2 U.S.C. § 1382 — Officers, staff, and other personnel

(a) Executive Director. (1)(A) The Chair, with Board approval, appoints and may remove the Executive Director. Selection must ignore political affiliation and be based only on fitness for the Office's duties. The first Executive Director must be appointed within 90 days after the Board's first appointment. (B) The Executive Director must have training or expertise applying the laws in section 1302(a). (C) The disqualifications in section 1381(d)(2) apply. (2)(A) The Chair may set pay. (B) Pay may not exceed the maximum rate under section 4575(f). (3) The term may be no more than two 5-year terms; the first Director has one 7-year term. (4) The Director is the Office's chief operating officer and, unless this chapter says otherwise, performs all Office responsibilities. (b) Deputy Executive Directors. (1) With Board approval, the Chair appoints and may remove one Deputy Director for the Senate and one for the House. Selection ignores political affiliation and is based only on fitness; section 1381(d)(2) disqualifications apply. (2) Each term is no more than two 5-year terms; the first deputies have one 6-year term. (3)(A) The Chair may set their pay. (B) Pay may not exceed 96 percent of the lower of the highest annual pay of a Senate officer or House officer. (4) The Senate deputy recommends the regulations under section 1384(a)(2)(B)(i), keeps those regulations and related records, and performs other delegated duties. The House deputy does the same for section 1384(a)(2)(B)(ii). (c) General Counsel. (1) With Board approval, the Chair appoints the General Counsel. Selection ignores political affiliation and is based only on fitness; section 1381(d)(2) disqualifications apply. (2)(A) The Chair may set pay. (B) Pay may not exceed the lower of the highest annual pay of a Senate officer or House officer. (3) The General Counsel performs duties and uses authority specified in this chapter, helps the Board and Executive Director, and represents the Office in judicial proceedings under this chapter. (4) The General Counsel appoints, sets pay for, and may remove additional necessary attorneys. (5) The term is no more than two 5-year terms. (6)(A) The Chair may remove the General Counsel only for substantial disabling inability to perform duties, incompetence, neglect of duty, malfeasance including a felony or conduct involving moral turpitude, or holding a disqualifying office or job or engaging in a disqualifying activity. (B) The Speaker and President pro tempore must give the General Counsel a written statement of the specific removal reasons. (d) Confidential advisors. (1) The Executive Director must appoint and set pay for, and may remove, one or more confidential advisors, or designate Office employees for that role. (2)(A) An advisor must offer, and a covered employee may accept or decline, the services in (B). (B) The advisor may, with privilege and confidentiality, (i) explain rights to an employee subjected to a practice that may violate part A of subchapter II; (ii) discuss the Office's role, authority, and responsibilities and the relative merits of private counsel, a nonlawyer representative, or no representative; (iii) advise about possible subchapter IV claims, supporting facts, and procedural choices; (iv) help an employee understand subchapter IV procedures, including drafting a section 1402(a) claim and discussing choices after filing and their relative merits; and (v) explain the option, when appropriate, of complaining to the House Committee on Ethics or Senate Select Committee on Ethics. (C) Once an employee accepts services from one advisor, later requested services should, as far as practicable, come from that same advisor. (3) The advisor must be a lawyer admitted and in good standing in a State, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory, with experience representing clients in cases involving workplace laws incorporated by part A of subchapter II. (4) Services are available to covered employees, including section 1311(d) staff and former covered employees, including former staff. A former employee may request services only for a possibly violating practice during employment or service. Any covered employee may request services only before the 180-day period in section 1402(d) ends. (5) An advisor may not represent an employee in a proceeding, including under this chapter, in court, or before a congressional committee; may not provide the listed services to an employee who has designated an attorney representative in a proceeding under this chapter, except general information to that attorney about this chapter and the Office; and may not mediate under section 1403. (e) Other staff. The Executive Director appoints, sets pay for, and may remove other necessary staff, including hearing officers but excluding General Counsel attorneys. (f) Detailed personnel. With the department or agency's prior consent, the Executive Director may use its personnel, including Government Accountability Office Personnel Appeals Board personnel, on a reimbursable or nonreimbursable basis. (g) Consultants. The Executive Director may obtain consultants' temporary services for no more than one year or intermittent services to perform Office functions.