Smithsonian Institution
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Comment by carey bolin on September 9th, 2014 at 9:11 am
The Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution is NOT a political appointment. Rather, the Secretary is chosen and appointed by the Institution’s governing Board of Regents. Although there are six Members of Congress (3 Senate and 3 House) that are appointed by the leadership of their respective bodies to serve on the Board and the Chief Justice is also a designated member, along with the Vice President that serves in an ex officio capacity, none of these officials serve in a political capacity and each carries only the authority of their individual votes on Regent matters. Only Federal agencies have political (Schedule C) appointees and the Smithsonian is not a Federal agency.
Comment by Jennifer Tanabe on September 9th, 2014 at 10:54 am
Thank you, Carey, for your feedback. Indeed the Secretary is not a political appointment, but rather as you pointed out, selected by the board of regents. The text in the section on Organizational Structure appears correct: “The day-to-day operations of the Smithsonian are supervised by a salaried “Secretary” chosen by the board of regents.” However, I did find a mistake in the section on “Criticism,” which is being corrected.
Thank you again for taking the time to comment, and to make NWE a valuable information resource.
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