H. R. 2977
One Hundred Fifth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE FIRST SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
the seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven
An Act
To amend the Federal Advisory Committee Act to clarify public disclosure require-
ments 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 Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Advisory Committee
Act Amendments of 1997’’.
SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE FEDERAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE 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 excludes (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 created 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 ADMINISTRA-
TION.—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 PUBLIC 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 Administration that was developed
by use of a committee created by that academy under an agreement
with an agency, unless—
‘‘(1) the committee was not subject to any actual manage-
ment or control by an agency or an officer 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 membership of the committee was
appointed in accordance with the requirements described in
subsection (b)(1); and
‘‘(3) in developing the advice or recommendation, the acad-
emy complied with—
H. R. 2977—2
‘‘(A) subsection (b)(2) through (6), in the case of any
advice or recommendation provided by the National Acad-
emy 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 sub-
section (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 commit-
tee. The Academy shall determine and provide a reasonable
opportunity for the public to comment on such appointments
before they are made or, if the Academy determines such prior
comment is not practicable, in the period immediately following
the appointments. The Academy 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
functions to be performed, unless such conflict is promptly
and publicly disclosed and the Academy determines that the
conflict is unavoidable, (B) the committee membership is fairly
balanced as determined 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 intends 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 commit-
tee to gather data from individuals who are not officials, agents,
or employees of the Academy are open to the public, unless
the Academy determines that a meeting would disclose matters
described in section 552(b) of title 5, United States Code. The
Academy shall make available to the public, at reasonable
charge if appropriate, written materials presented to the
committee by individuals who are not officials, agents, or
employees of the Academy, unless the Academy determines
that making material available would disclose matters
described in that section.
‘‘(4) The Academy shall make available to the public as
soon as practicable, at reasonable charge if appropriate, a brief
summary of any committee meeting that is not a data gathering
meeting, unless the Academy determines that the summary
would disclose matters described in section 552(b) of title 5,
United States Code. The summary shall identify the committee
members present, the topics discussed, materials made avail-
able to the committee, and such other matters that the Academy
determines should be included.
‘‘(5) The Academy shall make available to the public its
final report, at reasonable charge if appropriate, unless the
Academy determines that the report would disclose matters
described in section 552(b) of title 5, United States Code. If
the Academy determines that the report would disclose matters
described in that section, the Academy shall make public an
H. R. 2977—3
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 employees of the Academy.
‘‘(c) REGULATIONS.—The Administrator of General Services may
issue regulations implementing this section.’’.
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE AND APPLICATION.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in paragraph (2), this
section and the amendments made by this section shall take
effect on the date of the enactment of this Act.
(2) RETROACTIVE EFFECT.—Subsection (a) and the amend-
ments made by subsection (a) shall be effective as of October
6, 1972, except that they shall not apply with respect to or
otherwise affect any particular advice or recommendations that
are subject 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.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.