faction of the Office of Personnel Management that the individual has a bona fide intention of continuing to pursue a course of study or training in the same or different educational institution during the school semester (or other period into which the school year is divided) immediately after the interim.

(b) Notwithstanding section 1342 of title 31, the head of an agency may accept, subject to regulations issued by the Office, voluntary service for the United States if the service

(1) is performed by a student, with the permission of the institution at which the student is enrolled, as part of an agency program established for the purpose of providing educational experiences for the student;

(2) is to be uncompensated; and

(3) will not be used to displace any employee.

(c)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), any student who provides voluntary service under subsection (b) of this section shall not be considered a Federal employee for any purpose other than for purposes of chapter 81 of this title (relating to compensation for injury) and sections 2671 through 2680 of title 28 (relating to tort claims).

(2) In addition to being considered a Federal employee for the purposes specified in paragraph (1), any student who provides voluntary service as part of a program established under subsection (b) of this section in the Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, shall be considered an employee of the Department of the Treasury for purposes of

(A) section 552a of this title (relating to disclosure of records);

(B) subsections (a)(1), (h)(1), (k)(6), and ()(4) of section 6103 of title 26 (relating to confidentiality and disclosure of returns and return information);

(C) sections 7213(a)(1) and 7431 of title 26 (relating to unauthorized disclosures of returns and return information by Federal employees and other persons); and

(D) section 7423 of title 26 (relating to suits against employees of the United States);

except that returns and return information (as defined in section 6103(b) of title 26) shall be made available to students under such program only to the extent that the Secretary of the Treasury or his designee determines that the duties assigned to such students so require.

§ 3112. Disabled veterans; noncompetitive appointment

Under such regulations as the Office of Personnel Management shall prescribe, an agency may make a noncompetitive appointment leading to conversion to career or career-conditional employment of a disabled veteran who has a compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more.

§ 3113. Restriction on reemployment after conviction of certain crimes

An employee shall be separated from service and barred from reemployment in the Federal service, if—

(1) the employee is convicted of a violation of section 201(b) of title 18; and

(2) such violation related to conduct prohibited under section 1010(a) of the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act (21 U.S.C. 960(a)).

SUBCHAPTER II-THE SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE

$3131. The Senior Executive Service

It is the purpose of this subchapter to establish a Senior Executive Service to ensure that the executive management of the Government of the United States is responsive to the needs, policies, and goals of the Nation and otherwise is of the highest quality. The Senior Executive Service shall be administered so as to—

(1) provide for a compensation system, including salaries, benefits, and incentives, and for other conditions of employment, designed to attract and retain highly competent senior executives;

(2) ensure that compensation, retention, and tenure are contingent on executive success which is measured on the basis of individual and organizational performance (including such factors as improvements in efficiency, productivity, quality of work or service, cost efficiency, and timeliness of performance and success in meeting equal employment opportunity goals); (3) assure that senior executives are accountable and responsible for the effectiveness and productivity of employees under them;

(4) recognize exceptional accomplishment;

(5) enable the head of an agency to reassign senior executives to best accomplish the agency's mission;

(6) provide for severance pay, early retirement, and placement assistance for senior executives who are removed from the Senior Executive Service for nondisciplinary reasons;

(7) protect senior executives from arbitrary or capricious actions;

(8) provide for program continuity and policy advocacy in the management of public programs;

(9) maintain a merit personnel system free of prohibited personnel practices;

(10) ensure accountability for honest, economical, and efficient Government;

(11) ensure compliance with all applicable civil service laws, rules, and regulations, including those related to equal employment opportunity, political activity, and conflicts of interest;

(12) provide for the initial and continuing systematic development of highly competent senior executives;

(13) provide for an executive system which is guided by the public interest and free from improper political interference; and

(14) appoint career executives to fill Senior Executive Service positions to the extent practicable, consistent with the effective and efficient implementation of agency policies and responsibilities.

