§80t–2 Council

Summary

Creates a 25-member council inside the Smithsonian to run and advise the Museum for women’s art, history, and culture. The council must help plan, design, operate, maintain, and preserve the Museum. It must suggest annual operating budgets, approve its own bylaws, and report each year on acquiring, removing, and showing items about women’s art, history, and culture. Under the Board of Regents’ general policies, the council alone may buy, accept, borrow, loan, exchange, sell (with proceeds used to add to the collection), and set rules for using the collection and for programs, education, exhibits, and research about women’s lives, art, history, roles in U.S. history, and contributions. The council may also preserve and restore items and accept gifts for the Museum. The council must, as much as possible, make sure exhibits and programs fairly show the political diversity of U.S. women about events and issues in women’s history. The council has 25 voting members: one each appointed by the Senate majority leader, Senate minority leader, Speaker of the House, and House minority leader; the Secretary of the Smithsonian; one Board of Regents member chosen by the Regents; and 19 people picked by the Board of Regents (with special consideration for members of the Congressional Commission, board members of the National Women’s History Museum—a 501(c)(3) nonprofit incorporated in 1996 in the District of Columbia—and scholars or groups focused on women’s history). The Board must make the first appointments not later than 180 days after December 27, 2020. Appointed members normally serve 3-year terms, but the first 19 chosen by the Board will be staggered: 7 for 1 year, 6 for 2 years, and 6 for 3 years. Members may be reappointed but cannot serve more than 2 terms. Vacancies do not stop the council from acting and are filled the same way as the original appointment; people filling vacancies serve the rest of the term. Members are unpaid but may get travel expenses and per diem at rates authorized for an agency employee under subchapter I of chapter 57 of title 5, United States Code. The council elects a chair by majority vote. It meets when the chair calls it or when a majority requests it in writing, but at least twice a year and at least 4 times during the first year after its first meeting. A majority of voting members holding office is needed for a quorum; fewer members may still receive information.