Title 20 › CHAPTER 48 — DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION › SUBCHAPTER IV — ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS › Part A — Personnel Provisions › § 3461
The Secretary may hire the officers and employees needed to run the Department, including lawyers, and set their pay. Unless another law says otherwise, those hires must follow the civil service rules and pay schedules in title 5. At the Secretary’s request, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management must create GS‑16, GS‑17, and GS‑18 jobs equal to the number of such positions used for transferred functions and that were filled on the day before May 4, 1980. People transferred into those jobs who held comparable duties the day before May 4, 1980 may be placed without following one specific hiring rule (section 3324 of title 5). That special authority ends when the first person in each position leaves. The Director must also set up 15 limited‑term Senior Executive Service slots; the Secretary fills them, and each expires on the later of three years after May 4, 1980 or three years after its first appointment. Any Indian preference law in effect the day before October 17, 1979 still applies to transferred offices and functions.
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20 U.S.C. § 3461
Title 20, Education
Last Updated
Sep 22, 2026
Release point: 119-110