TITLE II-ADMINISTRATION

PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE

SEC. 201. [202] The Public Health Service in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare shall be administered by the Surgeon General under the supervision and direction of the Secretary.

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ORGANIZATION

SEC. 202.1 [203] The Service shall consist of (1) the Office of the Surgeon General, (2) the National Institutes of Health, (3) the Bureau of Medical Services, and (4) the Bureau of State Services. The Surgeon General is authorized and directed to assign to the Office of the Surgeon General, to the National Institutes of Health, to the Bureau of Medical Services, and to the Bureau of State Services, respectively, the several functions of the Service, and to establish within them such divisions, sections and other units as he may find necessary; and from time to time, abolish, transfer, and consolidate divisions, sections, and other units and assign their functions and personnel in such manner as he may find necessary for efficient operation of the Service. No division shall be established, abolished, or transferred, and no divisions shall be consolidated, except with the approval of the Secretary. The National Institutes of Health shall be administered as a part of the field service. The Surgeon General may delegate to any officer or employee of the Service such of his powers and duties under this Act, except the making of regulations, as he may deem necessary or expedient.

COMMISSIONED CORPS

SEC. 203. [204] There shall be in the Service a commissioned Regular Corps and, for the purpose of securing a reserve for duty in the Service in time of national emergency, a Reserve Corps. All commissioned officers shall be citizens and shall be appointed without regard to the civil-service laws and compensated without regard to the Classification Act of 1923, 2 as amended. Commissioned officers of the Reserve Corps shall be appointed by the President and commissioned officers of the Regular Corps shall be appointed by him by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Commissioned officers of the Reserve Corps shall at all times be subject to call to active duty by the Surgeon General, including

1 The organizational units specified in this section were all abolished as statutory entities by Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1966. But see title IV of this Act (added by section 2 of Public Law 99-158), which provides in section 401(a) that the National Institutes of Health is an agency of the Public Health Service and which further provides in section 402(a) that the President shall appoint the Director of the National Institutes of Health. Although the Reorganization Plan abolished the National Institutes of Health as an agency, it did not abolish the individual research institutes.

2 Civil service and classification laws are now codified to title 5, United States Code.

active duty for the purpose of training and active duty for the purpose of determining their fitness for appointment in the Regular Corps. Warrant officers may be appointed to the Service for the purpose of providing support to the health and delivery systems maintained by the Service and any warrant officer appointed to the Service shall be considered for purposes of this Act and title 37, United States Code, to be a commissioned officer within the commissioned corps of the Service.

SURGEON GENERAL

SEC. 204. [205] The Surgeon General shall be appointed from the Regular Corps for a four-year term by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Surgeon General shall be appointed from individuals who (1) are members of the Regular Corps, and (2) have specialized training or significant experience in public health programs. Upon the expiration of such term, the Surgeon General, unless reappointed, shall revert to the grade and number in the Regular or Reserve Corps that he would have occupied had he not served as Surgeon General.

DEPUTY SURGEON GENERAL AND ASSISTANT SURGEONS GENERAL

SEC. 205.2 [206] (a) The Surgeon General shall assign one commissioned officer from the Regular Corps to administer the Office of the Surgeon General, to act as Surgeon General during the absence or disability of the Surgeon General or in the event of a vacancy in that office, and to perform such other duties as the Surgeon General may prescribe, and while so assigned he shall have the title of Deputy Surgeon General.

(b) The Surgeon General shall assign eight commissioned officers from the Regular Corps to be, respectively, the Director of the National Institutes of Health, the Chief of the Bureau of State Services, the Chief of the Bureau of Medical Services, the Chief Medical Officer of the United States Coast Guard, the Chief Dental Officer of the Service, the Chief Nurse Officer of the Service, the Chief Pharmacist Officer of the Service, and the Chief Sanitary Engineering Officer of the Service, and while so serving they shall each have the title of Assistant Surgeon General.

