CREW V. LEAVITT ET AL (HEAD START)

3 Apr 2008 // Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Mike Leavitt, the secretary of the HHS, for failing to comply with the open meetings and disclosure requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). Advisory committees for agencies are required by FACA to obtain a charter and make meetings and information publicly accessible. The Office of Head Start within the HHS created a committee and held a private meeting concerning massive changes to Head Start performance standards without obtaining a charter or making the meeting or information from the meeting available as required by FACA. CREW sued the HHS to force disclosure of records from the Head Start advisory committee meeting as required by FACA and to ensure that HHS advisory committees follow FACA requirements in the future.