§15301 Establishment, membership, and employees

Summary

Creates six regional groups: the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission; the Southwest Border Regional Commission; the Northern Border Regional Commission; the Great Lakes Authority; the Mid-Atlantic Regional Commission; and the Southern New England Regional Commission. Each group has a Federal Cochair appointed by the President with Senate approval and the Governors of the participating States as members. The President also appoints an alternate Federal Cochair who can do work the Federal Cochair gives them when not acting as the alternate. Each Governor may name one alternate from the Governor’s cabinet or staff. Alternates vote if the regular member is absent, dead, disabled, removed, or resigns. A State alternate who cannot vote may give their vote to a designee if the executive director gets a written notice at least 1 week before the vote. Each group is led by the Federal Cochair, who links the group to the federal government, and a State Cochair who must be a Governor and is chosen by the State members for a term of at least 1 year. A Governor may not serve more than two back-to-back terms as State Cochair. The Federal Cochair is paid at level III of the Executive Schedule (section 5314 of title 5). The alternate Federal Cochair is paid at level V (section 5316 of title 5). State members and their alternates are paid by their States under state law. The group must hire an executive director and other staff. Pay for those staff cannot go above the Senior Executive Service maximum under section 5382 of title 5, including any locality pay allowed under section 5304(h)(2)(C). Except for the Federal Cochair, the alternate Federal Cochair, staff of the Federal Cochair, and any federal employee detailed to the group, members and staff are not federal employees. If both the Federal Cochair and their alternate cannot serve, the Federal Cochair may name a Commission employee to act temporarily, subject to the time limits in section 3346 of title 5.