§3132. Definitions and exclusions

(a) For the purpose of this subchapter—

(1) "agency" means an Executive agency, except a Government corporation and the General Accounting Office, but does not include

(A) any agency or unit thereof excluded from coverage by the President under subsection (c) of this section; or

(B) the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Imagery and Mapping_Agency, the National Security Agency, Department of Defense intelligence activities the civilian employees of which are subject to section 1590 of title 10,, 1 and, as determined by the President, an Executive agency, or unit thereof, whose principal function is the conduct of foreign intelligence or counterintelligence activities;

(C) the Federal Election Commission; or

1

(D) the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Federal Housing Finance Board, the Resolution Trust Corporation, the Farm Credit Administration, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the National Credit Union Administration;

(2) "Senior Executive Service position" means any position in an agency which is classified above GS-15 pursuant to section 5108 or in level IV or V of the Executive Schedule, or an equivalent position, which is not required to be filled by an appointment by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and in which an employee

(A) directs the work of an organizational unit;

(B) is held accountable for the success of one or more specific programs or projects;

(C) monitors progress toward organizational goals and periodically evaluates and makes appropriate adjustments to such goals;

(D) supervises the work of employees other than personal assistants; or

(E) otherwise exercises important policy-making, policy-determining, or other executive functions;

but does not include

(i) any position in the Foreign Service of the United States; or

(ii) an administrative law judge position under section 3105 of this title;

(3) "senior executive" means a member of the Senior Executive Service;

(4) "career appointee" means an individual in a Senior Executive Service position whose appointment to the position or previous appointment to another Senior Executive Service posi

1So in law. See the amendment made by section 402(b) of P.L. 102-476 which inserted “, Department of Defense intelligence activities the civilian employees of which are subject to section 1590 of title 10," after "National Security Agency".

tion was based on approval by the Office of Personnel Management of the executive qualifications of such individual;

(5) "limited term appointee" means an individual appointed under a nonrenewable appointment for a term of 3 years or less to a Senior Executive Service position the duties of which will expire at the end of such term;

(6) "limited emergency appointee" means an individual appointed under a nonrenewable appointment, not to exceed 18 months, to a Senior Executive Service position established to meet a bona fide, unanticipated, urgent need;

(7) "noncareer appointee" means an individual in a Senior Executive Service position who is not a career appointee, a limited term appointee, or a limited emergency appointee;

(8) "career reserved position" means a position which is required to be filled by a career appointee and which is designated under subsection (b) of this section; and

(9) "general position" means any position, other than a career reserved position, which may be filled by either a career appointee, noncareer appointee, limited emergency appointee, or limited term appointee.

(b)(1) For the purpose of paragraph (8) of subsection (a) of this section, the Office shall prescribe the criteria and regulations governing the designation of career reserved positions. The criteria and regulations shall provide that a position shall be designated as a career reserved position only if the filling of the position by a career appointee is necessary to ensure impartiality, or the public's confidence in the impartiality, of the Government. The head of each agency shall be responsible for designating career reserved positions in such agency in accordance with such criteria and regulations.

(2) The Office shall periodically review general positions to determine whether the positions should be designated as career reserved. If the Office determines that any such position should be so designated, it shall order the agency to make the designation. (3) Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, any position to be designated as a Senior Executive Service position (except a position in the Executive Office of the President) which—

(A) is under the Executive Schedule, or for which the rate of basic pay is determined by reference to the Executive Schedule, and

(B) on the day before the date of the enactment of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 was specifically required under section 2102 of this title or otherwise required by law to be in the competitive service,

shall be designated as a career reserved position if the position entails direct responsibility to the public for the management or operation of particular government programs or functions.

(4) Not later than March 1 of each year, the head of each agency shall publish in the Federal Register a list of positions in the agency which were career reserved positions during the preceding calendar year.

(c) An agency may file an application with the Office setting forth reasons why it, or a unit thereof, should be excluded from the coverage of this subchapter. The Office shall