TITLE 6 - US CODE - SUBCHAPTER XII - TRANSITION

Part A - Reorganization Plan

6 USC 541 - Definitions

For purposes of this subchapter:

(1) The term agency includes any entity, organizational unit, program, or function.

(2) The term transition period means the 12-month period beginning on the effective date of this chapter.

6 USC 542 - Reorganization plan

(a) Submission of plan
Not later than 60 days after November 25, 2002, the President shall transmit to the appropriate congressional committees a reorganization plan regarding the following:

(1) The transfer of agencies, personnel, assets, and obligations to the Department pursuant to this chapter.

(2) Any consolidation, reorganization, or streamlining of agencies transferred to the Department pursuant to this chapter.

(b) Plan elements
The plan transmitted under subsection (a) of this section shall contain, consistent with this chapter, such elements as the President deems appropriate, including the following:

(1) Identification of any functions of agencies transferred to the Department pursuant to this chapter that will not be transferred to the Department under the plan.

(2) Specification of the steps to be taken by the Secretary to organize the Department, including the delegation or assignment of functions transferred to the Department among officers of the Department in order to permit the Department to carry out the functions transferred under the plan.

(3) Specification of the funds available to each agency that will be transferred to the Department as a result of transfers under the plan.

(4) Specification of the proposed allocations within the Department of unexpended funds transferred in connection with transfers under the plan.

(5) Specification of any proposed disposition of property, facilities, contracts, records, and other assets and obligations of agencies transferred under the plan.

(6) Specification of the proposed allocations within the Department of the functions of the agencies and subdivisions that are not related directly to securing the homeland.

(c) Modification of plan
The President may, on the basis of consultations with the appropriate congressional committees, modify or revise any part of the plan until that part of the plan becomes effective in accordance with subsection (d) of this section.

(d) Effective date

(1) In general
The reorganization plan described in this section, including any modifications or revisions of the plan under subsection (d) of this section, shall become effective for an agency on the earlier of

(A) the date specified in the plan (or the plan as modified pursuant to subsection (d) of this section), except that such date may not be earlier than 90 days after the date the President has transmitted the reorganization plan to the appropriate congressional committees pursuant to subsection (a) of this section; or

(B) the end of the transition period.

(2) Statutory construction
Nothing in this subsection may be construed to require the transfer of functions, personnel, records, balances of appropriations, or other assets of an agency on a single date.

(3) Supersedes existing law
Paragraph (1) shall apply notwithstanding section 905 (b) of title 5.

6 USC 543 - Review of congressional committee structures

It is the sense of Congress that each House of Congress should review its committee structure in light of the reorganization of responsibilities within the executive branch by the establishment of the Department.

Part B - Transitional Provisions

6 USC 551 - Transitional authorities

(a) Provision of assistance by officials
Until the transfer of an agency to the Department, any official having authority over or functions relating to the agency immediately before the effective date of this chapter shall provide to the Secretary such assistance, including the use of personnel and assets, as the Secretary may request in preparing for the transfer and integration of the agency into the Department.

(b) Services and personnel
During the transition period, upon the request of the Secretary, the head of any executive agency may, on a reimbursable basis, provide services or detail personnel to assist with the transition.

(1) During the transition period, pending the advice and consent of the Senate to the appointment of an officer required by this chapter to be appointed by and with such advice and consent, the President may designate any officer whose appointment was required to be made by and with such advice and consent and who was such an officer immediately before the effective date of this chapter (and who continues in office) or immediately before such designation, to act in such office until the same is filled as provided in this chapter. While so acting, such officers shall receive compensation at the higher of

(A) the rates provided by this chapter for the respective offices in which they act; or

(B) the rates provided for the offices held at the time of designation.

(2) Nothing in this chapter shall be understood to require the advice and consent of the Senate to the appointment by the President to a position in the Department of any officer whose agency is transferred to the Department pursuant to this chapter and whose duties following such transfer are germane to those performed before such transfer.

(d) Transfer of personnel, assets, obligations, and functions
Upon the transfer of an agency to the Department

(1) the personnel, assets, and obligations held by or available in connection with the agency shall be transferred to the Secretary for appropriate allocation, subject to the approval of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and in accordance with the provisions of section 1531 (a)(2) of title 31; and

(2) the Secretary shall have all functions relating to the agency that any other official could by law exercise in relation to the agency immediately before such transfer, and shall have in addition all functions vested in the Secretary by this chapter or other law.

(e) Prohibition on use of transportation trust funds

(1) In general
Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, no funds derived from the Highway Trust Fund, Airport and Airway Trust Fund, Inland Waterway Trust Fund, or Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, may be transferred to, made available to, or obligated by the Secretary or any other official in the Department.

(2) Limitation
This subsection shall not apply to security-related funds provided to the Federal Aviation Administration for fiscal years preceding fiscal year 2003 for

(A) operations,

(B) facilities and equipment, or

(C) research, engineering, and development, and to any funds provided to the Coast Guard from the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund for boating safety programs.

