Underserved Area Nursing Relief Restoration Act of 2010

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1320) to amend the Federal Advisory Committee Act to increase the transparency and accountability of Federal advisory committees, and for other purposes, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 1320, the Federal Advisory Committee Act Amendments, was introduced by Representative Clay, chairman of the Oversight Committee's Information Policy Subcommittee, on March 5, 2009.

Representative Clay introduced a similar bill last Congress that passed the House by voice vote. This legislation amends the Federal Advisory Committee Act, known as FACA, which is a cornerstone of open government. It was enacted in 1972 in response to concerns that Federal advisory committees were not objective and had little oversight or accountability.

FACA requires that committees be balanced, transparent, and independent from the influence of special interests.

Agencies have not consistently implemented FACA, and the courts have created loopholes that undermine the purposes of the act. H.R. 1320 closes those loopholes and strengthens FACA, H.R. 1320 promotes independent advisory committees by requiring committee members to be appointed without regard to political affiliation. It will also provide that the committee members who are appointed as experts must comply with conflict of interest and other ethics requirements.

H.R. 1320 improves the transparency of advisory committees by requiring agencies to disclose more information about committees. For example, agencies are required to provide information about the process used to identify and appoint committee members, the process of selecting members for balance, and a justification of need for any members that represent stakeholder interests.

Agencies must disclose when a committee member is issued a conflict of interest waiver and provide a copy of the waiver, a summary of the need for the waiver, and a reason for granting it.

Agencies also must disclose when meetings are taking place, and following a committee meeting, the agency must provide a transcript or recording of the meeting. Currently, advisory committees can avoid having public meetings and other requirements of FACA by conducting business through subcommittees.

The bill closes that loophole and makes it clear that FACA applies to subcommittees. The bill also clarifies that committees set up by contractors are subject to FACA. This bill is the epitome of good government. I urge my colleagues to support it.

House of Representatives,

Committee on Ways and Means,

Washington, DC, July 21, 2010.

Hon. Edolphus Towns,

Chairman, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,

Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. Chairman: I am writing regarding H.R. 1320, the

``Federal Advisory Committee Act Amendments of 2009.'' As you

know, the Committee on Ways and Means had concerns regarding

this bill because the Federal Trade Advisory Committees are

established under the Trade Act of 1974, as amended.

In 2008, our two Committees exchanged letters regarding

similar legislation introduced in the 110th Congress, H.R.

5687. Recently, an understanding was reached on modifications

to the current bill, H.R. 1320, that would address my

Committee's concerns. I appreciate your willingness, and the

willingness of your staff, to work with me and my staff on

this important legislation.

To expedite this legislation for Floor consideration, the

Committee will forgo action on this bill. This is being done

with the understanding that it does not in any way prejudice

the Committee with respect to the appointment of conferees or

the full exercise of its jurisdictional prerogatives on this

bill or similar legislation in the future.

I would appreciate your response to this letter, confirming

this understanding with respect to H.R. 1320, and would ask

that a copy of our exchange of letters on this matter be

included in the Committee report on the bill and in the

Congressional Record during House Floor consideration of this

bill.

Once again, thank you for your work and cooperation on this

legislation.

Sincerely,

Sander M. Levin,

Acting Chairman.

Madam Speaker, I'm pleased to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Clay), the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives, the author of the bill before us.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1320, as amended.

I have no further speakers, and I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this measure.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today in support of H.R. 1320, the Federal Advisory Committee Act Amendments of 2010.

The Federal Advisory Committee Act, first signed into law in 1972, is an important safeguard of the public's right to know. Congress originally passed FACA to formally establish Federal advisory committees and set guidelines for their creation and management in response to beliefs by many citizens and Members of Congress that such committees were duplicative, inefficient, and lacked adequate control or oversight. FACA required formal reporting and oversight procedures, balanced membership, open meetings, and ensured the advice provided by committees be objective and accessible to the public.

Federal advisory committees bring together private and governmental experts to examine issues and recommend statutory, regulatory, or other actions. There are over 900 active committees with nearly 64,000 total members that provide advice and recommendations to 50 Federal agencies. These committees make key decisions affecting every American on vital issues such as health care, civil rights, and national security.

Congress intended FACA to shed some light into how agencies make decisions based upon advice and recommendations from individuals outside of government. It also ensures that the benefits received from such committees are justified to taxpayers.

As originally introduced and reported, H.R. 1320 enhanced the advisory committee selection process and expanded the disclosure of conflicts of interest of committee members. The introduced and reported version of H.R. 1320 was essentially the same bill that many of my colleagues supported last Congress when it passed by a voice vote. However, Madam Speaker, over the past year the bill that many of our colleagues supported in the last Congress was watered down by the majority; and until recent changes, Madam Speaker, we would have been asked to support a bill that was promoting less transparency. Following talks with the administration, the majority proposed a revised version of H.R. 1320 this spring that reduced transparency, limited disclosure, and weakened the prohibition on conflicts of interest. This came as a shock to many of my Republican colleagues on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, as a 2004 GAO investigation found that agencies were using advisory committees to avoid disclosing conflicts of interest.

Thankfully, at the urging of Republican members on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Democrat and Republican members of that committee were able to work together and have given this body today a bill that increases transparency and accountability of both the committees and the agencies that they advise. H.R. 1320 provides strong protections against conflicts of interest and robust transparency into the workings of these committees. The bill also closes a loophole that many agencies were using to get around financial disclosure requirements and ethics requirements for members of those committees.

I commend Mr. Clay, Chairman Towns, Ranking Member Issa, and other distinguished members of the committee for their hard work and desire to make the Federal Government more transparent and open and accountable to the American people.

I urge all Members to support H.R. 1320.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I am happy to encourage our Members to support passage of this bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

General Leave

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

I thank my colleague from the District of Columbia for yielding.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 1320, the Federal Advisory Committee Act Amendments, strengthens one of our central open-government laws.

Advisory committees provide the President and agencies with expert advice on complex issues. Current examples include the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform that was established to advise the President on policies to achieve fiscal sustainability and the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

FACA is intended to ensure that advisory committees like these provide objective advice and operate in a way that is open and accessible to the public. But over time, FACA has been undermined by inconsistent implementation. This bill closes loopholes that allow agencies to get around the act and makes the advisory committee process more transparent.

This bill is being brought up with an amendment that addresses feedback we received from the Office of Government Ethics. The primary change addresses how agencies appoint members to advisory committees. The GAO has identified improper designation of committee members as one of the primary problems with implementation of FACA.

GAO found that some agencies are avoiding Federal ethics rules by appointing members that should be appointed as special government employees as representative members.

The amendment to H.R. 1320 will require agencies to properly designate committee members and require agency ethics officials to certify the designation. If an agency appoints a member to represent a specific interest, the agency has to put information on its Web site justifying its decision and identify the interest the member represents.

The amendment also makes improvements to the bill proposed by Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member Issa. Specifically, these changes include requiring agencies to establish a process that allows the public to nominate potential committee members and requiring agencies to disclose when a committee member is recused because of a conflict of interest.

A section has also been added to the bill to make the bill consistent with the way trade advisory committees are treated under the Trade Act. Trade committees are exempt from FACA's open meetings requirement and H.R. 1320 will preserve that exemption.

H.R. 1320 will shed light on who is advising the government, how they are advising the government, and what they are saying. I urge any colleagues to support this important open-government legislation.