United States, anticipation
Office of Technology Assessment, defunded and closed in 1995
Congress gave the Office of Technology Assessment, created under the Technology Assessment Act of 1972, the statutory function to provide early indications of the probable impacts of technology; it appropriated $21,970,000 for the office with a cap of 143 staff for fiscal year 1995, then appropriated $3,615,000 for fiscal year 1996 to carry out its orderly closure, with no more than 17 employees paid except for severance.
3,615,000 US dollars, appropriation for the orderly closure of the office of technology assessment, FY1996. 21,970,000 US dollars, appropriation for office of technology assessment salaries and expenses, the last operating year, FY1995. US Government Publishing Office, Public Law 104-53, Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 1996 (109 Stat. 514), retrieved 2026-10-02.
The move, and what it needed
Congress built its own analytic office, governed by a bipartisan board of members, to give legislators early warning on technology choices, and later closed it through the appropriations bill rather than by repeal, cutting its funding by roughly five sixths in one year and capping staff for the wind-down.
Preconditions
- A legislature with its own budget for in-house analytic agencies
- Bipartisan support strong enough to protect a small agency through spending rounds, which failed here
- A statutory mandate that survives defunding, so the function can be revived without new law
Where else it has been used: European parliaments built technology assessment offices on the model, including the German Bundestag's TAB, which cites the US office as its model; the US original closed while the copies continued.
Limits: Technology assessment is adjacent to strategic foresight, not the same thing: the office studied technologies on request from congressional committees rather than running whole-of-government scenarios. It is filed here because its statute, 2 U.S.C. 472(c), states an anticipatory function, to provide early indications of the probable beneficial and adverse impacts of the applications of technology (govinfo, US Code 2023 edition, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title2/html/USCODE-2023-title2-chap15-sec472.htm). Both figures are appropriations, not spending or output: they show the money Congress gave, not what the office produced, and the 143 and 17 figures are statutory staff caps, not headcounts. The FY1995 figure comes from a different source, Public Law 103-283 in the Statutes at Large (108 Stat. 1423), inside a PDF on page 11 of the file (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-108/pdf/STATUTE-108-Pg1423.pdf). The authorising statute was not repealed and still appears in the US Code, so the office was ended by withdrawing funds rather than by abolishing its legal basis; it could be refunded without new legislation. The 1996 act also carried $2,500,000 of FY1995 funds forward to September 1996, so the FY1996 closure figure is not the whole of the wind-down money. Started is the year of the authorising Act, not the year the office first reported.
This record describes what United States delivered. It is linked to Government foresight capacity because no comparable dataset measures that capability. It does not affect the score or confidence.
More from United States
10 other deliveries from this country.
Measles elimination, and its erosion
The United States eliminated endemic measles transmission by 2000 through school-entry vaccination requirements, and falling coverage brought 2,777 confirmed cases by August 2026, the most since 1991, against 285 in all of 2024.
Federal funding gaps and the 2019 shutdown
The Congressional Research Service records 20 federal funding-gap shutdowns with at least one full day between FY1977 and FY2019, including the 35-day partial shutdown from 21 December 2018 to 25 January 2019, the longest in the period it surveys.
Affordable Connectivity Program, and its lapse
The Federal Communications Commission ran the Affordable Connectivity Program from 31 December 2021, paying monthly broadband discounts through voluntarily participating internet providers to more than 23 million enrolled households, and ended it on 1 June 2024 when the funding Congress had provided ran out.
Under the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, the federal government and the states built the Interstate System. In nominal dollars, the estimated federal cost to complete it rose from $34 billion in the 1958 Interstate Cost Estimate to $114 billion in the final estimate of 1991.
Operation Warp Speed, an HHS and DOD partnership, financed private vaccine makers' development, at-risk manufacturing and advance purchases, including a $5.97 billion contract for 300 million Pfizer/BioNTech doses. Three of the vaccines it bought held FDA emergency use authorization by 1 March 2021, the first from 11 December 2020.
CFPB Compliance Assistance Sandbox, rescinded in 2022 and withdrawn again in 2025
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opened a national Compliance Assistance Sandbox in September 2019, issued two sandbox approval orders in December 2020, terminated one of them in June 2022 and rescinded the policy with effect from 30 September 2022; a reissued version of January 2025 was withdrawn in May 2025.
Federally funded, state-administered adult basic, adult secondary and English language programmes served 2,629,643 participants in fiscal year 2000, and by fiscal year 2021 served 770,179, after a fall through every year the table shows up to fiscal year 2020 (627,728) and a partial rebound in 2021.
Manufacturing USA innovation institutes
In fiscal 2023 the 16 reporting Manufacturing USA institutes, public-private consortia sponsored by the Departments of Commerce, Defense and Energy, managed 929 applied research and development projects and held 2,921 memberships, 655 of them universities, community colleges and other academic members alongside 1,315 small and 493 large manufacturers.
