PCAP - Presidential Climate Action Project

printed in the Federal Register and Title 3 of the Code of Federal Regulations. 452 The FederalRegister is replete with executive orders establishing committees, commissions, task forces andthe like. Notwithstanding this broad authority, there are some statutes that bear on the matter,primarily the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 453 which applies to committees notwholly comprised of federal employees, such as those contemplated by this proposal.The Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). A key purpose of FACA is open and efficientgovernment. 454 Thus, it does not restrict the establishment of advisory committees by thePresident, per se; rather it mandates certain procedural requirements, primarily:• Meetings must be open to the public and the public must be permitted to present theirviews.• All meeting minutes and reports must be available for public access.• The public must be notified of meetings by advertisement in the Federal Register. 455Further, there are guidelines that the President must follow “to the extent applicable” whencreating an advisory committee, such as:• Committee membership must be balanced by points of view.• Provisions must be made to ensure that the advice and recommendations of thecommittee will not be inappropriately influenced by the appointing authority or by anyspecial interest. 456Committees Subject to FACA. FACA is fairly all-inclusive. The term “advisory committee”means any committee, board, commission, council, conference, panel, task force, or other similargroup, or any subcommittee or other subgroup thereof which is established by statute orreorganization plan, established or utilized by the President, or established or utilized by one ormore agencies, in the interest of obtaining advice or recommendations for the President or one ormore agencies or officers of the Federal Government. 457Exceptions to FACA (committees not subject to the requirements of the statute) include:(1) any committee that is composed wholly of full-time, or permanent part-time, officers oremployees of the Federal Government; (2) any committee that is created by the NationalAcademy of Sciences or the National Academy of Public Administration; and (3) any committeeestablished or utilized by the Central Intelligence Agency or the Federal Reserve System. 458A committee is considered within the first exception if only federal employees have votingauthority. Participation in committee meetings and activities does not automatically make aperson a member of a committee, even if there is influential participation. The outsider might452 See Boundaries Report, Chapter 2(1) and (2).453 5 U.S.C. App. 2 §§ 1-16.454 Id. at § 2.455 Id. at App. 2 § 10.456 Id. at § 5(b).457 Id. at § 3(2).458 Id. at § 3(2)(c), § 4.CEES 119 | P age