42 U.S.C. § 284a — Advisory councils

(a) Establishment; acceptance of conditional gifts; functions Except as subsection (h) allows, the Secretary must appoint an advisory council for each national research institute. Each council must advise, assist, consult with, and make recommendations to the Secretary and the institute's Director on the institute's activities and policies, and must carry out the special duties listed elsewhere in this part. A council may also recommend that the Secretary accept conditional gifts for study, research, buying land, or building or maintaining facilities related to the institute's focus. Each council may: review materials on the institute's research and make recommendations about it; review grant and cooperative-agreement applications that need council approval, and recommend approving the promising ones; review any grant, contract, or cooperative agreement the institute proposes; gather information — by mail or in person — on relevant studies happening in the U.S. or elsewhere, and, with the Director's approval, publish that information for health organizations, professionals, scientists, and the public; and set up subcommittees and hold workshops and conferences. (b) Membership; compensation Each council has non-voting ex officio members and up to 18 members the Secretary appoints. The ex officio members are the Secretary, the NIH Director, the institute's own Director, the VA's Under Secretary for Health or Chief Dental Director, and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs (or their designees), plus any other federal officers or employees the Secretary decides the council needs. Of the appointed (non-ex-officio) members: two-thirds come from leading figures in health and science fields relevant to the institute — including at least two leaders in public health and the behavioral or social sciences; one-third come from the general public, including leaders in public policy, law, health policy, economics, and management. Appointed members who are federal officers or employees get no pay; other appointed members get paid, for each day (including travel time) they work for the council, up to the daily rate for federal pay grade GS–18. (c) Term of office; reappointment; vacancy An appointed council member serves a 4-year term, except someone filling a vacancy only finishes the remaining term. The Secretary must stagger appointments so terms don't all expire the same year. A member may keep serving up to 180 days after the term ends. Someone who served a full 4-year term can't be reappointed until 2 years after that term ended. If a vacancy opens among appointed members, the Secretary must fill it within 90 days. (d) Chairman; term of office The Secretary picks the council's chair from among the appointed members, or may instead pick the institute's Director to chair it. The chair serves a 2-year term. (e) Meetings The council meets when its chair calls a meeting, or when the institute's Director asks for one — but it must meet at least three times each fiscal year. The institute's Director must approve where meetings happen. (f) Appointment of executive secretary; training and orientation for new members The institute's Director must assign an institute staff member to be the council's executive secretary, and must give the council the staff, information, and other help it needs. The Director must also train and orient new council members so they can take part effectively. (g) Comments and recommendations for inclusion in biennial report; additional reports Each council may write, for inclusion in the required biennial report: comments on its own activities during the report period; comments on the institute's progress toward its goals; and recommendations on the institute's future direction, programs, and policy priorities. Councils may also prepare other reports as they see fit. (h) Advisory councils in existence; application of section to National Cancer Advisory Board and advisory council to National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute This section doesn't end the membership of any institute advisory council that already existed on November 20, 1985. After that date, though, the Secretary must appoint new members so each such council gradually matches this section's required makeup, each council must organize and operate under this section's rules, and each institute's Director must perform this section's duties for that council. The National Cancer Advisory Board is the National Cancer Institute's advisory council, and this section applies to it — except: the President, not the Secretary, appoints its members; appointed members serve 6-year terms; at least 5 members must know environmental carcinogenesis (including from workplace and dietary causes), and at least 1 must know pediatric oncology; the President picks the chair from the appointed members, for a 2-year term; its non-voting ex officio members are the Secretary, the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the NIH Director, the VA's Under Secretary for Health, the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Secretary of Labor, the FDA Commissioner, the EPA Administrator, the Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, and the Director of the Department of Energy's Office of Science (or their designees); and the Board must meet at least four times a year. This section also applies to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's advisory council, except that it too must meet at least four times a year.