National Flood Insurance Program coverage, and its erosion
OpenFEMA's records of National Flood Insurance Program contracts in force fell from 4,667,875 on 31 December 2009 to 3,589,275 on 31 December 2025, a fall of about 23 percent in the federal flood insurance base over 16 years.
Expanded Child Tax Credit of 2021, and its lapse
The American Rescue Plan, passed in March 2021, expanded the Child Tax Credit and made it payable monthly, and on 15 July 2021 the IRS paid roughly 15 billion dollars to families of nearly 60 million children; Congress did not extend the expansion beyond 2021.
The same indicator elsewhere
27 deliveries linked to Government foresight capacity in other countries.
Embrapa, a fifty-year bet on tropical agriculture
Brazil created a public agricultural research corporation in 1973 to make acidic tropical soils productive, kept it funded across every change of government since, and cereal production rose from 46.5 million tonnes in 2000 to 155.9 million in 2023.
The Delta Programme and its fund
The Netherlands legislated a standing programme against flooding and fresh-water shortage, run by an independent Delta Commissioner and paid from a dedicated Delta Fund that expects 27.4 billion euros to be available through 2050.
CGEE, the strategic studies center
Created in 2001, the Centro de Gestão e Estudos Estratégicos was designed to produce prospective studies and long-term recommendations for Brazilian science, technology and innovation policy, with 273 researchers and specialists signing its creation record.
Centre for Strategic Futures, foresight inside government
Singapore established the Centre for Strategic Futures in 2009 inside the Prime Minister's Office strategy system to study blind spots, run long-term futures research and develop foresight methods.
Legally binding carbon budgets
The United Kingdom's 2008 Climate Change Act made five-year emissions budgets a standing legal cycle set twelve years ahead, and by July 2026 seven budgets covered 2008 through 2042 while the first three had been met.
Fukushima decommissioning roadmap, a 30–40-year risk-reduction horizon
After the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident, Japan adopted a government-led mid-and-long-term decommissioning roadmap and set completion at roughly 30–40 years after cold shutdown, treating the work as continuous risk reduction rather than a one-off rebuild.
PLANAPP and REPLAN, a centre-of-government foresight network
Portugal's PLANAPP operates as a Centre of Government body for evidence-based foresight, planning, monitoring, evaluation and impact analysis; its REPLAN network lists five multisectoral team remits and held its inaugural meeting on 23 November 2022.
Labour Market Intelligence Programme and forward skills planning
South Africa's Department of Higher Education and Training ran a Labour Market Intelligence Programme from 2012, published the fifth iteration of its national occupations-in-high-demand list by April 2024, and identified 138 occupations for the emerging hydrogen-economy value chain.
Government Report on the Future and the parliamentary Committee for the Future
Every Finnish government since 1993 has submitted a Report on the Future to Parliament, answered by a standing Committee for the Future; Part I of the Orpo government's report, a 20-year scenario process prepared jointly by all ministries and informed by 40 dialogues on Finland's future, was submitted on 18 September 2025.
Foresight Centre at the Riigikogu (Arenguseire Keskus)
Estonia's parliament set up a statutory Foresight Centre within the Chancellery of the Riigikogu under the Foresight Act of 2016. In 2025 the centre published four research-direction reports and 17 short reports, drawing on more than 30 researchers and experts.
Rządowe Centrum Studiów Strategicznych, liquidated in 2006
Poland's Government Centre for Strategic Studies, attached to the Prime Minister, with tasks of strategic programming and forecasting of economic and social development set in article 14k of the Act of 8 August 1996 on the Council of Ministers, was liquidated as of 31 March 2006 by the Act of 17 February 2006, in the year its budget had been planned at PLN 10,016 thousand.
Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB)
Since 1990 the German Bundestag has kept an Office of Technology Assessment, run under contract by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, whose tasks include horizon scanning of scientific and technological trends at early stages; by 2026 it reported more than 200 projects and over 400 publications.
National Assembly Futures Institute
Korea's National Assembly enacted the National Assembly Future Institute Act on 12 December 2017 and opened the institute on 28 May 2018 with a statutory duty to predict and analyse changes in the future environment and derive mid to long term national development strategies; its English-language research report archive listed 203 reports in 2026.
Federal Chancellery situation and environment analysis (Perspektivstab)
Switzerland's Federal Chancellery runs a long-term, continuous situation and environment analysis for the Federal Council that looks 10 to 15 years ahead; it produced Herausforderungen in 2007 with expertise from 30 federal offices, Perspektiven 2025 in 2011, Perspektiven 2030 in 2014, the Schweiz 2030 and Schweiz 2035 reports and the scenario report Perspektiven Schweiz 2040, which feed the Federal Council's legislature planning.
