The Government Accountability Office said it intends to “continue to build its capacity†to meet congressional demand for science and technology activities through the agency’s new Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics arm. GAO said Thursday it established the STAA team in January to support its operations focused on providing S&T-based federal agency assessments to Congress.
The watchdog noted that the team works to “address key congressional interests†in S&T programs and oversee such efforts across the federal enterprise. According to GAO, its S&T portfolio has expanded to include engineering and project controls, best practices guidelines and technology assessments.
The agency plans to hire more experts in technical areas such as aerospace, computer science, biology and nuclear physics in the future. The STAA team is currently comprised of 59 professionals or around one-half of GAO’s projected amount detailed in its April 2019 plan.
