Subject: Clipper review committee must hold open meetings, etc! Date: Tue, 06 Jul 93 15:48:18 -0700 From: gnu@cygnus.com According to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 USC app. 2), the panel of cryptographers who are reviewing the Skipjack algorithm qualify as an advisory committee, and must hold open meetings, announce the location and duration of meetings, make transcripts available under FOIA, etc. 5 U.S.C app. 2 (sec. 3) (2) The term "advisory committee" means any committee, board, commission, council, conference, panel, task force, or other similar group, or any subcommittee or other subgroup thereof (hereafter in this paragraph referred to as "committee"), which is: (A) established by statute or reorganization plan, or (B) established or utilized by the President, or (C) established or utilized by one or more agencies, in the interest of obtaining advice or recommendations for the President or one or more agencies or officers of the Federal Government, except that such term excludes (i) the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, (ii) the Commission on Government Procurement, and (iii) any committee which is composed wholly of full-time officers or employees of the Federal Government. (3) The term "agency" has the same meaning as in section 551(1) of Title 5. ... (sec 10) (a) (1) Each advisory committee meeting shall be open to the public. (2) Except when the President tdetermines otherwise for reasons of national security, timely notice of each such meeting shall be published in the Federal Registers, and the Administrator shall proescribe regulations to provide for other types of public notice to insure that all interested persons are notified of such meeting prior thereto. [Administrator = Administrator of General Services] (3) Interested persons shall be permitted to attend, appear before, or file statements with any advisory committee, subject to such reasonable rules or regulations as the Administrator may prescribe. (b) Subject to section 552 of Title 5, United States Code [the FOIA], the records, reports, transcripts, minutes, appendixes, working papers, drafts, studies, agenda, or other documents which were made available to or prepared for or by each advisory committee shall be available for public inspection and copying at a single location in the offices of the advisory committee or the agency to which the advisory committee reports until the advisory committee ceases to exist. (c) Detailed minutes of each meeting...shall be kept... (d) Subsections (a)(1) and (a)(3) of this section shall not apply to any portion of an advisory committee meeting where the President, or the head of the agency to which the advisory committee reports, determines that such portion of such meeting may be closed to the public in accordance with subsection (c) of section 552b of Title 5, United States Code [the Government in the Sunshine Act]. Any such determination shall be in writing and shall contain the reasons for such determination... [This lets them close portions of the meeting that are classified. But they must hold an open meeting anytime their discussion is not classified. And they must vote publicly about what portions of the meeting to close.] ... (sec 11) (a) Except where prohibited by contractural agreements entered into prior to the effective date of this Act, agencies and advisory committees shall make available to any person, at actual cost of duplication, copies of transcripts of agency proceedings or advisory committee meetings. Read over the whole act (it's in the annual Justice Dept. "FOIA Case List" publication) and then let's find out whether NIST is following the rules here... The Sept 91 case list has about 40 FACA cases listed. The recent controversy over Hilary's health care advisory task force is also an FACA case. Thanks to Whit Diffie for thinking of this. John ------- End of Forwarded Message