§80t–2 Council

Summary

Creates a 25-member council inside the Smithsonian to run and advise the museum about women’s history, art, and culture. The council must give the Board of Regents advice on planning, design, construction, daily operation, upkeep, and preservation of the museum. It must suggest the museum’s yearly operating budget, report each year to the Board about buying, selling, and showing objects related to women’s art and history, and write its own bylaws. Under the Board’s general policies, the council alone can add or remove objects for the collection (money from any sale must go back into the collections), set rules for how the collections and resources are used (including programs, education, exhibits, and research about women’s life, art, history, role in U.S. history, and contributions to society), care for and restore the collection, and accept gifts or bequests to help the museum. The council must try to make exhibits and programs show, when practical, an equal range of political viewpoints held by women in the United States. The council has 25 voting members: one appointed by the Senate majority leader, one by the Senate minority leader, one by the House Speaker, one by the House minority leader, the Smithsonian Secretary, one Regent-appointed member, and 19 chosen by the Board of Regents (the Board should especially consider members of the Congressional Commission, board members of the National Women’s History Museum (a 501(c)(3) formed in 1996 in D.C.), and scholars or groups focused on women’s history). The Board must make the first appointments within 180 days after December 27, 2020. Members serve 3-year terms, with the first 19 staggered so 7 serve 1 year, 6 serve 2 years, and 6 serve 3 years. Members may serve up to 2 terms. Vacancies are filled the same way as the original appointment and appointees finishing a term serve the remainder. Members are unpaid but can get travel expenses and per diem at rates allowed under subchapter I of chapter 57 of title 5, U.S. Code. The council elects a chair by majority vote, must meet at least twice a year (and at least 4 times in the first year after the first meeting), and a majority of members in office is needed to do official business.