28 U.S.C. § 604 — Duties of Director generally

(a) The Director is the administrative officer of the courts. Under the supervision and direction of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the Director must: (1) supervise all administrative matters involving court clerks and other court clerical and administrative personnel; (2) examine the courts' dockets, obtain information about their need for help, and twice each year send circuit chief judges statistical data and reports about court business; (3) at least two weeks before the Judicial Conference's annual meeting, submit a report about the Administrative Office's activities and the state of court business, together with the data sent to circuit chief judges under paragraph (2) and the Director's recommendations. The report, data, and recommendations are public documents; (4) send Congress and the Attorney General copies of the report, data, and recommendations required by paragraph (3); (5) set the pay of court clerks, deputies, librarians, criers, messengers, law clerks, secretaries, stenographers, clerical assistants, and other court employees whose pay is not otherwise set by law. Despite any other law, the Director must also pay, for the United States Justices and judges appointed to hold office during good behavior, United States magistrate judges, bankruptcy judges appointed under chapter 6, judges of the District Court^* of Guam, judges of the District^* Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, judges of the District Court of the Virgin Islands, bankruptcy judges and magistrate judges retired under section 377, and judges retired under section 373, who are age 65 or older, any increases imposed after April 24, 1999, in the cost of Federal Employees' Group Life Insurance, including expenses caused by those payments, as authorized by the Judicial Conference; (6) determine and pay necessary office expenses of courts, judges, and court officials whose expenses the law allows, and pay the lawful fees of United States magistrate judges; (7) regulate and pay annuities to widows and surviving dependent children of United States justices and judges, Court of Federal Claims judges, bankruptcy judges, United States magistrate judges, Directors of the Federal Judicial Center, and Directors of the Administrative Office. The Director must also pay necessary travel and living expenses incurred on official business by judges, court officers and employees, and Administrative Office and Federal Judicial Center officers and employees while away from their official stations. These payments are not limited by the per-diem allowances and actual-expense reimbursement amounts set by the Administrator of General Services under section 5702 of title 5, but living-expense reimbursement may not exceed the amount the Director authorizes for United States judges under section 456; (8) distribute appropriations and other money for maintaining and operating the courts; (9) establish pretrial services under section 3152 of title 18; (10)(A) buy, exchange, transfer, distribute, and assign custody of lawbooks, equipment, supplies, and other personal property for the judicial branch, except the Supreme Court unless paragraph (17) provides otherwise; (B) readily provide or make available to each court suitable equipment for interpreting proceedings under section 1828; and (C) make and carry out contracts and other transactions on terms the Director considers suitable when needed for judicial-branch work, except Supreme Court work unless paragraph (17) provides otherwise. Contracts for nonpersonal pretrial services, interpreting agencies, and special interpretation services under section 1828 may be awarded without following section 6101(b) through (d) of title 41; (11) audit the vouchers and accounts of the courts, the Federal Judicial Center, pretrial-service offices, and their clerical and administrative personnel; (12) provide accommodations for those courts, the Federal Judicial Center, pretrial-service offices, and their clerical and administrative personnel; (13) annually give Congress statistical tables accurately showing the business handled by the bankruptcy courts, plus other relevant bankruptcy-court data; (14) under section 1827, establish a program to certify and use interpreters in United States courts; (15) under section 1828, establish a program to provide special interpretation services in United States courts; (16)(A) in districts where the Director decides interpreters are needed, authorize courts to employ certified interpreters full time or part time; (B) where the Director decides interpreters are needed, appoint certified interpreters full time or part time to serve various courts when the Director determines that doing so will provide interpretation economically; and (C) pay interpreters' salaries, fees, expenses, and other costs from money appropriated for the judiciary, as provided by sections 1827 and 1828; (17) at the Director's discretion, (A) accept and use voluntary, unpaid services, including services authorized by section 3102(b) of title 5; and (B) accept, hold, manage, and use gifts and bequests of personal property to help or facilitate judicial-branch work. Gifts or bequests of money must be deposited into the Treasury; (18) establish judicial-branch procedures and systems for processing fines, restitution, bail-bond or collateral forfeitures, and assessments; (19) regulate and pay annuities to bankruptcy judges and United States magistrate judges under section 377 and paragraphs (1)(B) and (2) of section 2(c) of the Retirement and Survivors' Annuities for Bankruptcy Judges and Magistrates Act of 1988; (20) periodically compile a current record of: (A) rules prescribed under section 2071 by courts other than the Supreme Court; (B) rules prescribed under section 358; and (C) orders that section 360(b) requires to be publicly available; (21) establish an incentive-award program for judicial-branch employees other than judges entitled to hold office during good behavior; (22) receive and spend, directly or by transferring money to the United States Marshals Service or another Government agency, appropriations for buying, installing, and maintaining security equipment and protective services for United States courts in courtrooms and nearby areas. This includes controlling entry and exit, inspecting packages, directed security patrols, and similar activities; (23) regulate and pay annuities to Court of Federal Claims judges under section 178; (24) establish and administer a vulnerability-management program in the judicial branch; and (25) perform other duties assigned to the Director by the Supreme Court or the Judicial Conference. (b) Court clerical and