20 U.S.C. § 47 (2024)

This is the official text of 20 U.S.C. § 47 (2024), part of Federal (US Code)’s United States Code — the codified general and permanent federal statutes of the United States, organized into more than 50 numbered titles by subject.

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Acting Secretary

Official statutory text

The chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution may, by an instrument in writing filed in the office of the Secretary thereof, designate and appoint a suitable person to act as Secretary of the Institution when there shall be a vacancy in said office, and whenever the Secretary shall be unable from illness, absence, or other cause to perform the duties of his office; and in such case the person so appointed may perform all the duties imposed on the Secretary by law until the vacancy shall be filled or such inability shall cease. The said chancellor may change such designation and appointment from time to time as the interests of the Institution may in his judgment require.

(May 13, 1884, ch. 44, 23 Stat. 21.)

Editorial Notes

Prior Provisions

Similar prior provisions were contained in act Jan. 24, 1879, ch. 21, 20 Stat. 264.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.