42 U.S.C. § 1873 — Employment of personnel

(a) Appointment and compensation. (1) The Director^* must appoint and set the pay of the personnel needed to carry out this chapter, following policies the Board sets. Except as provided in section 1863(h) of this title, appointments and pay must follow title 5 rules for competitive-service appointments, job classification, and General Schedule pay. However, under Board policies, the Director may hire needed technical and professional personnel and set their pay without following those rules. Members of special commissions may be appointed without following title 5’s competitive-service appointment rules. (2) Under paragraph (1) and Board policies, the Director may appoint scientists, engineers, and other technical or professional workers for a limited term or temporarily. They may be on leave from academic, industrial, or research institutions while working for the Foundation. (3) To the extent section 5723 of title 5 authorizes these payments for certain other Federal employees, the Foundation may pay travel expenses for a person appointed for a limited term or temporarily. It may also pay the transportation costs of that person’s immediate family, household goods, and personal effects from the person’s residence when selected or assigned to the duty station. After the person separates from Federal service following the agreed service period, the Foundation may pay the same kinds of travel and transportation costs for the person’s return to the former residence. Instead of transporting the family and household goods and personal effects, the Foundation may pay the person a daily allowance during Foundation employment, but not more than the daily amount allowed under section 5702 of title 5. Despite any other law, money appropriated to the Foundation may pay or reimburse the employer’s contribution to a retirement, life-insurance, or health-benefit plan for a person appointed for one year or less when the appointment could be extended for no more than one additional year.

(b) Operation of laboratories and pilot plants. The Foundation itself may not operate laboratories or pilot plants.

(c) Pay for Board and special-commission members. Board members and members of each special commission may be paid for each day they work on Foundation business. The Chairman sets the rate, but it may not exceed the maximum rate payable under section 5376 of title 5. They may also receive travel expenses authorized by section 5703 of title 5. Travel time counts as time spent on Foundation business for deciding this pay. Board and commission members may give up their pay and travel-expense reimbursement.

(d) Federal officers on special commissions. A person who holds another executive-branch Federal office may serve on a special commission. But that person may not receive pay for commission service during a period when the person is being paid for the other office.

(e) Use of appropriations in contracts. When the Foundation makes contracts or other arrangements for scientific or engineering research, it must use available appropriations in the way it thinks best advances these goals: (1) having the work done by qualified organizations, agencies, institutions, or individuals in the United States or foreign countries, including United States and foreign government agencies; (2) strengthening research staffs, especially at nonprofit organizations in the United States; (3) adding institutions, agencies, or organizations that would advance scientific or engineering research if helped; and (4) encouraging independent scientific or engineering research by individuals.

(f) Transfer of other agencies’ research and education funds. Money available to a Government department or agency for scientific or engineering research or education, or for facilities for those purposes, may be transferred in whole or in part to the Foundation if the department or agency head approves. The Foundation may spend transferred money only for purposes consistent with the purposes for which the money was provided and for which the transfer was made.

(g) Definition of “United States.” For this chapter, “United States,” when used geographically, means the States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and all United States territories and possessions. This section does not otherwise define the quoted term.

(h) Expiration of authorization. Unless an earlier expiration is specifically provided, authorization for an appropriation to the Foundation expires at the end of the second fiscal year after the fiscal year for which Congress enacted the authorization, but only to the extent the appropriation has not already actually been made.

(i) Public disclosure of information. (1)(A) An individual, industrial or commercial organization, or educational, academic, or other nonprofit institution may supply information to the Foundation or its contractor through surveys, questionnaires, or similar instruments for purposes of section 1862(a)(5) or (6) of this title. If the Foundation pledged confidentiality to the institution, that information may not be disclosed publicly unless it has been changed into statistical or abstract form that does not identify the supplier. (B) Information that has not been changed into those forms may be used only for statistical or research purposes. (C) The identities of the people, organizations, and institutions supplying such information may not be disclosed publicly. (2) To support functions authorized by section 1862(a)(5) or (6), the Foundation may, at its discretion, authorize people—including employees of Federal, State^*, or local agencies or instrumentalities, local educational agencies, and private organizations—to access identifying information collected under those provisions, but only for statistical or research purposes. Such an authorized person may not: (A) publish the information in a way that specifically identifies an individual, industrial or commercial organization, or educational, academic, or other nonprofit institution that received a confidentiality pledge; (B) let anyone other than a person authorized by the Foundation examine identifying data about such a person, organization, or institution; or (C) knowingly and willfully ask for or obtain from the Foundation nondisclosable information described in paragraph (1) by using false pretenses. (3) A person who violates this subsection may be fined up to $10,000, imprisoned for up to 5 years, or both.