Title 33Navigation and Navigable WatersRelease 119-73

§3022 Personnel boards

Title 33 › Chapter CHAPTER 43— - NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION COMMISSIONED OFFICER CORPS › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER II— - APPOINTMENT AND PROMOTION OF OFFICERS › § 3022

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary must call a personnel board at least once a year and whenever needed. Each board has five or more officers who are at or above the grade being reviewed. Retired officers can be brought back to serve. No one may sit on two back-to-back boards that review the same grade. The board fixes rank-list errors caused by administrative mistakes and makes choices and recommendations about appointments, promotions, involuntary separations, continuations, and involuntary retirements to the Secretary and the President. If the Secretary or President rejects a board’s recommendation, the board must offer additional options. The Director may let an officer ask not to be considered for promotion, but only if the request is to finish a training, education, valuable assignment, delayed career requirement, or other qualifying personal or professional reason; the Director agrees it is in the Administration’s best interest; and the officer has not previously failed selection for that grade.

Full Legal Text

Title 33, §3022

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(a)Not less frequently than once each year and at such other times as the Secretary determines necessary, the Secretary shall convene a personnel board.
(b)(1)A board convened under subsection (a) shall consist of five or more officers who are serving in or above the permanent grade of the officers under consideration by the board.
(2)Officers on the retired list may be recalled to serve on such personnel boards as the Secretary considers necessary.
(3)No officer may be a member of two successive personnel boards convened to consider officers of the same grade for promotion or separation.
(c)Each personnel board shall—
(1)recommend to the Secretary such changes as may be necessary to correct any erroneous position on the lineal list that was caused by administrative error; and
(2)make selections and recommendations to the Secretary and the President for the appointment, promotion, involuntary separation, continuation, and involuntary retirement of officers in the commissioned officer corps of the Administration as prescribed in this chapter.
(d)If any recommendation by a board convened under subsection (a) is not accepted by the Secretary or the President, the board shall make such further recommendations as the Secretary or the President considers appropriate.
(e)(1)The Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps may provide that an officer, upon the officer’s request and with the approval of the Director, be excluded from consideration for promotion by a personnel board convened under this section.
(2)The Director shall approve a request made by an officer under paragraph (1) only if—
(A)the basis for the request is to allow the officer to complete a broadening assignment, advanced education, another assignment of significant value to the Administration, a career progression requirement delayed by the assignment or education, or a qualifying personal or professional circumstance, as determined by the Director;
(B)the Director determines the exclusion from consideration is in the best interest of the Administration; and
(C)the officer has not previously failed selection for promotion to the grade for which the officer requests the exclusion from consideration.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This chapter, referred to in subsec. (c)(2), was in the original “this title”, meaning title II of Pub. L. 107–372, Dec. 19, 2002, 116 Stat. 3082, which is classified principally to this chapter. For complete classification of this title to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 3001 of this title and Tables.

Prior Provisions

Provisions similar to those in this section were contained in section 853r of this title prior to repeal by Pub. L. 107–372.

Amendments

2020—Pub. L. 116–259 amended section generally. Prior to amendment, section related to convening, duties and recommendations of personnel boards.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

33 U.S.C. § 3022

Title 33Navigation and Navigable Waters

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73