§ 14. Termination of advisory committees: renewal; continuation

(a)(1) Each advisory committee which is in existence on the effective date of this Act shall terminate not later than the expiration of the two-year period following such effective date unless

(A) in the case of an advisory committee established by the President or an officer of the Federal Government, such advisory committee is renewed by the President or that officer by appropriate action prior to the expiration of such two-year period; or

(B) in the case of an advisory committee established by an Act of Congress, its duration is otherwise provided for by law.

(2) Each advisory committee established after such effective date shall terminate not later than the expiration of the two-year period beginning on the date of its establishment unless

(A) in the case of an advisory committee established by the President or an officer of the Federal Government such advisory committee is renewed by the President or such officer by appropriate action prior to the end of such period;

or

(B) in the case of an advisory committee established by an Act of Congress, its duration is otherwise provided for by law.

(b)(1) Upon the renewal of any advisory committee, such advisory committee shall file a charter in accordance with section 9(c).

(2) Any advisory committee established by an Act of Congress shall file a charter in accordance with such section upon the expiration of each successive two-year period following the date of enactment of the Act establishing such advisory committee.

(3) No advisory committee required under this subsection to file a charter shall take any action (other than preparation and filing of such charter) prior to the date on which such charter is filed.

(c) Any advisory committee which is renewed by the President or any officer of the Federal Government may be continued only for successive two-year periods by appropriate action taken by the President or such officer prior to the date on which such advisory committee would otherwise terminate.

§ 15. Effective date

Except as provided in section 7(b), this Act shall become effective upon the expiration of ninety days following October 6, 1972.

DESCRIPTIONS OF CHARTS

CHART 1 TOTAL COST FOR ADVISORY COMMITTEES IN NOMINAL DOLLARS This chart shows the cost, in millions, for all advisory committees from 1972-1986. These figures are not adjusted for inflation, so much of the increase from 1972 through 1980 can be attributed to the steep inflation which was prevalent then.

CHART 2 TOTAL COST FOR ADVISORY COMMITTEES IN REAL (1972)
DOLLARS

A large difference is immediately apparent between CHART I
and CHART II. Costs do not rise as steeply or as much, with
the highest year (1979) costing $88 million in nominal
dollars, but only $51 million in constant, real (1972)
dollars, because these figures have been adjusted for
inflation. Total costs peaked in 1979 and fell after that
until 1983.

CHART 3 TOTAL NUMBER OF ADVISORY COMMITTEES

The

There are two sets of similar levels of advisory committees, one running from 1972-1977, and the other from 1978-86. decrease is accounted for by the "zero-based" review undertaken by President Carter in 1977.

CHART 4 AVERAGE REAL COST OF EACH COMMITTEE IN 1972 DOLLARS This chart shows the cost of each committee, in real (1972) dollars. This is essentially a combination of CHARTS 2 and 3. It allows us to compare the relative average cost of a committee in a given year.

The total number of meetings per year is fairly constant,
with a peak in 1976, a decrease until 1982, an increase until
1985, and drop in 1986. Although this is useful in that it
shows us the scope of advisory committee meetings, a more
useful chart is that of the number of meetings per committee.

CHART 6 AVERAGE NUMBER OF MEETINGS PER COMMITTEE

This chart shows a definite increase in the numbers of
meetings each Committee held from 1974 through 1979. This
trend could either reflect a genuine increase in productivity
(as measured by the number of meetings held by each
committee) or just an elimination of defunct committees which
hold no meetings. The latter case would explain the peak in
1979, which is the year with the fewest number of committees.

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CHART 7 AVERAGE REAL COST OF EACH MEETING IN 1972 DOLLARS This chart shows a peak in cost per meeting in 1979, and then a decrease until 1985. Since the number of meetings per committee was fairly constant from 1980-86 (see CHART 6) one conclusion is that the average cost per meeting has decreased substantially from $12,153 in 1979 to $8,917 in 1986.

CHART 8 TOTAL NUMBER OF REPORTS ISSUED

Another measure of Committee productivity is the number of reports issued. This chart shows the trend in total reports issued. The sharp decrease after 1979 is partially reflective of the drop in the number of advisory committees, but to understand this more clearly we need to examine the number of reports issued per Committee.

CHART 9

AVERAGE NUMBER OF REPORTS PER COMMITTEE
This chart shows that the number of reports issued per
Committee has stayed fairly close to 0.75 reports per
Committee per year before 1980 -- the increase in 1980 and 81

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to 1.14 reports per year is difficult to explain. The decrease in number of reports from 1.14 in 1981 to only 0.67 in 1986 is also difficult to explain.

CHART 10 AVERAGE REAL COST OF EACH REPORT IN 1972 DOLLARS Another measure of value received from advisory committees is the cost per report. Although the cost per report varies between $35,526 in 1974 and $47,570 in 1979, it is difficult to draw any conclusions from this. One reason for the jump might be the number of "policy" committees, which GSA says are much more "resource intensive" than most committees. The number of these committees has more than doubled from 1984 and 1986 (the only years for which we have this information), from 35 to 74, which could explain the increase in cost per report in those years.

CHART 11 TOTAL NUMBER OF MEMBERS

One of the most important features of FACA is its involvement
of private citizens in the Government decision-making
process. This chart shows the total number of individuals
involved as members of advisory committees each year, in
thousands. Again, the chart of members per committee will
give us a more exact sense of the extent of involvement of
the public as members of advisory committees.

CHART 12 AVERAGE NUMBER OF MEMBERS PER COMMITTEE

This chart shows a very clear trend towards advisory
committees with more members in recent years.

CHART 13

AVERAGE REAL COST OF EACH MEMBER IN 1972 DOLLARS This chart shows that the real cost per member has dropped significantly after 1979. This could show that the

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government return for its advisory committee dollar is
increasing it gets more input from a wider variety of
views for each dollar spent.

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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
the type of committee. A continuing committee is a
"standing" committee established by Congress, an agency head,
or the President to provide advice on a general area on an
ongoing basis, while an ad hoc committee is formed to solve a
specific problem and terminates after this report is issued.
The tremendous difference between the two is indicative of
the fact that the Government creates and utilizes far more
continuing committees than ad hoc.

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.