President Trump Aims to Slash Number of Federal Advisory Committees

...good stewards of the taxpayers’ money?



President Trump Aims to Slash Number of Federal Advisory Committees
By JILL COLVIN / AP June 15, 2019


WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is trying to take an ax to federal advisory committees, ordering that their numbers be slashed.

Trump signed an executive order Friday that directs every federal agency to evaluate the need for all of its advisory committees created under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. And it gives agency heads until September to terminate at least one-third of current committees created by agency heads.

Federal advisory committees are typically made up of private citizens who offer advice and assistance to the executive branch.

The White House did not immediately provide any justification for the order. But it appears to assume that many of the committees are redundant or have been convened to address issues that are now obsolete. It says that committees will be eliminated if their “stated objectives” have been accomplished, if the “subject matter or work of the committee has become obsolete,” if their “primary functions have been assumed by another entity” and if the agency determines “the cost of operation is excessive in relation to the benefits to the Federal Government.”

A government-wide review of FACA committees has not been done since the early 1990s, according to the White House.