OMB Approves FACA NPRM

Yesterday, OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) from the General Services Administration (GSA) on “Federal Management Regulation (FMR); FMR Case 2022-01, Federal Advisory Committee Management”. The NPRM was sent to OIRA on July 27^th, 2023.

According to the Spring 2023 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:

“FACA is a transparency statute designed to provide Congress, interested stakeholders, and the public with information on, and access to the activities, membership, meetings, costs, etc. of federal advisory committees established by the Executive Branch. Under section 7 of the Act, GSA is responsible for preparing regulations for implementing FACA. The proposed rule revisions will provide updates and clarification to federal advisory committee management policies and processes. The proposed rule revisions will also encourage diversity and inclusivity in federal advisory committee activities, which is an Administration priority.”

A lot of the nitty-gritty work of development of technical regulations and policy guidance is done by FACAs. So, this regulation could have some interesting unintended consequences to those development processes over the years. 

This NPRM could show up in the Federal Register later this week, but more likely next week.