Title 5, Government Organization and EmployeesRelease 119-102

§2952 Time of Making Annual Reports

Title 5 › PART III — EMPLOYEES › Subpart A — General Provisions › CHAPTER 29 — COMMISSIONS, OATHS, RECORDS, AND REPORTS › SUBCHAPTER II — REPORTS › § 2952

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Department heads must give Congress their yearly reports at the start of each regular session, unless another law sets a different time. Each report must describe what the department did during the previous year.

Full Legal Text

Title 5, §2952

Government Organization and Employees, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Except when a different time is specifically prescribed by statute, the head of each Executive department or military department shall make the annual reports, required to be submitted to Congress, at the beginning of each regular session of Congress. The reports shall cover the transactions of the preceding year.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Historical and Revision Notes

DerivationU.S. CodeRevised Statutes andStatutes at Large 5 U.S.C. 106.R.S. § 195. The words “Executive department” are substituted for “department” as the definition of “department” applicable to this section is coextensive with the definition of “Executive department” in section 101. The words “or military department” are inserted to preserve the application of the source law. Before enactment of the National Security Act

Amendments

of 1949 (63 Stat. 578), the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and the Department of the Air Force were Executive departments. The National Security Act

Amendments

of 1949 established the Department of Defense as an Executive Department including the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and the Department of the Air Force as military departments, not as Executive departments. However, the source law for this section, which was in effect in 1949, remained applicable to the Secretaries of the military departments by virtue of section 12(g) of the National Security Act

Amendments

of 1949 (63 Stat. 591), which is set out in the reviser’s note for section 301. This section was part of title IV of the Revised Statutes. The Act of July 26, 1947, ch. 343, 201(d), as added Aug. 10, 1949, ch. 412, § 4, 63 Stat. 579 (former 5 U.S.C. 171–1), which provides “Except to the extent inconsistent with the provisions of this Act [National Security Act of 1947], the provisions of title IV of the Revised Statutes as now or hereafter amended shall be applicable to the Department of Defense” is omitted from this title but is not repealed. Standard changes are made to conform with the definitions applicable and the style of this title as outlined in the preface to the report.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

5 U.S.C. § 2952

Title 5, Government Organization and Employees

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102