(c)(1) The Surgeon General, with the approval of the Secretary, is authorized to create special temporary positions in the grade of Assistant Surgeons General when necessary for the proper staffing of the Service. The Surgeon General may assign officers of either the Regular Corps or the Reserve Corps to any such temporary position, and while so serving they shall each have the title of Assistant Surgeon General.

(2) Except as provided in this paragraph, the number of special temporary positions created by the Surgeon General under paragraph (1) shall not on any day exceed 1 per centum of the highest number, during the ninety days preceding such day, of officers of the Regular Corps on active duty and officers of the Reserve Corps on active duty for more than thirty days. If on any day the number

of such special temporary positions exceeds such 1 per centum limitations, for a period of not more than one year after such day, the number of such special temporary positions shall be reduced for purposes of complying with such 1 per centum limitation only by the resignation, retirement, death, or transfer to a position of a lower grade, of any officer holding any such temporary position.

(d) The Surgeon General shall designate the Assistant Surgeon General who shall serve as Surgeon General in case of absence or disability, or vacancy in the offices, of both the Surgeon General and the Deputy Surgeon General.

GRADES, RANKS, AND TITLES OF THE COMMISSIONED CORPS

SEC. 206. [207] (a) The Surgeon General during the period of his appointment as such, shall be of the same grade as the Surgeon General of the army; the Deputy Surgeon General and the Chief Medical Officer of the United States Coast Guard, while assigned as such, shall have the grade corresponding with the grade of major general; and the Chief Dental Officer, while assigned as such, shall have the grade as is prescribed by law for the officer of the Dental Corps selected and appointed as Assistant Surgeon General of the Army. Assistant Surgeons General, while assigned as such, shall have the grade corresponding with either the grade of brigadier general or the grade of major general, as may be determined by the Secretary after considering the importance of the duties to be performed: Provided, That the number of Assistant Surgeons General having a grade higher than that corresponding to the grade of brigadier general shall at no time exceed one-half of the number of positions created by subsection (b) of section 205 or pursuant to subsection (c) of such section. The grades of commissioned officers of the Service shall correspond with grades of officers of the Army as follows:

(1) Officers of the director grade-colonel;

(2) Officers of the senior grade-lieutenant colonel;

(3) Officers of the full grade-major;

(4) Officers of the senior assistant grade-captain;

(5) Officers of the assistant grade-first lieutenant;

(6) Officers of the junior assistant grade-second lieutenant; (7) Chief warrant officers of (W-4) grade-chief warrant officer (W-4);

(8) Chief warrant officers of (W-3) grade-chief warrant officer (W-3);

(9) Chief warrant officers of (W-2) grade-chief warrant officer (W-2); and

(10) Warrant officers of (W-1) grade-warrant officer (W-1). (b) The titles of medical officers of the foregoing grades shall be respectively (1) medical director, (2) senior surgeon, (3) surgeon, (4) senior assistant surgeon, (5) assistant surgeon and (6) junior assistant surgeon.

(c) The President is authorized to prescribe titles, appropriate to the several grades, for commissioned officers of the Service other than medical officers. All titles of the officers of the Reserve Corps shall have the suffix "Reserve".

(d) Within the total number of officers of the Regular Corps authorized by the appropriation Act or Acts for each fiscal year to be on active duty, the Secretary shall by regulation prescribe the maximum number of officers authorized to be in each of the grades from the warrant officer (W-1) grade to the director grade, inclusive. Such numbers shall be determined after considering the anticipated needs of the Service during the fiscal year, the funds available, the number of officers in each grade at the beginning of the fiscal year, and the anticipated appointments, the anticipated promotions based on years of service, and the anticipated retirements during the fiscal year. The number so determined for any grade for a fiscal year may not exceed the number limitation (if any) contained in the appropriation Act or Acts for such year. Such regulations for each fiscal year shall be prescribed as promptly as possible after the appropriation Act fixing the authorized strength of the corps for that year, and shall be subject to amendment only if such authorized strength or such number limitation is thereafter changed. The maxima established by such regulations shall not require (apart from action pursuant to other provisions of this Act) any officer to be separated from the Service or reduced in grade. (e) In computing the maximum number of commissioned officers of the Public Health Service authorized by law to hold a grade which corresponds to the grade of brigadier general or major general, there may be excluded from such computation not more than three officers who hold such a grade so long as such officers are assigned to duty and are serving in a policymaking position in the Department of Defense.

