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Title 20, EducationRelease 119-102

§44 Organization of Board; Expenses; Gratuitous Services

Title 20 › CHAPTER 3 — SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, NATIONAL MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES › SUBCHAPTER I — CHARTER PROVISIONS › § 44

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Board of Regents must meet in Washington, D.C., pick one member as chancellor to lead meetings, and appoint a Secretary who also serves the board. They must elect three members as an executive committee and set regular meeting times. If any three regents ask, the Secretary must call a special meeting and notify each member by letter. Eight members are needed to do business. Regents are reimbursed for necessary travel and actual expenses, which the executive committee audits and the Secretary records, but they serve without pay.

Full Legal Text

Title 20, §44

Education, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Board of Regents shall meet in the city of Washington and elect one of their number as chancellor, who shall be the presiding officer of the Board of Regents, and called the chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution, and a suitable person as Secretary of the institution, who shall also be the secretary of the Board of Regents. The board shall also elect three of their own body as an executive committee, and shall fix the time for the regular meetings of the board; and, on application of any three of the regents to the Secretary of the institution, it shall be his duty to appoint a special meeting of the Board of Regents, of which he shall give notice, by letter, to each of the members; and, at any meeting of the board, eight shall constitute a quorum to do business. Each member of the board shall be paid his necessary traveling and other actual expenses, in attending meetings of the board, which shall be audited by the executive committee, and recorded by the Secretary of the board; but his service as regent shall be gratuitous.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification R.S. § 5582 derived from act Aug. 10, 1846, ch. 178, § 3, 9 Stat. 103.

Amendments

1970—Pub. L. 91–551 increased number of members required to constitute a quorum from five to eight.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

20 U.S.C. § 44

Title 20, Education

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102