§1301 Definitions

Summary

Defines the main words used in the chapter. The "Board" and "Chair" mean the Board of Directors and its Chair for the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights. A "covered employee" is anyone who works for the House or the Senate or for certain named offices, including the Office of Congressional Accessibility Services, the Capitol Police, the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of the Architect of the Capitol, the Office of the Attending Physician, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights, the Office of Technology Assessment, the Library of Congress (except for section 1351), and the John C. Stennis Center for Public Service Training and Development. "Employee" includes job applicants and former employees. Employees of the Architect’s Office also include Botanic Garden staff. Capitol Police employees include members and officers. House employees are those paid by the Chief Administrative Officer (or a House-designated official) or by clerk-hire funds, but not people working for the offices listed above. Senate employees are those paid by the Secretary of the Senate, excluding those same listed offices. An "employing office" can be a Member’s personal office, a House or Senate committee (or joint committee), any office whose head has final hiring or firing power, the named offices above, or the Library of Congress (except section 1351). "Executive Director," "General Counsel," and "Office" refer to the corresponding positions or the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights. Employees of four special commissions are also covered and those commissions count as employing offices: the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom; the China Review Commission; the Congressional-Executive China Commission; and the Helsinki Commission. Legal help for claims under the chapter is provided by the House Office of House Employment Counsel when a commission’s chair is a House Member, or by the Senate Office of Senate Chief Counsel for Employment when the chair is a Senator. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom must be served by the Senate Office of Senate Chief Counsel for Employment. The named commissions are: the China Review Commission (the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission under section 7002 of title 22, as enacted by section 1 of Public Law 106–398), the Congressional–Executive Commission on the People’s Republic of China (established under title III of the U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000, Public Law 106–286; 22 U.S.C. 6911 et seq.), the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (established June 3, 1976, Public Law 94–304; 22 U.S.C. 3001 et seq.), and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (established under section 6431 of title 22).