§2124 Tourism Policy Council

Summary

Creates a Tourism Policy Council to make sure U.S. tourism interests are part of federal decisions. The Secretary of Commerce leads the Council. Members include the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade; the Director of the Office of Management and Budget; the Secretaries of State, Interior, Labor, and Transportation; the Commissioners of the U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service; the President of the U.S. National Tourism Organization; and other agency representatives the Chair invites. Members do not get extra pay. The Council must meet first within 6 months after October 11, 1996, and then at least twice a year. It coordinates federal policies and programs on international travel and tourism, recreation, and national heritage resources. The Chair can ask agencies for staff, information, services, or facilities as allowed by law and funding. Agencies may temporarily send staff without loss of pay or status. The Chair may hold closed meetings to protect non-public information and exclude non-federal people. Each year the Council must send a report for the previous fiscal year to the President by December 31 for Congress. The report must cover its work, coordination results and progress on agency conflicts, problems sent to the Council and actions taken, and any recommendations. The National Tourism Organization President’s membership does not by itself make chapter 10 of title 5 apply.