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Consistent with the opinion expressed in the enclosed Memorandum dated February 17, 1976, from the Department of Justice, we believe that coverage of the Federal Advisory Committee Act does not extend to the Smithsonian. Given the nature and purposes of the Institution, as well as the independent trust responsibilities of its Board of Regents, it would not be appropriate to expand FACA coverage to include the advisory committees established by the Board of Regents and by statute.

To provide assistance in fulfillment of its responsibilities for the Smithsonian, the Board of Regents has established commissions to advise on individual museums and to encourage acquisitions and financial support.  Several bodies that also are advisory to the Board of Regents have been established by statute. Among these are the National Portrait Gallery Commission (20 U.S.C. 75c); the Board of Trustees of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (20 U.S.C. 76bb); and the board of the National Air and Space Museum (20 U.C.S. 77).

Because of the foregoing, advisory commissions to the Board of Regents are not reviewed in the manner prescribed by OMB Circular No. 89-08. However, they are reviewed internally on a regular basis, and their members are appointed by the Board of Regents to ensure that the diversity of ethnic, cultural, professional, and geographical perspectives necessary to their effectiveness is maintained.

There ensued a brief discussion of strategy which would establish that the Smithsonian is not under the Bill because it is not an executive branch agency.

Mr. Adams proceeded to discuss a second item listed below, the Indian Remains Reburial Act. He brought this to the Regents' attention not so much because the act is likely to move through the Congress soon but because it raises issues in which the Smithsonian has had a long term and vital interest. It also raises substantial public sentiment directed against the Smithsonian as the holder of Native American skeletons, against which must be weighed the strong conviction on the part of the scholars in the discipline that these collections are of increasing importance in terms of what can be learned from them. The Secretary indicated that, while its collections continue to be of