American National Standards Institute (ANSI)

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a non-profit, privately funded membership organization that coordinates the development of U.S. voluntary national standards. The Institute was founded to coordinate the activities of the U.S. voluntary standards system and to eliminate conflict and duplication in the development process. For over eighty years, this system has been successfully administered by the private sector, via ANSI, with the cooperation of federal, state and local governments.

ANSI facilitates the development of American National Standards (ANS) by accrediting the procedures of standards developing organizations (SDOs), such as PHTA, and approving their documents as ANS. This process serves and protects the public interest since standards developers accredited by ANSI – and the ANS they develop – must meet the Institute’s requirements for openness, balance, consensus, and due process and adhere to ANSI's neutral oversight, assuring that all interested parties have an opportunity to participate in a standard’s development.

Key federal law and policy documents such as the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act (NTTAA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-119 establish and clarify U.S. policy to increase Federal reliance on voluntary consensus standards in the private sector. Federal agencies are directed to adopt voluntary consensus standards wherever possible to avoid the development of unique government standards and participate in the standards development process.

For further information, visit ANSI.org.