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Title 2, The CongressRelease 119-110

§2102 Duties of Commission

Title 2 › CHAPTER 30 — OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF CAPITOL COMPLEX › SUBCHAPTER V — HISTORICAL PRESERVATION AND FINE ARTS › Part B — Senate Commission on Art › § 2102

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Commission must care for and manage all art, historical objects, and exhibits owned by the United States that are in the Senate wing of the Capitol and in any Senate office buildings. It can accept items offered to the Senate, its committees, or officers for display in those places. The Commission must write rules for how to care for, protect, place, and accept these items and publish those rules in the Congressional Record so Senators and the public know them. Other protection rules made by the Sergeant at Arms, the Committee on Rules and Administration, or the Architect of the Capitol must agree with the Commission’s rules. The Committee on Rules and Administration, working with the Architect and following the Commission’s rules, is responsible for supervising, protecting, and placing items the Commission accepted or listed as United States property when they are kept in the Senate wing or Senate office buildings.

Full Legal Text

Title 2, §2102

The Congress, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In general
The Commission is hereby authorized and directed to supervise, hold, place, protect, and make known all works of art, historical objects, and exhibits within the Senate wing of the United States Capitol, any Senate Office Buildings, and in all rooms, spaces, and corridors thereof, which are the property of the United States, and in its judgment to accept any works of art, historical objects, or exhibits which may hereafter be offered, given, or devised to the Senate, its committees, and its officers for placement and exhibition in the Senate wing of the Capitol, the Senate Office Buildings, or in rooms, spaces, or corridors thereof.
(b)Issuance and publication of regulations
The Commission shall prescribe such regulations as it deems necessary for the care, protection, and placement of such works of art, exhibits, and historical objects in the Senate wing of the Capitol and the Senate Office Buildings, and for their acceptance on behalf of the Senate, its committees, and officers. Such regulations shall be published in the Congressional Record at such time or times as the Commission may deem necessary for the information of the Members of the Senate and the public.
(c)Consistency of regulations
Regulations authorized by the provisions of section 2183 of this title to be issued by the Sergeant at Arms of the Senate for the protection of the Capitol, and any regulations issued, or activities undertaken, by the Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate, or the Architect of the Capitol, in carrying out duties relating to the care, preservation, and protection of the Senate wing of the Capitol and the Senate Office Buildings, shall be consistent with such rules and regulations as the Commission may issue pursuant to subsection (b) of this section.
(d)Responsibilities of Committee on Rules and Administration of Senate
The Committee on Rules and Administration of the Senate in consultation with the Architect of the Capitol and consistent with regulations prescribed by the Commission under subsection (b) of this section, shall have responsibility for the supervision, protection, and placement of all works of art, historical objects, and exhibits which shall have been accepted on behalf of the Senate by the Commission or acknowledged as United States property by inventory of the Commission, and which may be lodged in the Senate wing of the Capitol or the Senate Office Buildings by the Commission.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section was classified to section 188b–1 of former Title 40, prior to the enactment of Title 40, Public Buildings, Property, and Works, by Pub. L. 107–217, § 1, Aug. 21, 2002, 116 Stat. 1062. Section is based on section 2 of Senate Resolution No. 382, Ninetieth Congress, Oct. 1, 1968, which was enacted into permanent law and amended by Pub. L. 100–696.

Amendments

1988—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 100–696, § 901(b)(2), substituted “protect, and make known” for “and protect” and “Senate wing of the United States Capitol, any Senate Office Buildings” for “Senate wing of the Capitol”.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

2 U.S.C. § 2102

Title 2, The Congress

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110