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2.3.5 Federal Advisory Committee Act 



Several of the Forum alternatives could be classified as Federal advisory committees 

 coming imder the requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) of 

 1972. A regular advisory group consisting of non-Federal members would be exempted 

 from FACA only if it conformed with the following language: 



"Exempted: 



"Any meeting initiated by a Federal official(s) with more than one individual for 

 the purpose of obtaining the advice of individual attendees and not for the 

 purpose of utilizing the group to obtain consensus advice or recommendations. 

 However, agencies should be aware that such a group would be covered by the 

 Act when an agency accepts the group's deliberations as a source of consensus 

 advice or recommendations." 



In other words, if members of the advisory groups express individual viewpoints but 

 there is no effort to achieve a group recommendation, then the advisory group could be 

 exempt from FACA. Several of the Forum alternatives talk about "decisions" made by a 

 group consisting of non-Federal members. This would appear to place such groups 

 within the purview of the FACA. If such a group were created by Congressional 

 authorization. Congress could, of course, specifically exempt the group from FACA. 



On February 10, 1993, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12838, Termination and 

 Limitation of Federal Advisory Committees, which states that executive departments 

 are to eliminate the number of FACA conuiuttees by one-third. The Executive Order 

 also states: 



Final Draft - September 1 5, 1993 32 



