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Increasing the Transparency of Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) Information

The Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 (Public Law 92-463) created a structured process for creating, operating, and terminating Federal advisory committees that provide advice to the Executive Branch of government. This law also stipulated requirements for:

  • public notification of the creation and operation of Federal advisory committees;
  • public input; and
  • data collection and reporting of Federal advisory committee activities.

Between 1972 and 1997 an annual comprehensive review of agency Federal advisory committees was reported to the President and Congress through an annual hard copy report. Since 1998, comprehensive information on Federal advisory committees has been collected by a specialized, Federal government, Interagency, information-sharing database that collects data on Federal advisory committee activities government-wide and is publicly available on the web. Since 2009, the data for the past 10 years from this database has also been available on data.gov.

Built as a data collection and reporting tool, and not a public communication tool, the FACA database may not be intuitive to navigate if someone is not well versed on the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Consistent with the Open Government Directive, the purpose of this website is to make it easier for the public to understand the Federal Advisory Committee Act, to have easy access to highly requested information from the Federal Advisory Committee Act database, and to more easily find, and understand how to participate in, Federal advisory committee meetings across the government.

Timeline of Major FACA Events

FACA Timeline depicting years of key milestones. FACA Statute was enacted in 1972. Committee Management Secretariat begins operating in 1972. OMB Circular A-63 is issued in 1974. Government in the Sunshine Act happens in 1976. Executive Order 12024 is issued in 1977. Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (First Regulation) happens in 1979. Final Rule (First Promulgations) happens in 1987. Executive Order 12838 is issued in 1993. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) is passed in 1995. OMB Circular A-135 is issued in 1995. SMS Electronic Data is collected in 1996. Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Revision to Regulations) happens in 1997. FACA Amendments happen in 1997. Final Rule (Second Promulgation of Regulations) happens in 2001.

 

The shortcut to this page is www.gsa.gov/efaca.


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