1. Short title; table of contents (a) Short title This Act may be cited as the Federal Advisory Committee Act Amendments of 2019 . (b) Table of contents The table of contents for this Act is as follows: Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. Sec. 2. Ensuring independent advice and expertise. Sec. 3. Preventing efforts to circumvent the Federal Advisory Committee Act and public disclosure. Sec. 4. Increasing transparency of advisory committees. Sec. 5. Managing Federal advisory committees. Sec. 6. Comptroller General review and reports. Sec. 7. Application of Federal Advisory Committee Act to trade advisory committees. Sec. 8. Definitions. Sec. 9. Technical and conforming amendments. Sec. 10. Effective date. Sec. 11. No additional funds authorized. 2. Ensuring independent advice and expertise (a) Bar on political litmus tests Section 9 of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) is amended— (1) in the section heading, by inserting MEMBERSHIP; after ADVISORY COMMITTEES; ; (2) by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as subsections (e) and (f), respectively; and (3) by inserting after subsection (a) the following: (b) Appointments made without regard to political affiliation or activity All appointments to advisory committees shall be made without regard to political affiliation or political campaign activity, unless required by Federal statute. . (b) Minimizing conflicts of interest Section 9 of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.), as amended by subsection (a) of this section, is further amended by inserting after subsection (b) (as added by such subsection (a)) the following: (c) Public nominations of committee members (1) Before making an appointment to an advisory committee, the head of an agency shall— (A) solicit nominations for potential committee members; (B) if the head of the agency is required to publish a notice under subsection (a)(2), include in the notice a solicitation for nominations of potential committee members