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1 Government in the Sunshine Act 1 (2014)

handle is hein.usfed/gvtsshna0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Administrative Conference Recommendation 2014-2 Government in the Sunshine Act Adopted June 5, 2014 In the late 1960s and 1970s, in the wake of increasing public vigilance concerning the activities of government sparked by the Vietnam War and Watergate, Congress passed and the President signed a series of transparency laws designed to promote greater accountability and transparency in government decisionmaking. The Government in the Sunshine Act, enacted in 1976, focused specifically on the transparency of meetings of multi-member agencies. For any meeting involving a quorum of board or commission members, the agency must announce the event at least seven days in advance in the Federal Register and, with certain exceptions, permit attendance by interested members of the public.2 Notwithstanding its broad title, the Government in the Sunshine Act applies only to agencies that are headed by a group of board or commission members rather than an individual chairperson.3 In addition to the Act's enumerated exceptions,4 there are many ways of conducting business that fall outside its ambit. Specifically, any discussion among a group of agency members smaller than a quorum does not trigger the Act.s The Act also does not apply 1 Pub. L. No. 94-409, 90 Stat. 1241 (1976) (5 U.S.C. § 552b (2006)). 2 5 U.S.C. § 552b. There are approximately 70 such agencies in the federal government. RICHARD K. BERG, STEPHEN H. KLITZMAN, & GARY J. EDLES, AN INTERPRETIVE GUIDE TO THE GOVERNMENT IN THE SUNSHINE ACT 259-63 (2d ed. 2005); DAVID E. LEWIS & JENNIFER L. SELIN, SOURCEBOOK OF UNITED STATES EXECUTIVE AGENCIES 127 (ACUS 1st ed., 2d printing 2013). 4 5 U.S.C. § 552b(c). s See id. § 552b(a)(2) (defining meeting as any gathering featuring deliberations of at least the number of individual agency members required to take action on behalf of the agency); see also S. REP. No. 94-354, at 19 (1975). 1

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