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Title 20 — EducationRelease 119-73not60

§42 Board of Regents; Members

Title 20 › Chapter 3— SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, NATIONAL MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES › Subchapter I— CHARTER PROVISIONS › § 42

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Smithsonian's business must be run in Washington by a Board of Regents. The Board must include the Vice President, the Chief Justice of the United States, three U.S. Senators, three members of the House of Representatives, and nine other people who are not in Congress. Of those nine, two must live in Washington, D.C., and seven must live in different States (no two from the same State). The Board of Regents may change the size, how members are chosen, or how long members serve for boards and commissions that the Smithsonian controls. It cannot change the Board of Regents itself, or the boards or commissions of the National Gallery of Art, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, or the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Full Legal Text

Title 20, §42

Education — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The business of the Institution shall be conducted at the city of Washington by a Board of Regents, named the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, to be composed of the Vice President, the Chief Justice of the United States, three Members of the Senate, three Members of the House of Representatives, and nine other persons, other than Members of Congress, two of whom shall be resident in the city of Washington, and seven of whom shall be inhabitants of some State, but no two of them of the same State.
(b)Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution may modify the number of members, manner of appointment of members, or tenure of members, of the boards or commissions under the jurisdiction of the Smithsonian Institution, other than—
(1)the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution; and
(2)the boards or commissions of the National Gallery of Art, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification R.S. § 5580 derived from acts Aug. 10, 1846, ch. 178, § 3, 9 Stat. 103; Jan. 10, 1865, ch. 11, 13 Stat. 420; Mar. 20, 1871, ch. 1, 17 Stat. 1.

Amendments

1998—Pub. L. 105–277 designated existing provisions as subsec. (a) and added subsec. (b). 1970—Pub. L. 91–551 authorized three additional persons on the Board of Regents. 1894—Act Mar. 12, 1894, struck out “the governor of the District of Columbia” after “the Chief Justice of the United States,”.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

20 U.S.C. § 42

Title 20 — Education

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60