3 U.S.C. § 105 — Assistance and services for the President

(a) (1) Subject to paragraph (2), the President may hire and set the pay of White House Office employees without following the usual federal hiring and pay rules. These employees do whatever official work the President assigns. (2) The President may hire, under paragraph (1), no more than: (A) 25 employees paid up to the Executive Schedule level II rate; (B) 25 more employees paid up to the Executive Schedule level III rate; (C) 50 more employees paid up to the top General Schedule GS-18 rate; and (D) as many more employees as the President decides are needed, paid up to the minimum GS-16 rate. (b) (1) Subject to paragraph (2), the President may also hire and set the pay of employees in the Executive Residence at the White House, outside the usual rules, to do official work the President assigns. (2) The President may hire, under paragraph (1), no more than: (A) 3 employees paid up to the top GS-18 rate; and (B) as many more employees as the President decides are needed, paid up to the minimum GS-16 rate. (c) The President may hire temporary or occasional experts and consultants for the White House Office and the Executive Residence, as appropriation laws allow: (1) for the White House Office, at daily rates up to the daily equivalent of Executive Schedule level II; and (2) for the Executive Residence, at daily rates up to the daily equivalent of the top GS-18 rate. Even though the law on such experts and consultants normally limits how long they can serve, the President may keep one working past a year if the President decides it's necessary. (d) Congress must appropriate money each year for: (1) caring for, maintaining, repairing, refurnishing, and improving the Executive Residence, including its air conditioning, heating, and lighting; (2) the White House Office's official expenses; (3) the President's official entertainment expenses; (4) official entertainment expenses shared across the Executive Office of the President; and (5) travel-related subsistence expenses for government staff traveling with the President. Money for items (1), (3), and (5) may be spent however the President decides, regardless of other laws, and is accounted for solely by the President's own certification — except that the Comptroller General may inspect the related books and records solely to confirm the spending really was for those purposes, then must report that confirmation to Congress, along with any spending found not to fit those purposes. (e) The assistance and services this section provides to the President may also be given to the President's spouse, to help that spouse support the President's duties. If the President has no spouse, this help may instead go to a family member the President names.