page 3 CHART 14 NUMBER OF MEMBERS PER REPORT This chart shows that it took far more members in 1986 to produce one report than it did in, say, 1979. However, since the cost per member has decreased, the cost per report has fluctuated fairly randomly, and the number of reports per committee has stayed fairly constant, we can see that each report has had more members contributing to it while not costing significantly more. CHART 15 TYPE OF COMMITTEE CONTINUING OR AD HOC This chart reflects both the total number of committees and CHART 16 COMMITTEE AUTHORIZATION This chart shows that the source of the large decrease in advisory committees between 1977 and 1979 is due to the decrease in agency-created committees (see CHART 3). Congressionally created and Presidentially created committees have stayed fairly constant, although there is a slight decrease in the former from 1980-1986. This suggests that Congress may be more at fault than anyone else for creating committees and allowing them to stand long after their function has been completed. This is a frequently heard criticism of Congressionally created advisory committees, since they can only be abolished by statute or a statutory amendment. CHART 17 TYPE OF MEETING This chart shows the distribution of open, closed, and partially open meetings. Although levels of mixed and closed meetings stay fairly stable, the trend towards fewer open meetings from 1980-1986 shows that a larger percentage of all meetings are now closed or partially closed. CHART 18 PERCENT OF OPEN, CLOSED, AND MIXED MEETINGS This chart, a modification of CHART 17, shows the percent of the total number of meetings which are open, closed, or partially closed (mixed). The percent of open meetings decreases quite substantially after 1980, from 62% to only 48% in 1986, as both the percentages of closed and partially closed meetings rises. |