Congress, the President, and executive branch agency heads may create advisory bodies. Pursuant to statute, the General Services Administration (GSA) maintains and administers management guidelines for federal advisory committees. In FY2011, 1,029 FACA committees with a total of 69,750 members reported total operating costs of $395,179,373 among 51 departments and agencies. In the 112 th Congress, one bill has been introduced that would affect FACA's implementation and administration. 3124 , the Federal Advisory Committee Act Amendments of 2011. 3124 would require the selection of advisory committee members without regard to their partisan affiliation and that advisory body subcommittees and privately contracted committees adhere to FACA requirements. Among other changes, H.R. 3124 seeks to clarify the ethics requirements of committee members and increases records access requirements. On October 6, 2011, H.R. 3124 was concurrently referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the House Committee on Ways and Means. No further action has been taken on the bill. This report provides a legislative and executive-branch history of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Subsequently, Congress enacted the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA; 5 U.S.C. Appendix; 86 Stat. 770, as amended). FACA and the 112th Congress

On October 6, 2011, Representative William Lacy Clay introduced H.R. 3124 seeks to increase public access to federal advisory committees, clarify ethics requirements of FACA committee members, and extend FACA requirements to federally contracted advisory committees that are currently not governed by FACA. On October, 13, 2011, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform ordered the bill to be reported by unanimous consent. In addition, H.R. The agency must also put online a copy of each such certification, a summary description of the conflict necessitating the certification, and the reason for granting the certification; Any recusal agreement made by a member or any recusal known to the agency that occurs during the course of a meeting or other work of the committee; A summary of the process used by the advisory committee for making decisions; Detailed minutes of all meetings of the committee and a description of committee efforts to make meetings accessible to the public using online technologies (such as video recordings) or other techniques (such as audio recordings); Any written determination by the President or the head of the agency to which the advisory committee reports, pursuant to section 10(d), to close a meeting or any portion of a meeting and the reasons for such determination; Notices of future meetings of the committee; and Any additional information considered relevant by the head of the agency to which the advisory committee reports. FACA was primarily created to provide the public and Congress greater access to the operations of certain, qualifying federal advisory committees. Committee procedures may be included in the legislation that creates an advisory body. The studies included policy recommendations for advisory bodies. The purpose of S. 3529 is to: strengthen the authority of Congress and the executive branch to limit the use of Federal advisory committees to those that are necessary and serve an essential purpose; provide uniform standards for the creation, operation, and management of such committees; provide that the Congress and the public are kept fully and currently informed as to the number, purposes, membership, and costs of advisory committees, including their accomplishments; and assure that Federal advisory committees shall be advisory only.
Federal advisory committees—which may be designated as commissions, councils, or task forces—are created as provisional advisory bodies to collect viewpoints on various policy issues. Advisory bodies have been created to address a host of issues and can help the government manage and solve complex or divisive issues. Congress, the President, or an agency head may create a federal advisory committee to render independent advice or make policy recommendations to various federal agencies or departments.
In 1972, Congress enacted the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA; 5 U.S.C. Appendix—Federal Advisory Committee Act; 86 Stat.770, as amended). Enactment of FACA was prompted by the perception that advisory committees were duplicative, inefficient, and lacked adequate control or oversight. FACA mandates certain formal structural and operational requirements, including formal reporting and oversight procedures. Additionally, FACA requires committee meetings be open to the public, unless they meet certain requirements. Also, FACA committee records are to be accessible to the public. Pursuant to statute, the General Services Administration (GSA) maintains and administers management guidelines for federal advisory committees. During FY2011, 1,029 active committees reported a total of 69,750 members. Operating costs for those committees reportedly was $395,179,373, of which $188,342,083 was reportedly spent on federal staff to support the committees' operations.
FACA was originally enacted to make executive branch advisory committee operations more accessible and transparent. Congress can decide, however, to apply FACA's requirements to a legislative branch advisory committee. Existing statutes are sometimes unclear as to whether a congressionally created committee would have to comply with FACA's requirements—except in cases when the statute includes language that indicates whether the act is to apply.
In the 112th Congress, one bill has been introduced that would modify FACA's implementation and administration. On October 6, 2011, Representative William Lacy Clay introduced H.R. 3124, the Federal Advisory Committee Act Amendments of 2011. Among other changes, the bill would require the selection of advisory committee members without regard to their partisan affiliation. In addition, H.R. 3124 would create a formal process for the public to recommend potential advisory committee members. The bill seeks to clarify the ethics requirements placed on committee members, and the bill increases records access requirements. On October 6, 2011, the bill was concurrently referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the House Committee on Ways and Means. On October 13, 2011, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform ordered the bill to be reported by unanimous consent. No further action has been taken on the bill.
In addition to considering H.R. 3124, the 112th Congress may create new advisory bodies as well as oversee the operations of existing bodies. This report offers a history of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, examines its current requirements, and analyzes various advisory body design elements and operations.