GSA Blog

50 Facts for 50 Years: The Stories of FACA

This month we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). Last week the GSA blog began sharing 50 Facts for 50 Years to celebrate the 50th anniversary of FACA being signed into law. If you missed them check them out here.

35. Now we will highlight the diversity of committee work and the many ways they have impacted our lives. Learn how committees have worked to take care of people, preserve culture, and promote housing safety with facts 35 through 42:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has the largest portfolio of federal advisory committees. Highlights include:

• Formed in 1964, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) consists of experts in immunization and related fields to provide advice and guidance for the prevention and control of vaccine-preventable diseases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACIP played a critical role in vaccine recommendations.
• In September 2016, the National Cancer Advisory Board accepted and approved a groundbreaking report of recommendations on 10 scientific approaches that will most likely make a decade's worth of progress against cancer in five years.
• In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson established The President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities to ensure people with intellectual disabilities have the right to a "decent, dignified place in society." The committee has advised on ways to help improve the quality of life experienced by people with intellectual disabilities by upholding their full citizenship rights, independence, self-determination, and lifelong participation in their communities.

36. During the COVID-19 pandemic, delays in the supply chain was a common issue, but the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee assisted by advising the Department of Homeland Security on ways to:

• improve the supply chain consumers rely on;
• protect citizens from counterfeit, dangerous, and defective products;
• cut through unnecessary red tape and redundant processes; and
• better address critical issues including forced labor and national security.

37. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary's Video Message shares some of their noteworthy VA federal advisory committee accomplishments, such as:

38. Since 1992, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee has worked with the Department of the Interior to make findings of fact on:

• the identity or cultural affiliation of ancestral human remains and cultural items; and
• their return to lineal descendants, Indian Tribes, or Native Hawaiian organizations.

The committee helps resolve disputes relating to the return of ancestral human remains and cultural items.

39. Check out the important work of the Department of Justice's Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee to collaborate on ways to address issues that impact youth within the juvenile justice system.

40. The Inter-American Foundation's (IAF) Advisory Council provides advice to the IAF Board of Directors in support of the foundation's work that invests directly in grassroots development initiatives designed and carried out by community-led organizations across 27 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

41. Since 1975, the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD) ensures that the U.S. Agency for International Development unites academic-talent to address development challenges in agriculture, food security and agency programming. Presented at a United Nations event [PDF], a 2022 BIFAD-commissioned report helped inform the U.S. Government's Global Food Security Strategy and was covered in two publications on the effects of the Russia/Ukraine conflict on global food security.

42. Did you know a manufactured home (formerly known as a mobile home) is required to be constructed on a permanent chassis? The Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (MHCC) at the Department of Housing and Urban Development provides recommendations on manufactured home construction and safety standards, as well as related procedural and enforcement regulations.