It's been 21 years since the Republican Congress zeroed out the $20M budget of the Office of Technology Assessment, a casualty of Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" that deprived Congress of its principle source of technological expertise.
Even if you accept Gingrich's view that the US Government needed to be radically shrunk, it's hard to imagine a stupider decision than jettisoning technology experts on the eve of the 21st century, especially when those experts cost the country less than a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the Congressional budget.
Because the backgrounds of Congresspeople is too focused on law. IIRC, there are only two engineers in Congress. As a computer science major, I find it incredibly annoying that tech legislation is being talked about and proposed by people that have no actual understanding of technology.
Our government needs to be much more than just lawyers.
