Funding a Congressional Advisory Commission: Options for Congress

Congressional advisory commissions are temporary entities Congress creates to assist it with its work. These temporary advisory entities—which are authorized by and report to Congress and include at least some commissioners who are appointed by or in consultation with Members—can perform various functions. For example, recent Congresses have established commissions to help develop a strategy for protecting the United States from cyberattacks, assess U.S. participation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and identify ways to reform and modernize the U.S. Department of State. Congressional advisory commissions incur expenses in the course of carrying out their mandates. In addition to commissioners, who are sometimes compensated for their participation and usually reimbursed for their travel expenses, commissions typically need paid staff to oversee and execute their day-to-day activities. Commission work products, such as reports and presentations, can involve expenses like research, printing, and graphic design; and commission events, such as meetings and hearings, can come with costs like livestreaming, transcription, and witness travel. Operating a commission also involves general administrative expenses, such as for financial and payroll services, information and communications technology, and office space and supplies. Members who are considering proposing a congressional advisory commission have choices about how to design legislation to cover those costs, including choices about the following: Alternatives to federal funding. Should some or all commission expenses be covered by types of support other than federal funding, such as private donations or use of federal detailees without reimbursement to their home agencies? Amount of federal funding. How much federal funding, if any, should be available to the commission? Timing of federal funding. When should federal funding be available to the commission? Source of federal funding. Where should federal funding for the commission come from? How Members approach those choices may be influenced by other choices they make about the commission, such as their objectives for it. For example, the tasks Congress asks a commission to perform and the reasons it asks it to perform them affect the types of expenses the commission is likely to incur and the amount of federal funding or other support it is likely to need to cover them. Choices about sources of or alternatives to federal funding might depend on how independent the commission is intended to be. Funding choices can also influence the likelihood that a commission will achieve its objectives to the standard or on the timeline Congress envisions. For example, the amount of federal funding or other support available to a commission can affect how much work the commission is able to do, how well it can do it, or both; and the timing of the commission’s access to support might determine whether it can complete its work in time to meaningfully inform congressional deliberations. Information about the available options for funding congressional advisory commissions might, therefore, be of interest both to Members who are considering proposing commissions and to Members who are considering whether to support, oppose, or amend such proposals.