# Federal Advisory Committee Act The 1972 statute (Pub. L. 92-463, now codified at 5 U.S.C. ch. 10) governing how outside expertise formally enters the executive branch. A body that gives collective advice to a federal agency is a FACA committee, and FACA requires it to be chartered, to be fairly balanced in the points of view represented, to meet in public with notice in the *Federal Register*, and to keep records the public can obtain. The structural weak point is the distinction between **statutory** committees, which Congress requires an agency to maintain, and **discretionary** committees, which an agency establishes on its own authority. A discretionary committee can be terminated the same way it was created: the agency head determines its purpose has been fulfilled and publishes a notice. No vote, no comment period, no cause. Charters also lapse on a renewal clock, so a committee can be ended simply by not signing. All three of the Census Bureau's advisory committees were discretionary, and all three were terminated together in 2025 under [[Executive Order 14217]]. ## See also - [[Census Bureau Org Chart]] · [[Executive Order 14217]] · [[Census Bureau]]