Opinion ID: 344772
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Operation of the Council

Text: 23 In order to understand the nature of appellants' challenge in this case, it is necessary to outline the manner in which the NPC operates. First of all, the Council provides advice only when requested to do so by the Secretary of the Interior or some other agency head; the initiative always flows from the agency to the advisory committee. 65 When advice has been requested, the subgroups of the Council research and write a report on the subject in question. This report is then presented to the full Council which approves it for transmission to the federal agency. 66 24 The NPC provides advice only to federal agencies; the Council, as it presently exists, has no direct input into the Congress. The Council's advice is used by the DOI and other agencies to formulate their own policy positions on the various issues which they must face. It may appear obvious to most that an advisory committee exists to advise and not to decide. Nevertheless, Congress chose to emphasize this point in FACA by stating that 25 advisory committees shall be utilized solely for advisory functions. Determinations of action to be taken and policy to be expressed with respect to matters upon which an advisory committee reports or makes recommendations shall be made solely by the President or an officer of the Federal Government. 67 26 The NPC Charter also contains a provision to this effect. 68 It is true that the DOI relies on the work of the Council and views it as being of inestimable value to the Department, 69 but the basic point remains that the NPC does not formulate or make policy on its own. Rather it is one source of information on which a federal agency can draw in making its own policy decisions or in making recommendations to the Congress. Appellants seek to enjoin the Council from furnishing any 70 further advice to the DOI, the FEA, or other federal agencies until the membership of the Council is reconstituted in some court-approved fashion. 71 27 Having described the nature of appellants' challenge in this case, and having made the necessary assumptions as to the illegality of the Council's membership, we now turn to an examination of the injuries which appellants believe to be caused by this assumed illegality.