5 U.S.C. § 3503
Section 3503 · Transfer of functions
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 12 court decisions — leading case Covington v. Department of Health & Human Services (1984)
Most recently applied in Hayes v. Department of Health & Human Services (September 1987)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) When a function is transferred from one agency to another, each competing employee in the function shall be transferred to the receiving agency for employment in a position for which he is qualified before the receiving agency may make an appointment from another source to that position.
(b) When one agency is replaced by another, each competing employee in the agency to be replaced shall be transferred to the replacing agency for employment in a position for which he is qualified before the replacing agency may make an appointment from another source to that position.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
In subsection (a), the words “a function” are substituted for “any or all of the functions”. The word “receiving” is substituted for “replacing” in the phrase “receiving agency” to avoid confusion with subsection (b).
In subsections (a) and (b), the word “first” in the phrase “shall first be transferred” is omitted as redundant in view of the subsequent limitation imposed by the words following “before”. The words “make an appointment from another source to that position” are substituted for “appoint additional employees from any other source for such position”.
Standard changes are made to conform with the definitions applicable and the style of this title as outlined in the preface to the report.
Amendments
1979—Subsecs. (a), (b). Pub. L. 96–54 substituted “competing employee” for “preference eligible employed”.
1978—Subsecs. (a), (b). Pub. L. 95–454 which directed the substitution of “competing employee” for “preference eligible employee” was impossible to execute literally because the text contained reference to “preference eligible employed”. See 1979 Amendment note above.
Effective Date of 1979 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 96–54 effective July 12, 1979, see section 2(b) of Pub. L. 96–54, set out as a note under section 305 of this title.
Effective Date of 1978 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 95–454 effective 90 days after Oct. 13, 1978, see section 907 of Pub. L. 95–454, set out as a note under section 1101 of this title.