§42 Board of Regents; members

Summary

The Smithsonian’s work must be run in Washington by a Board called the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. The Board must include the Vice President, the Chief Justice of the United States, three Senators, three Representatives, and nine other people who are not members of Congress. Of those nine, two must live in Washington, D.C., and the other seven must live in seven different States (no two from the same State). Even if other laws say otherwise, the Board of Regents may change the number of members, how members are appointed, or how long they serve for boards and commissions it oversees. It cannot change its own membership, nor the boards or commissions of the National Gallery of Art, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, or the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.