Senate foresight delegation (Délégation sénatoriale à la prospective)
The Bureau of the French Senate created a foresight delegation in April 2009, succeeding the planning delegation set up by the 1982 planning reform law, with a mandate to study changes in society and the economy and to build scenarios; it has 36 senators appointed in proportion to the political groups and adopted reports in every year from 2010 to 2022 listed on its page.
Senate Commission on Future Challenges, Science, Technology and Innovation
Chile's Senate created the Commission on Future Challenges, Science, Technology and Innovation in April 2012, modelled on Finland's Committee for the Future, with the Academy of Sciences, National Prize winners and university rectors as permanent members; by July 2024 more than 700 scientists had worked in more than 20 of its expert tables.
Policy Horizons Canada, the federal foresight unit, and its 2024 disruption scan
Policy Horizons Canada, which describes itself as the Government of Canada's centre of excellence in foresight and reports through the Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development Canada, published Disruptions on the Horizon 2024, which identified and assessed 35 possible disruptions using survey input from around 500 stakeholders, colleagues and foresight experts across the Government of Canada and beyond.
Framtidskommissionen, the Prime Minister's time-limited future commission
The Swedish government appointed Framtidskommissionen, chaired by Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, in November 2011 to identify the societal challenges Sweden faces in the longer term, and by its final report in March 2013 it had held eight meetings, organised 40 open meetings, seminars and workshops, published twelve background reports and an anthology, and carried out four sub-inquiries.
National Planning Commission foresight work for Malawi 2063
Malawi's National Planning Commission, which signed a UNDP initiation plan in November 2020 to create a foresight unit and horizon scanning capability, reported for 2022/23 that it produced a foresight modelling report with modelled scenarios for the Malawi 2063 vision, policy briefs on three of the vision's pillars with UNDP and the finance ministry, and foresight modelling training for planners from ministries and academia.
Bureau National de la Prospective et de la Veille Stratégique and the national prospective studies
Côte d'Ivoire's Ministry of Planning and Development completed its fourth national prospective study, Côte d'Ivoire 2040, under the technical responsibility of the Bureau National de la Prospective et de la Veille Stratégique, after earlier national studies in 1973 to 1974, 1983 to 1984 and 1993 to 1995, and built eighteen thematic and three global scenarios to the 2040 horizon.
Teknologiraadet, the Norwegian Board of Technology
Norway's Board of Technology, an independent public advisory body created in 1999 on the Storting's initiative that also serves as secretariat for the Storting's technology group, delivered eight publications and held eleven meetings, four of them for the Storting's technology group, in 2025 on operating income of NOK 13.8 million.
Teknologiraadet, the Danish Board of Technology, abolished in 2012
Denmark's parliament abolished the statutory Board of Technology, set up by Act no. 375 of 14 June 1995 to assess technology and report to the Folketing, by Act no. 559 of 18 June 2012, after an all-party budget agreement of 15 November 2011 withdrew its annual grant, which had been DKK 10.5 million in 2011, to fund the research reserve.
Belgium's Federal Planning Bureau, which produces the government's economic forecasts and long-term demographic, ageing, energy and transport outlooks, published 34 publications in 2025 and employed 91 full-time equivalents at the end of the year, down from 96 at the end of 2023, after it stopped replacing departing staff in 2024 to meet savings targets.
Special Secretariat of Foresight (now of Long-term Planning)
Greece's Special Secretariat of Foresight published its Megatrends 2040 report and seven megatrend notes in February and March 2022 and then six further foresight studies to September 2026, including Generative AI Greece 2030 (January 2024), The Future of Work and Skills in Greece (February 2025) and Mediterranean Foresight (September 2026).
STRATA foresight for the Lietuva 2050 state progress strategy
Lithuania's Government Strategic Analysis Center (STRATA) followed six thematic public discussions on the country's future in May and June 2022 with nine foresight studies on megatrends and scenarios by policy area, which fed the vision and strategic ambitions of the draft state progress strategy Lietuva 2050.
Institut Royal des Etudes Stratégiques (IRES)
Morocco's Royal Institute for Strategic Studies, announced in the 2003 Throne Speech to strengthen the country's capacities for analysis, adaptation and anticipation and created by Dahir No 1-07-183 of 30 November 2007, published the twelfth edition of its strategic dashboard on Morocco's international positioning on 28 November 2024 and was still issuing general reports in 2025.
Long-term Insights Briefings under the Public Service Act 2020
New Zealand's Public Service Act 2020 required every departmental chief executive to publish a Long-term Insights Briefing on future trends, risks and opportunities at least once every three years, and nineteen were published in the first round, which concluded in mid-2023, four of them produced jointly by several agencies.