The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) will hold a free, members-only webinar discussing proposed revisions to White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-119, "Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities," from 2:00 pm to 3:45 pm on Thursday, March 6, 2014. ANSI strongly encourages representatives of all its member organizations to take this opportunity to learn more about the proposed draft, which is expected to have a significant impact on future U.S. government use of privately developed voluntary consensus standards. The circular, in conjunction with the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act (NTTAA) of 1995, instructs U.S. federal agencies to consider using voluntary consensus standards developed privately instead of government-unique standards whenever possible. It was last updated in 1998 and is being revised again to reflect notable changes that have occurred in the ensuing years in connection with voluntary consensus standards, conformity assessment activities, and government regulatory work. A draft of the proposed update has been published online.
The March 6 webinar will look at the proposed revisions to OMB Circular A-119 in connection with intellectual property rights (IPR), incorporation by reference (IBR), standards development organization (SDO) process issues, and conformity assessment, among other topics. The webinar will be listen-only, but participants will be given the opportunity to send questions via chat to guest facilitators drawn from both the public and private sector. Following the event, a recording of the webinar will be added to the ANSI members-only online library for future viewing.
All individuals interesting in taking part in the webinar must register in advance. Registration details were emailed separately to all ANSI member organizations. ANSI members who did not receive a registration email should contact Elizabeth Neiman, ANSI senior director of communications, at eneiman@ansi.org for information about the webinar and instructions on how to register.
Given the importance of the proposed revision, ANSI will develop a consensus response on behalf of the standardization community. Stakeholders are encouraged to review the draft revision - which is available online - and to submit input on the proposed changes to eneiman@ansi.org by March 21, 2014. ANSI also encourages organizations to submit their own comments in direct response to OMB's Federal Register notice. Please be aware that all direct responses must be submitted via the U.S. government's www.regulations.gov portal or faxed to 202-395-5167 no later than Monday, May 12, 2014. All direct comments received by the government in connection with this call for feedback will be posted publicly.