6 USC 552 - Savings provisions

(a) Completed administrative actions

(1) Completed administrative actions of an agency shall not be affected by the enactment of this chapter or the transfer of such agency to the Department, but shall continue in effect according to their terms until amended, modified, superseded, terminated, set aside, or revoked in accordance with law by an officer of the United States or a court of competent jurisdiction, or by operation of law.

(2) For purposes of paragraph (1), the term completed administrative action includes orders, determinations, rules, regulations, personnel actions, permits, agreements, grants, contracts, certificates, licenses, registrations, and privileges.

(b) Pending proceedings
Subject to the authority of the Secretary under this chapter

(1) pending proceedings in an agency, including notices of proposed rulemaking, and applications for licenses, permits, certificates, grants, and financial assistance, shall continue notwithstanding the enactment of this chapter or the transfer of the agency to the Department, unless discontinued or modified under the same terms and conditions and to the same extent that such discontinuance could have occurred if such enactment or transfer had not occurred; and

(2) orders issued in such proceedings, and appeals therefrom, and payments made pursuant to such orders, shall issue in the same manner and on the same terms as if this chapter had not been enacted or the agency had not been transferred, and any such orders shall continue in effect until amended, modified, superseded, terminated, set aside, or revoked by an officer of the United States or a court of competent jurisdiction, or by operation of law.

(c) Pending civil actions
Subject to the authority of the Secretary under this chapter, pending civil actions shall continue notwithstanding the enactment of this chapter or the transfer of an agency to the Department, and in such civil actions, proceedings shall be had, appeals taken, and judgments rendered and enforced in the same manner and with the same effect as if such enactment or transfer had not occurred.

(d) References
References relating to an agency that is transferred to the Department in statutes, Executive orders, rules, regulations, directives, or delegations of authority that precede such transfer or the effective date of this chapter shall be deemed to refer, as appropriate, to the Department, to its officers, employees, or agents, or to its corresponding organizational units or functions. Statutory reporting requirements that applied in relation to such an agency immediately before the effective date of this chapter shall continue to apply following such transfer if they refer to the agency by name.

(e) Employment provisions

(1) Notwithstanding the generality of the foregoing (including subsections (a) and (d) of this section), in and for the Department the Secretary may, in regulations prescribed jointly with the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, adopt the rules, procedures, terms, and conditions, established by statute, rule, or regulation before the effective date of this chapter, relating to employment in any agency transferred to the Department pursuant to this chapter; and

(2) except as otherwise provided in this chapter, or under authority granted by this chapter, the transfer pursuant to this chapter of personnel shall not alter the terms and conditions of employment, including compensation, of any employee so transferred.

(f) Statutory reporting requirements
Any statutory reporting requirement that applied to an agency, transferred to the Department under this chapter, immediately before the effective date of this chapter shall continue to apply following that transfer if the statutory requirement refers to the agency by name.

6 USC 552a - Savings provision of certain transfers made under the Homeland Security Act of 2002

The transfer of functions under subtitle B of title XI of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Public Law 107296) [6 U.S.C. 531 et seq.] shall not affect any pending or completed administrative actions, including orders, determinations, rules, regulations, personnel actions, permits, agreements, grants, contracts, certificates, licenses, or registrations, in effect on the date immediately prior to the date of such transfer, or any proceeding, unless and until amended, modified, superseded, terminated, set aside, or revoked. Pending civil actions shall not be affected by such transfer of functions.

6 USC 553 - Terminations

Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, whenever all the functions vested by law in any agency have been transferred pursuant to this chapter, each position and office the incumbent of which was authorized to receive compensation at the rates prescribed for an office or position at level II, III, IV, or V, of the Executive Schedule, shall terminate.

6 USC 554 - National identification system not authorized

Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to authorize the development of a national identification system or card.

6 USC 555 - Continuity of Inspector General oversight

Notwithstanding the transfer of an agency to the Department pursuant to this chapter, the Inspector General that exercised oversight of such agency prior to such transfer shall continue to exercise oversight of such agency during the period of time, if any, between the transfer of such agency to the Department pursuant to this chapter and the appointment of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security in accordance with section 113 (b) of this title.

6 USC 556 - Incidental transfers

The Director of the Office of Management and Budget, in consultation with the Secretary, is authorized and directed to make such additional incidental dispositions of personnel, assets, and liabilities held, used, arising from, available, or to be made available, in connection with the functions transferred by this chapter, as the Director may determine necessary to accomplish the purposes of this chapter.

6 USC 557 - Reference

With respect to any function transferred by or under this chapter (including under a reorganization plan that becomes effective under section 542 of this title) and exercised on or after the effective date of this chapter, reference in any other Federal law to any department, commission, or agency or any officer or office the functions of which are so transferred shall be deemed to refer to the Secretary, other official, or component of the Department to which such function is so transferred.