APPOINTMENT OF PERSONNEL

SEC. 207. [209] (a)(1) Except as provided in subsections (b) and (e) of this section, original appointments to the Regular Corps may be made only in the warrant officer (W-1), chief warrant officer (W-2), chief warrant officer (W-3), chief warrant officer (W-4), junior assistant, assistant, and senior assistant grades and original appointments to a grade above junior assistant shall be made only after passage of an examination, given in accordance with regulations of the President, in one or more of the several branches of medicine, dentistry, hygiene, sanitary engineering, pharmacy, psychology, nursing, or related scientific specialties in the field of public health.

(2) Original appointments to the Reserve Corps may be made to any grade up to and including the director grade but only after passage of an examination given in accordance with regulations of the President. Reserve commissions shall be for an indefinite period and may be terminated at any time, as the President may direct.

(3) No individual who has attained the age of forty-four shall be appointed to the Regular Corps, or called to active duty in the Reserve Corps for a period in excess of one year, unless (A) he has had a number of years of active service (as defined in section 211(d)) equal to the number of years by which his age exceeds fortyfour, or (B) the Surgeon General determines that he possesses exceptional qualifications, not readily available elsewhere in the

Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service, for the performance of special duties with the Service, or (C) in the case of an officer of the Reserve Corps, the Commissioned Corps of the Service has been declared by the President to be a military service.

(b)(1) Not more than 10 per centum of the original appointments to the Regular Corps authorized to be made during any fiscal year may be made to grades above that of senior assistant, but no such appointment (other than an appointment under section 204) may be made to a grade above that of director. For the purpose of this subsection the number of original appointments authorized to be made during a fiscal year shall be (1) the excess of the number of officers of the Regular Corps authorized by the appropriation Act or Acts for such year over the number of officers on active duty in the Regular Corps on the first day of such year, plus (2) the number of such officers of the Regular Corps who, during such fiscal year, have been or will be retired upon attainment of age sixty-four or have for any other reason ceased to be on active duty. In determining the number of appointments authorized by this subsection an appointment shall be deemed to be made in the fiscal year in which the nomination is transmitted by the President to the Senate.

(2) In addition to the number of original appointments to the Regular Corps authorized by paragraph (1) to be made to grades above that of senior assistant, original appointments authorized to be made to the Regular Corps in any year may be made to grades above that of senior assistant, but not above that of director, in the case of any individual who—

(A)(i) was on active duty in the Regular Corps on July 1, 1960, (ii) was on such active duty continuously for not less than one year immediately prior to such date, and (iii) applies for appointment to the Regular Corps prior to July 1, 1962; or

(B) does not come within clause (A)(i) and (ii) but was on active duty in the Reserve Corps continuously for not less than one year immediately prior to his appointment to the Regular Corps and has not served on active duty continuously for a period, occurring after June 30, 1960, of more than three and one-half years prior to applying for such appointment.

(3) No person shall be appointed pursuant to this subsection unless he meets standards established in accordance with regulations of the President.

(c) Commissions evidencing the appointment by the President of officers of the Regular or Reserve Corps shall be issued by the Secretary under the seal of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

(d)(1) For purposes of basic pay and for purposes of promotion, any person appointed under subsection (a) to the grade of senior assistant in the Regular Corps and any person appointed under subsection (b), shall, except as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3) of this subsection, be considered as having had on the date of appointment the following length of service: Three years if appointed to the senior assistant grade, ten years if appointed to the full grade, seventeen years if appointed to the senior grade, and eighteen years if appointed to the director grade.