§2195 Department of Defense Cooperative Education Programs

Summary

The Secretary of Defense must make sure each defense laboratory teams up with one or more U.S. colleges or university groups to run cooperative work‑education programs for undergraduate and graduate students. Lab directors may hire students into entry‑level jobs and are allowed to ignore internal limits on staff numbers or total personnel costs when doing so. They can pay students up to the maximum GS‑9 rate under the General Schedule (5 U.S.C. 5332), cover travel between school and the lab for up to six round trips per year, and pay some or all school charges like tuition, fees, lab costs, materials, and books. A lab director can require a student to sign a written agreement to work at the lab for a set time in return for those school payments, or the director can give the payments without such an agreement. The Director of the National Security Agency may also provide qualifying student employees with free or regulated-rate housing, without following 5 U.S.C. 5911(c). A “qualifying employee” is a student working at NSA under its Student Educational Employment Program or a similar cooperative or summer education program that meets Office of Personnel Management rules.