38 USC Chapter 5 - AUTHORITY AND DUTIES OF THE SECRETARY

This preliminary release may be subject to further revision before it is released again as a final version. As with other online versions of the Code, the U.S. Code Classification Tables should be consulted for the latest laws affecting the Code. Those using the USCPrelim should verify the text against the printed slip laws available from GPO (Government Printing Office), the laws as shown on THOMAS (a legislative service of the Library of Congress), and the final version of the Code when it becomes available.

Current through Pub. L. 112-90. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

prev | next

SUBCHAPTER I—GENERAL AUTHORITIES Sec. 501. Rules and regulations. 502. Judicial review of rules and regulations. 503. Administrative error; equitable relief. 505. Opinions of Attorney General. 510. Authority to reorganize offices. 511. Decisions of the Secretary; finality. 512. Delegation of authority; assignment of functions and duties. 513. Contracts and personal services. 515. Administrative settlement of tort claims. 516. Equal employment responsibilities. SUBCHAPTER II—SPECIFIED FUNCTIONS 521. Assistance to certain rehabilitation activities. 521A. Assistance for United States Paralympics, Inc. 522. Studies of rehabilitation of disabled persons. 523. Coordination and promotion of other programs affecting veterans and their dependents. 525. Publication of laws relating to veterans. 527. Evaluation and data collection. 529. Annual report to Congress. 530. Annual report on program and expenditures for domestic response to weapons of mass destruction. 531. Requirement relating to naming of Department property. 532. Authority to advertise in national media. SUBCHAPTER III—ADVISORY COMMITTEES 541. Advisory Committee on Former Prisoners of War. 542. Advisory Committee on Women Veterans. 543. Advisory Committee on Prosthetics and Special-Disabilities Programs. 544. Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans. 545. Advisory Committee on the Readjustment of Veterans. 546. Advisory Committee on Disability Compensation.

Amendments

2008—Pub. L. 110–389, title II, § 214(b), title VII, § 702(b), title VIII, § 809(b),Oct. 10, 2008, 122 Stat. 4154, 4183, 4190, added items 521A, 532, and 546.

1998—Pub. L. 105–368, title IX, § 906(b), title X, § 1001(a)(2),Nov. 11, 1998, 112 Stat. 3362, 3363, added items 530 and 531.

1997—Pub. L. 105–114, title I, § 101(a)(2),Nov. 21, 1997, 111 Stat. 2279, added item 516.

1996—Pub. L. 104–262, title III, § 333(a)(2),Oct. 9, 1996, 110 Stat. 3200, added item 545.

1994—Pub. L. 103–446, title V, § 510(b),Nov. 2, 1994, 108 Stat. 4670, added item 544.

1992—Pub. L. 102–405, title I, § 105(b)(2),Oct. 9, 1992, 106 Stat. 1976, added item 543.

The table below lists the classification updates, since Jan. 7, 2011, for the contained sections. If there are multiple sections, they are presented in section number order (original document order).

The most recent Classification Table update that we have noticed was Friday, April 6, 2012

An empty table indicates that we see no relevant changes listed in the classification tables. If you suspect that our system may be missing something, please double-check with the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.

How To Use

Multiple entries for a section are listed most recent first, within the section.

The Session Year indicates which session of Congress was responsible for the changes classified. The Congress number forms the first part of the Public Law number; each Congress has two sessions.

Abbreviations used in the Description of Change column:

An empty field implies a standard amendment.
"new" means a new section or new note, or all new text of an existing section or note.
"nt" means note.
"nt [tbl]" means note [table].
"prec" means preceding.
"fr" means a transfer from another section.
"to" means a transfer to another section.
"omitted" means the section is omitted.
"repealed" means the section is repealed.
"nt ed change" and "ed change" - See the Editorial Classification Change Table [pdf].

The Public Law field is linked to the development of the law in the Thomas system at the Library of Congress.

The Statutes at Large field is linked to the text of the law, in the context of its volume of the Statutes at Large, at the Government Printing Office. Please note that it takes a while for these pages to get posted, so for very recent legislation, you need to look at the "enrolled" version at the Thomas site.

The Statutes at Large references have been rendered in the format used as page numbers in the Public Law web pages to which we link, to facilitate copy-paste into browser "find on this (web) page" tools. We are still working on a more direct link facility.

For serious comparison work, we suggest copying all or a portion of the Public Law text into your favorite text editor, for convenient content traversal and window control.

Sections with change type "new" are a special case, still under development. All are now listed, at the title level only.

You will find that occassionally a specific update you notice in a Public Law listed in a classification table will already have made it into the Code. We assume this is an artifact of the LRC edit process. The LII does not edit the LRC content.

top

General Reference

Refer to the LRC (Law Revision Council) for explanations about the US Code from the folks who put it all together.

You can look for information about what it is and is not, which titles are positive law, the schedule of Supplements, etc. Under download you can find the source data we use here (GPO locator files), as well as, PDF files that look just like the paper books (these may be rather large).

Refer to the Thomas site for changes that have not yet made it into the classification tables.

38 USC	Description of Change	Session Year	Public Law	Statutes at Large

38 USC Chapter 5 - AUTHORITY AND DUTIES OF THE SECRETARY

U.S. Code Toolbox

Get Involved