Technology: Federal Role

In the past half century, the federal government has increased its involvement in the development and regulation of technology. The House Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration was formed in 1958 and promptly wrote the Space Act, which created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

In 1976, Congress established the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) with a mandate to advise the President within the Executive Office on the effects of science and technology on domestic and international affairs. OSTP leads an interagency effort to develop and to implement sound science and technology policies and budgets and to work with the private sector, state and local governments, the science and higher education communities, and other nations.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is one of the largest sponsors of research and development in the U.S. and supports thousands of research projects annually. DOE established the Office of Science which provides more than 40% of total funding for basic research in the physical sciences. It oversees and is the principal federal funding agency of nuclear and high-energy physics research programs and manages fundamental research programs in basic energy sciences, biological and environmental sciences, and computations science. The Office of Science is also the federal government’s largest single funder of materials and chemical sciences, and it supports unique and vital parts of U.S. research in climate change, geophysics, genomics, life sciences, and science education.