In some belated news, the FY 2009 appropriations bill signed into law March 11 includes funding for the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS). ACUS will receive $1.5 million of the omnibus spending bill’s $410 billion total haul.

The money will have to be used to resurrect ACUS, which was dismantled in 1995. Congress reauthorized ACUS in 2004 and again last year, but the FY 2009 omnibus spending bill marks the first time the agency has received funding since the mid-90s.

ACUS was created in 1968 as an independent agency with a small staff assisted by outside experts in administrative law, government processes, judicial review and enforcement, and agency regulatory processes. The conference had a reputation for producing high-quality, independent, nonpartisan analysis and is credited with issuing more than 200 recommendations, many of which were implemented, as well as a variety of reports and studies on how to improve government.

It is suspected that ACUS pays for itself. By government standards, its budget is tiny; but its recommendations on improving efficiency at other agencies can lead to big savings, especially over the long term.

The $1.5 million only has to last through September. (Congress waited five months into the new fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, 2008, to fully fund the government.) We will now have to wait to see if President Obama proposes funding for ACUS when he releases his FY 2010 budget (whenever that will be).

The recommendations developed by ACUS during the years it operated are available online at Florida State University's College of Law ABA Administrative Procedure Database.