10 U.S.C. § 155 — Joint Staff

(a) Appointment of Officers to Joint Staff. (1) There is a Joint Staff under the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It helps the Chairman and, under the Chairman's authority, the other Joint Chiefs members do their jobs. (2) Officers, except from the Coast Guard, assigned to the Joint Staff must be picked by the Chairman in roughly equal numbers from the Army; the Navy and Marine Corps; and the Air Force and Space Force. (3) The Chairman picks these officers from a list each military department secretary submits. Everyone on the list must be considered among that service's most outstanding officers. The Chairman can decide how many names go on each list. (b) Director. The Chairman, after talking with the other Joint Chiefs members and with the Secretary of Defense's approval, can pick an officer to be Director of the Joint Staff. (c) Management of Joint Staff. The Chairman manages both the Joint Staff and its Director. The Joint Staff does whatever duties, and follows whatever procedures, the Chairman sets. (d) Operation of Joint Staff. The Secretary of Defense must make sure the Joint Staff is organized and run independently, so it can help the Chairman meet Congress's goal, set out in the National Security Act of 1947, of providing: (1) unified strategic direction of the combat forces; (2) their operation under one unified command; and (3) their integration into one efficient team of land, naval, and air forces. (e) Prohibition of Function as Armed Forces General Staff. The Joint Staff cannot operate or be organized as an overall "Armed Forces General Staff," and it has no power to command troops directly. It can still be organized and run along normal staff lines. (f) Tour of Duty of Joint Staff Officers. (1) An officer permanently assigned to the Joint Staff generally cannot serve more than four years there, though the Secretary of Defense can approve a longer tour. (2) Following Secretary of Defense procedures, the Chairman can suspend a Joint Staff officer and recommend reassigning them; the officer's home service secretary must then promptly reassign that officer. (3) An officer who finishes a Joint Staff tour generally cannot return to the Joint Staff for two years, unless the Secretary approves sooner. (4) These four-year and two-year rules do not apply during a war, or during a national emergency declared by the President or Congress. (g) Composition of Joint Staff. (1) The Joint Staff includes all military members and civilian employees permanently assigned to the executive part of the Defense Department to do the work described in (a) and (c). (2) It does not include military members or civilians permanently assigned to a military department instead. (h) Personnel Limitations. (1) The Joint Staff cannot have more than 2,250 total military and civilian members. (2) No more than 1,500 of those can be active-duty military. (3) These limits do not apply during a war. (4) During a declared national emergency, each limit can be exceeded by up to 15 percent.