§206 Assignment of officers

Summary

The Surgeon General must assign one Regular Corps officer to run the Office of the Surgeon General, fill in if the Surgeon General is absent, disabled, or the job is vacant, and do other tasks the Surgeon General gives. That officer is called the Deputy Surgeon General. The Surgeon General must also assign eight Regular Corps officers to specific leadership jobs, including the Director of the National Institutes of Health; the chiefs of the Bureau of State Services and the Bureau of Medical Services; the Coast Guard’s Chief Medical Officer; and the Service’s Chief Dental, Nurse, Pharmacist, and Sanitary Engineering Officers. With the Secretary’s approval, the Surgeon General can create temporary Assistant Surgeon General posts filled from the Regular or Ready Reserve Corps. The number of those temporary posts cannot exceed 1% of the peak active Corps over the prior 90 days (counting Ready Reserve only if on active duty over 30 days). If the limit is exceeded, for up to one year the count can only be reduced by resignation, retirement, death, or transfer to a lower grade of officers in those posts. The Surgeon General must also name which Assistant Surgeon General will serve if both the Surgeon General and Deputy are unavailable.