Federal Incorporation
Under federal standards law and policy, agencies are generally required to use available privately developed standards in lieu of developing "government-unique" standards to fulfill standardization needs in regulation and procurement. This policy is embodied in the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (NTTAA) and 0MB Circular A- 1194. The statute states that "all Federal agencies and departments shall use technical standards that are developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies, using such technical standards as a means to carry out policy objectives or activities determined by the agencies and departments," making exception only for situations in which using the available standard would be "inconsistent with applicable law or otherwise impractical. In addition, the requirement to use private standards extends only to voluntary consensus standards, which are defined according to the process used in their development. OMB Circular A-i 19 broadly defines the attributes of the voluntary consensus process: (1) openness, (2) balance of interest, (3) due process, (4) an appeals process, and (5) consensus, which is defined as general agreement but not necessarily unanimity.3
Federal standards law and policy offers a number of benefits. It saves substantial time and money that federal agencies would otherwise have to invest to develop standards themselves. It gives agencies access to technical and engineering expertise that exists outside of the government. And it promotes uniformity in the standards that are used across the government and in the private sector to address the same subject matter. Most importantly, federal standards law and policy recognizes the reality that the United States has a vast, predominately private standardization system. This system emerged in the late 1800s and as it has grown and become more sophisticated a strong public-private partnership in standards has emerged. In the 1960s and 1970s, federal agency use of private standards in regulation became commonplace.