimes •. though, an OTA re.Port issued
too I ale to tx: oF use by one Congress may be
useful tu a later Congress: there have been
several instances ip which legislation has
been enacted five years or so after an OT A
report and has borne many markfngs of the
curlier OT A work.