§6918 Staff of the Commission

Summary

Sets up a personnel and administration committee made of four people: the Chairman, the Cochairman, the senior Commission member from the House minority, and the senior Commission member from the Senate minority. The committee must vote by majority to hire, fire, or set pay for staff, except the Chairman can appoint and set pay for the staff director and the Cochairman can appoint and set pay for the Cochairman’s senior staff member. The Chairman and Cochairman can each appoint, with the committee’s approval, at least four professional staff who report to the person who appointed them. Staff hires do not follow the normal federal competitive hiring rules or the usual classification and General Schedule pay rules in title 5 (including chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53). For pay, benefits, and other rights, Commission employees are treated as congressional employees under section 2107 of title 5, and for section 3304(i)(1) of title 5 they are treated as if paid by the Secretary of the Senate or the Clerk of the House. The committee must make sure the professional staff include experts in human rights, worker rights, international economics, law (including international law), rule of law and foreign assistance programming, and Chinese politics, economy, culture, and language.