I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2977
To amend the Federal Advisory Committee Act to clarify public disclosure
requirements that are applicable to the National Academy of Sciences
and the National Academy of Public Administration.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 9, 1997
Mr. HORN (for himself, Mrs. MALONEY of New York, Mr. BURTON of Indiana,
and Mr. WAXMAN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight
A BILL
To amend the Federal Advisory Committee Act to clarify
public disclosure requirements that are applicable to the
National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy
of Public Administration.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Advisory Com-
mittee Act Amendments of 1997’’.
SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE FEDERAL ADVISORY COM-
MITTEE ACT.
(a) EXCLUSIONS FROM DEFINITION.—Section 3(2)
of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.)
is amended in the matter following subparagraph (C), by
striking ‘‘such term excludes’’ and all that follows through
the period and inserting the following: ‘‘such term ex-
cludes (i) any committee that is composed wholly of full-
time, or permanent part-time, officers or employees of the
Federal Government, and (ii) any committee that is cre-
ated by the National Academy of Sciences or the National
Academy of Public Administration.’’.
(b) REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO THE NATIONAL
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND THE NATIONAL ACADEMY
OF
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION.—Such Act is further
amended by redesignating section 15 as section 16 and
inserting after section 14 the following new section:
‘‘REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO THE NATIONAL ACADEMY
OF SCIENCES AND THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF PUB-
LIC ADMINISTRATION
‘‘SEC. 15. (a) IN GENERAL.—An agency may not use
any advice or recommendation provided by the National
Academy of Sciences or National Academy of Public Ad-
ministration that was developed by use of a committee cre-
ated by that academy under an agreement with an agency,
unless—
‘‘(1) the committee was not subject to any ac-
tual management or control by an agency or an offi-
cer of the Federal Government;
‘‘(2) in the case of a committee created after
the date of the enactment of the Federal Advisory
Committee Act Amendments of 1997, the member-
ship of the committee was appointed in accordance
with the requirements described in subsection (b)(1);
and
‘‘(3) in developing the advice or recommenda-
tion, the academy complied with—
‘‘(A) subsection (b)(2) through (6), in the
case of any advice or recommendation provided
by the National Academy of Sciences; or
‘‘(B) subsection (b)(2) and (5), in the case
of any advice or recommendation provided by
the National Academy of Public Administration.
‘‘(b) REQUIREMENTS.—The requirements referred to
in subsection (a) are as follows:
‘‘(1) The Academy shall determine and provide
public notice of the names and brief biographies of
individuals that the Academy appoints or intends to
appoint to serve on the committee. The Academy
shall determine and provide a reasonable opportunity
for the public to comment on such appointments be-
fore they are made or, if the Academy determines
such prior comment is not practicable, in the period
immediately following the appointments. The Acad-
emy shall make its best efforts to ensure that (A)
no individual appointed to serve on the committee
has a conflict of interest that is relevant to the func-
tions to be performed, unless such conflict is
promptly and publicly disclosed and the Academy de-
termines that the conflict is unavoidable, (B) the
committee membership is fairly balanced as deter-
mined by the Academy to be appropriate for the
functions to be performed, and (C) the final report
of the Academy will be the result of the Academy’s
independent judgment. The Academy shall require
that individuals that the Academy appoints or in-
tends to appoint to serve on the committee inform
the Academy of the individual’s conflicts of interest
that are relevant to the functions to be performed.
‘‘(2) The Academy shall determine and provide
public notice of committee meetings that will be
open to the public.
‘‘(3) The Academy shall ensure that meetings
of the committee to gather data from individuals
who are not officials, agents, or employees of the
Academy are open to the public, unless the Academy
emy determines that the report would disclose mat-
ters described in that section, the Academy shall
make public an abbreviated version of the report
that does not disclose those matters.
‘‘(6) After publication of the final report, the
Academy shall make publicly available the names of
the principal reviewers who reviewed the report in
draft form and who are not officials, agents, or em-
ployees of the Academy.
‘‘(c) REGULATIONS.—The Administrator of General
Services may issue regulations implementing this sec-
tion.’’.
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE AND APPLICATION.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-
graph (2), this section and the amendments made by
this section shall take effect on the date of the en-
actment of this Act.
(2) RETROACTIVE EFFECT.—Subsection (a) and
the amendments made by subsection (a) shall be ef-
fective as of October 6, 1972, except that they shall
not apply with respect to or otherwise affect any
particular advice or recommendations that are sub-
ject to any judicial action filed before the date of the
enactment of this Act.
SEC. 3. REPORT.
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment
of this Act, the Administrator of General Services shall
submit a report to the Congress on the implementation
of and compliance with the amendments made by this Act.
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