§551 Transitional Authorities

Summary

When an agency is being moved into the Department, the officials who ran or had duties over that agency before the move must help the Secretary get ready. They must provide help the Secretary asks for, including people and equipment. Other agency heads can, if the Secretary asks, loan staff or services and be paid back. While waiting for Senate confirmation of required officers, the President may name people who already held those jobs to act in them. Those acting officials get whichever pay rate is higher: the new job rate or their old rate. The President does not need Senate approval to put someone in a Department job if the job’s duties stay the same after the transfer. When an agency transfers, its people, assets, and obligations go to the Secretary for allocation with the approval of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and under section 1531(a)(2) of title 31. The Secretary gets the same powers that others had over the agency before, plus any powers given by this chapter or other law. Money from the Highway Trust Fund, Airport and Airway Trust Fund, Inland Waterway Trust Fund, and Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund may not be moved to or used by the Department or its officials. That rule does not apply to FAA security funds provided for fiscal years before fiscal year 2003 for operations, facilities and equipment, or research, engineering, and development, or to Coast Guard boating safety funds from the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund.