[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2977 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        H.R.2977

                       One Hundred Fifth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE FIRST SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
 the seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven


                                 An Act


 
To amend the Federal Advisory Committee Act to clarify public disclosure 
requirements that are applicable to the National Academy of Sciences and 
             the National Academy of Public Administration.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Federal Advisory Committee Act 
Amendments of 1997''.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO THE FEDERAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ACT.

    (a) Exclusions From Definition.--Section 3(2) of the Federal 
Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) is amended in the matter 
following subparagraph (C), by striking ``such term excludes'' and all 
that follows through the period and inserting the following: ``such 
term excludes (i) any committee that is composed wholly of full-time, 
or permanent part-time, officers or employees of the Federal 
Government, and (ii) any committee that is created by the National 
Academy of Sciences or the National Academy of Public 
Administration.''.
    (b) Requirements Relating to the National Academy of Sciences and 
the National Academy of Public Administration.--Such Act is further 
amended by redesignating section 15 as section 16 and inserting after 
section 14 the following new section:


   ``requirements relating to the national academy of sciences and the 
               national academy of public administration

    ``Sec. 15. (a) In General.--An agency may not use any advice or 
recommendation provided by the National Academy of Sciences or National 
Academy of Public Administration that was developed by use of a 
committee created by that academy under an agreement with an agency, 
unless--
        ``(1) the committee was not subject to any actual management or 
    control by an agency or an officer of the Federal Government;
        ``(2) in the case of a committee created after the date of the 
    enactment of the Federal Advisory Committee Act Amendments of 1997, 
    the membership of the committee was appointed in accordance with 
    the requirements described in subsection (b)(1); and
        ``(3) in developing the advice or recommendation, the academy 
    complied with--
            ``(A) subsection (b)(2) through (6), in the case of any 
        advice or recommendation provided by the National Academy of 
        Sciences; or
            ``(B) subsection (b)(2) and (5), in the case of any advice 
        or recommendation provided by the National Academy of Public 
        Administration.
    ``(b) Requirements.--The requirements referred to in subsection (a) 
are as follows:
        ``(1) The Academy shall determine and provide public notice of 
    the names and brief biographies of individuals that the Academy 
    appoints or intends to appoint to serve on the committee. The 
    Academy shall determine and provide a reasonable opportunity for 
    the public to comment on such appointments before they are made or, 
    if the Academy determines such prior comment is not practicable, in 
    the period immediately following the appointments. The Academy 
    shall make its best efforts to ensure that (A) no individual 
    appointed to serve on the committee has a conflict of interest that 
    is relevant to the functions to be performed, unless such conflict 
    is promptly and publicly disclosed and the Academy determines that 
    the conflict is unavoidable, (B) the committee membership is fairly 
    balanced as determined by the Academy to be appropriate for the 
    functions to be performed, and (C) the final report of the Academy 
    will be the result of the Academy's independent judgment. The 
    Academy shall require that individuals that the Academy appoints or 
    intends to appoint to serve on the committee inform the Academy of 
    the individual's conflicts of interest that are relevant to the 
    functions to be performed.
        ``(2) The Academy shall determine and provide public notice of 
    committee meetings that will be open to the public.
        ``(3) The Academy shall ensure that meetings of the committee 
    to gather data from individuals who are not officials, agents, or 
    employees of the Academy are open to the public, unless the Academy 
    determines that a meeting would disclose matters described in 
    section 552(b) of title 5, United States Code. The Academy shall 
    make available to the public, at reasonable charge if appropriate, 
    written materials presented to the committee by individuals who are 
    not officials, agents, or employees of the Academy, unless the 
    Academy determines that making material available would disclose 
    matters described in that section.
        ``(4) The Academy shall make available to the public as soon as 
    practicable, at reasonable charge if appropriate, a brief summary 
    of any committee meeting that is not a data gathering meeting, 
    unless the Academy determines that the summary would disclose 
    matters described in section 552(b) of title 5, United States Code. 
    The summary shall identify the committee members present, the 
    topics discussed, materials made available to the committee, and 
    such other matters that the Academy determines should be included.
        ``(5) The Academy shall make available to the public its final 
    report, at reasonable charge if appropriate, unless the Academy 
    determines that the report would disclose matters described in 
    section 552(b) of title 5, United States Code. If the Academy 
    determines that the report would disclose matters described in that 
    section, the Academy shall make public an abbreviated version of 
    the report that does not disclose those matters.
        ``(6) After publication of the final report, the Academy shall 
    make publicly available the names of the principal reviewers who 
    reviewed the report in draft form and who are not officials, 
    agents, or employees of the Academy.
    ``(c) Regulations.--The Administrator of General Services may issue 
regulations implementing this section.''.
    (c) Effective Date and Application.--
        (1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), this 
    section and the amendments made by this section shall take effect 
    on the date of the enactment of this Act.
        (2) Retroactive effect.--Subsection (a) and the amendments made 
    by subsection (a) shall be effective as of October 6, 1972, except 
    that they shall not apply with respect to or otherwise affect any 
    particular advice or recommendations that are subject to any 
    judicial action filed before the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 3. REPORT.

    Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, 
the Administrator of General Services shall submit a report to the 
Congress on the implementation of and compliance with the amendments 
made by this Act.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.