19 U.S.C. § 2072 — Officers and employees

(a) Appointment by Secretary of the Treasury. The Secretary of the Treasury may appoint in the service established by section 2071 one assistant commissioner, three deputy commissioners, one chief clerk, and whatever attorneys and other officers and employees the Secretary considers necessary. One deputy commissioner must oversee investigations. Civil-service laws apply to these appointments, and salaries must be set under chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of title 5.

(b) Absence or disability of Commissioner. The Secretary may designate a Customs Service officer to act as Commissioner of Customs during the Commissioner’s absence or disability, or when there is no Commissioner. (The stray footnote digits in the supplied text are ignored.)

(c) Duties of personnel. Customs Service personnel must perform the duties the Secretary prescribes.

(d) International Trade Committee. (1) Establishment. The Commissioner must establish an International Trade Committee chaired by the Commissioner. It must include the Deputy Commissioner; the Assistant Commissioners for Field Operations, Finance, International Affairs, and International Trade; the Director of the Office of Trade Relations; and any other official the Commissioner decides is important to the Committee’s work. (2) Responsibilities. The Committee must (A) advise the Commissioner about the commercial customs and trade-facilitation functions of United States Customs and Border Protection; (B) help the Commissioner coordinate with the Secretary about those functions; and (C) oversee all programs and systems involved in assessing and collecting duties, bonds, and other charges or penalties connected with cargo entering or leaving the United States. This includes administering duty drawback and collecting antidumping and countervailing duties. (3) Annual report. Within 30 days after each fiscal year ends, the Committee must report to the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Ways and Means. The report must (A) describe the Committee’s activities during the preceding fiscal year; and (B) state its priorities for the fiscal year in which the report is filed.

(e) Definition. This section uses “Commissioner” to mean the Commissioner responsible for United States Customs and Border Protection in the Department of Homeland Security. It uses “Commercial Operations Advisory Committee” to mean the Advisory Committee established under section 9503(c) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (19 U.S.C. 2071 note), or any successor committee. This section does not otherwise define those quoted terms.