administrative personnel must comply with the Director's requests for information or statistical data about the condition of court dockets. (c) Officials of the United States who live in the jurisdiction where an inspection occurs may inspect court dockets outside the continental United States. (d) Under the Conference's supervision and direction, the Director must: (1) supervise all administrative matters involving United States magistrate judges' offices; (2) gather, compile, and evaluate all statistical and other information needed for the Director's and the Conference's duties concerning those officers; (3) annually give Congress statistical tables and other information accurately showing the business brought before the various United States magistrate judges, including: (A) the number of matters in which the parties consented to a magistrate judge's jurisdiction; (B) the number of appeals from magistrate-judge decisions and how those appeals were decided; and (C) the professional background and qualifications of people appointed under section 631 to serve as magistrate judges; and (4) prepare and distribute a manual for those officers, with annual supplements and periodic revisions. The manual must state their powers and duties, describe every category of proceeding that may come before them, and include other information needed for them to perform their powers and duties promptly, effectively, and impartially. (e) The Director may issue suitable rules and regulations, approved by the Conference and consistent with law, to help perform the duties in subsection (d). Magistrate judges must keep the records and make the reports required by those rules and regulations. (f) The Director may make, issue, cancel, and change rules and regulations, including standards of conduct for Administrative Office employees, that are needed to carry out the Director's functions, powers, duties, and authority. The Director may publish in the Federal Register rules, regulations, and notices for the judicial branch that the Director considers of public interest. The Director of the Federal Register is authorized to accept and must publish those materials. (g)(1) When authorized to exchange personal property, the Director may exchange or sell similar items and use the trade-in allowance or sale proceeds, in whole or in part, to pay for the acquired property. Every transaction under this subsection must be recorded in writing. (2) The Director may make contracts for public-utility services and related terminal equipment for periods of no more than 10 years. (3)(A) To encourage recycling and reuse, the Director may arrange for the sale or disposal of recyclable scrap from paper products and other consumable office supplies held by an entity in the judicial branch. (B) The sale or disposal must follow the procedures in sections 541 through 555 of title 40 for selling surplus property. (C) Sale proceeds must be deposited as offsetting collections into the fund established under section 1931 and remain available until spent to repay appropriations for judicial-branch operation and maintenance. (4) The Director may: (A) make contracts to acquire severable services for a period beginning in one fiscal year and ending in the next, to the same extent as an executive-agency head under section 253l of title 41; (B) make multiyear contracts to acquire property and services to the same extent as executive agencies under section 254c of title 41; and (C) make advance, partial, progress, or other payments under property or service contracts to the same extent as executive agencies under section 255 of title 41. (h)(1) From money appropriated to operate and maintain the courts, the Director must provide facilities and pay necessary expenses incurred by circuit judicial councils and the Judicial Conference under chapter 16. This includes mileage allowances and witness fees at the rate in section 1821. Each council and the Conference may request administrative and professional help from the Administrative Office to perform their chapter 16 duties. (2) The Administrative Office Director must include in the annual report to Congress required by this section a summary of the number of complaints filed with each judicial council under chapter 16, the general nature of those complaints, and how complaints for which action was taken were resolved. (i) Restrictions on Criminal History Inquiries.—(1) Definitions.—In this subsection: (A) “agency” and “criminal history record information” have the meanings given in section 9201 of title 5. This section does not define those terms itself. (B) “covered employee” means a judicial-branch United States Government employee other than: (i) a judge or justice entitled to hold office during good behavior; (ii) a United States magistrate judge; or (iii) a bankruptcy judge. (C) “employing office” means a judicial-branch office or entity that employs covered employees. (2) Restriction.—A covered employee may not ask an applicant for a covered-employee job to disclose criminal history record information if an agency employee would be barred from making that request under section 9202 of title 5. (3) Employing-office policies; complaint procedure.—Sections 9203 and 9206 of title 5 apply to employing offices and applicants for covered-employee jobs, consistently with regulations the Director issues to implement this subsection. (4) Adverse action.—(A) Adverse action.—The Director may take against a covered employee who violates paragraph (2) the adverse action that would be appropriate under section 9204 of title 5 if an agency employee had committed the violation. (B) Appeals.—The Director must establish by rule a process to appeal such adverse action no later than 30 days after the action. (C) Applicability of other laws.—Except as provided in subparagraph (B), an adverse action under subparagraph (A), including an appeal decision under subparagraph (B), is not subject to appeal or judicial review. (5) Regulations to be issued.—(A) In general.—No later than 18 months after the Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act of 2019 was enacted, the Director must issue regulations implementing this subsection. (B) Parallel with agency regulations.—Those regulations must be the same as the substantive regulations issued by the Director of the Office of Personnel Management under section 2(b)(1) of that Act, except that the Administrative Office Director may decide that changing them would implement this subsection's rights and protections more effectively if the Director shows and states good cause together with the regulation. (6) Effective date.—Paragraphs (1) through (4) take effect on the date section 9202 of title 5 takes effect for agencies.