## Facts

- The President created the President’s Task Force on National Health Care Reform to prepare proposed health-care reform legislation for submission to Congress within 100 days.
- The Task Force included cabinet secretaries and senior executive officials, and was chaired by the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
- An interdepartmental working group was formed to support the Task Force by gathering information and developing policy options; it consisted largely of federal employees and detailees, with consultants attending some meetings.
- The Task Force and working group held non-public meetings.
- Physician and consumer organizations sought declaratory and injunctive relief requiring compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), including open meetings and records.
- FACA generally applies to advisory committees that include non-federal participants, but exempts committees “composed wholly of full-time officers or employees of the Federal Government.”
- The district court held the Task Force subject to FACA (treating the First Lady as not a covered federal officer/employee), held the working group outside FACA, and issued a preliminary injunction requiring Task Force compliance.

## Issues

1. Whether the Task Force was exempt from FACA as “composed wholly of full-time officers or employees of the Federal Government,” despite being chaired by the First Lady.
2. If FACA applied to the Task Force, whether enforcing FACA would impermissibly interfere with the President’s Article II powers.
3. Whether the interdepartmental working group itself qualified as an “advisory committee” under FACA, given its size, membership, and the role of consultants and other non-government participants.

## Decision

- The court reversed the district court’s determination that the Task Force was subject to FACA.
- The court held the Task Force fell within FACA’s “wholly composed of” exemption by treating the First Lady as a “de facto officer or employee” for purposes of that exemption.
- Because the Task Force was exempt, the court did not reach the Article II constitutional question.
- The court remanded for further factual development on whether the working group was an advisory committee under FACA, given an incomplete record on its composition and functioning.

## Legal Principles

- FACA’s exemption for advisory bodies “composed wholly of full-time officers or employees of the Federal Government” may be construed functionally in the presidential-advisory context.
- Where a plausible statutory interpretation avoids serious separation-of-powers concerns, courts may apply constitutional avoidance rather than decide the constitutional issue.
- Whether a multi-agency working group is a FACA “advisory committee” turns on its actual membership and operations, including the extent and role of non-federal participants, not solely on labels describing it as staff support.

## Conclusion

The D.C. Circuit held that the President’s health-care Task Force was exempt from FACA because it was treated as wholly composed of federal officials and employees, including the First Lady as a de facto officer or employee, and it remanded for additional factfinding on whether the supporting working group was itself a FACA advisory committee.


Ass’n of Am. Physicians & Surgeons, Inc. v. Clinton, 997 F.2d 898 (D.C. Cir. 1993)