Help Information

Definition of Key Roles and Acronyms

Many of the acronyms and abbreviations used on this website are terms of art that originate in FACA or the Final Rule that implements FACA. Some terms are defined in the Help text associated with specific fields (viewed by hovering over the “?” symbol following the field name). A few key terms used in the database are defined here.

• Committee Management Secretariat (CMS): the organization within the General Services Administration (GSA), established in accordance with FACA Section 7, responsible for providing oversight and policy guidance on matters relating to advisory committees in the Executive Branch.
• Committee Management Officer (CMO): the person designated by the head of each agency to formally manage the agency’s advisory committees, report the committee data annually, and certify the accuracy of the reported data for the agency each year.
• Group Federal Officer (GFO): the agency official with the responsibility for managing a subset of an agency’s advisory committees, under the supervision of the CMO.
• Designated Federal Officer (DFO): the federal employee designated by the agency head for each advisory committee to implement the provisions of FACA sections 10(e) and (f), under the control and supervision of the CMO. The DFO approves committee meeting agendas and attends all committee meetings.
• Decision maker: the person that makes agency decisions about implementation of a committee’s recommendations.

How Information is Organized on the Website

The website includes navigation tabs along the top of each page that provide easy access to different categories of information. Information under each tab is summarized here:

• Agencies/Committees: this tab provides access to information for all agencies, both those with and without active advisory committees. Click on the arrow icon (>) to expand or collapse entries under an agency. An “active committee” is one that has filed a charter. Terminated committees, listed separately under each agency, are those that have completed their work and been formally terminated by the agency. This tab includes links to various reports at the agency and committee level, through links to the right of the agency or committee name, respectively. To view detailed information about an agency or committee, click on the agency or committee name.
• Gov’t-wide Reports: this tab provides access to current Fiscal Year reports that compile information for all agencies with active committees. Government-wide reports and Annual Comprehensive Review (ACR) summaries from prior Fiscal Years also are available here. Click on the arrow icon (>) to expand or collapse entries under a Fiscal Year. To run a report of interest, click on the report link; results will open into a new browser tab to make it easier to view multiple reports at the same time.
• Datasets: this tab provides access to FACA data compiled and verified for past Fiscal Years. Datasets can be downloaded by users or, in the case of files in compressed (.zip) format, requested from the GSA Committee Management Secretariat (via email to cms@gsa.gov).
• Search: this tab provides access to search for information on committees, members, or FACA documents (e.g., charters, meeting minutes, and advisory reports). Click on the arrow icon (>) next to the search category of interest to expand or collapse the view.
  
  • Committee Search includes over two dozen fields that may be selected to customize results, with each field having a drop-down menu of options.
  • Member Search allows users to search by member name, appointment type, appointment dates, and more.
  • Document Search allows users to search for words or phrases in document titles and within documents themselves. Documents in the FACA Database include charters and related documents and, where an agency chooses to upload them, meeting minutes and advisory reports prepared by committees.
  • Other Search includes a link to the FACA Case Digest, a summary of Department of Justice legal opinions and case law relating to FACA that is maintained by the GSA Committee Management Secretariat.
• Contact Us: this tab provides contact information for members of the public who have questions about FACA in general, or information on the database website in specific. This page also provides a link to lists of the current CMOs at each agency or department.

Committee Detail

The Agencies/Committees tab provides access to a list of advisory committees, by agency. To access information on a particular advisory committee, click on the name of the committee on the Agencies/Committees tab to open the Committee Detail page. Information on each advisory committee is displayed on the Committee Detail page, divided into sections for General Information, Recommendation/Justifications, Performance Measures, and Costs. A brief description of each field can be viewed on the website by hovering your cursor over the orange question mark (“?”) icon. Field names that end with “ * ” are items that are required as part of annual reporting for advisory committees. A full description of each field is provided in the FACA Database Public Access Manual.

Members, Meetings and Advisory Reports

To view information about members, meetings and advisory reports, scroll down to that section of the Committee Detail page and click on the blue button. On the new page, titled Committee Members, Meetings and Advisory Reports, click on the tab for the category of interest (e.g., Committee Members, Committee Meetings, or Committee Advisory Reports). For detail on an individual member, meeting, or advisory report, click on the Committee Detail No. to the left of the entry (in the first column).

Subcommittees

Subcommittees that are not separately chartered, and hence do not provide advice directly to the agency, are reported in the FACA Database at the discretion of the agency. Subcommittees may be added if the agency wishes to track Subcommittee Meetings, Reports, Costs, and Members separately from the chartered (parent) committee. Subcommittee data may be added to either the subcommittee or the parent committee, but not both in order to avoid duplication (e.g., of total costs).
A list of all subcommittees, if any, associated with a committee is provided on the Committee Detail page. Subcommittee Detail, including information from past years, is available by clicking on the Committee System Id to the left of the Subcommittee Name.

Charters and Related Documents

Charters, Membership Balance Plans and other related documents are available for download under the Charters and Related Documents section of the Committee Detail page. Charters are filed every two years, unless a committee’s establishing authority specifies otherwise. Current and past charters for a committee are available for download.

Data from Previous Years

Committee data for each Fiscal Year are reviewed and verified as part of the Annual Comprehensive Review (ACR) required by FACA Sec. 7. Once verified, these data are available in this section. To view the full committee record, scroll to the bottom of the Committee Detail page to the section titled Data from Previous Years, then click on the Committee System Id to the left of the Committee Name for the Fiscal Year of interest.

Data Fields and What Each Item Means

For a full description of each of the data fields, download the FACA Database Public Access Help Manual [PDF 240KB].