Title 20EducationRelease 119-73not60

§80g Powers and Duties of Board

Title 20 › Chapter 3— SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, NATIONAL MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES › Subchapter XI— WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS › § 80g

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

To run the Center, the Board can hire scholars from the United States and other countries and give them stipends, grants, or fellowships. The Board can also hire paid or volunteer experts, advisory groups, and panels. It may accept gifts, bequests, and property and must deposit them with the Smithsonian; unless a gift limits its use, the Board may spend the money for the Center. The Board can get grants and make contracts, buy a Congress-approved site, and own, operate, and sell buildings and equipment needed for the Center. The Board appoints and sets pay for the director and other officers; the director and two other officers may be appointed and paid without following certain Title 5 civil service rules (competitive service, chapter 51, and subchapter III of chapter 53 of title 5). The Board must prepare plans for the Center’s buildings, grounds, and design with the President’s Temporary Commission on Pennsylvania Avenue and other agencies, and those plans must include an exterior classic frieze memorial to Woodrow Wilson. If the Board buys a site and people or businesses are forced to move, it must provide relocation help equal to what the Housing Act of 1949, as amended (42 U.S.C. 1441 et seq.), allows. The Board must create a relocation program, send it to the District of Columbia government to review for adequacy and feasibility, and use federal and local agency services as much as possible.

Full Legal Text

Title 20, §80g

Education — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In administering the Center, the Board shall have all necessary and proper powers, which shall include but not be limited to the power to—
(1)appoint scholars, from the United States and abroad, and, where appropriate, provide stipends, grants, and fellowships to such scholars, and to hire or accept the voluntary services of consultants, advisory boards, and panels to aid the Board in carrying out its responsibilities;
(2)solicit, accept, and dispose of gifts, bequests, and devises of money, securities, and other property of whatsoever character for the benefit of the Center; any such money, securities, or other property shall, upon receipt, be deposited with the Smithsonian Institution, and unless otherwise restricted by the terms of the gift, expenditures shall be in the discretion of the Board for the purposes of the Center;
(3)obtain grants from, and make contracts with, State, Federal, local, and private agencies, organizations, institutions, and individuals;
(4)acquire such site as a location for the Center as may subsequently be authorized by the Congress;
(5)acquire, hold, maintain, use, operate, and dispose of any physical facilities, including equipment, necessary for the operation of the Center;
(6)appoint and fix the compensation and duties of the director and such other officers of the Center as may be necessary for the efficient administration of the Center; the director and two other officers of the Center may be appointed and compensated without regard to the provisions of title 5 governing appointments in the competitive service and chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of title 5; and
(7)prepare plans and specifications for the Center, including the design and development of all buildings, facilities, open spaces, and other structures on the site in consultation with the President’s Temporary Commission on Pennsylvania Avenue, or its successor, and with other appropriate Federal and local agencies, such plans to include an exterior classic frieze memorial to Woodrow Wilson.
(b)The Board shall, in connection with acquisition of any site authorized by Congress, as provided for in paragraph (4) of subsection (a) of this section, provide, to businesses and residents displaced from any such site, relocation assistance, including payments and other benefits, equivalent to that authorized to displace businesses and residents under the Housing Act of 1949, as amended [42 U.S.C. 1441 et seq.]. The Board shall develop a relocation program for existing businesses and residents within the site and submit such program to the government of the District of Columbia for a determination as to its adequacy and feasibility. In providing such relocation assistance and developing such relocation program the Board shall utilize to the maximum extent the services and facilities of the appropriate Federal and local agencies.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The Housing Act of 1949, as amended, referred to in subsec. (b), is act July 15, 1949, ch. 338, 63 Stat. 413, which is classified principally to chapter 8A (§ 1441 et seq.) of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 1441 of Title 42 and Tables.

Amendments

1978—Subsec. (a)(2). Pub. L. 95–286 substituted “devises” for “devices”.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

20 U.S.C. § 80g

Title 20Education

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60