31 U.S.C. § 9102
Section 9102 · Establishing and acquiring corporations
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Lebron v. National Railroad Passenger Corporation (1995)
Most recently applied in Wisconsin Bell, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Heath (February 2025)
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.
An agency may establish or acquire a corporation to act as an agency only by or under a law of the United States specifically authorizing the action.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
The word “agency” is substituted for “officer or agency of the Federal Government or by any Government corporation” and “agency or instrumentality of the United States” because of section 101 of the revised title, for consistency, and because a Government corporation is an “instrumentality of the United States Government”. The word “establish” is substituted for “created, organized” to eliminate unnecessary words. The words “on or after December 6, 1945” are omitted as executed. The words “law of the United States” are substituted for “Act of Congress” for consistency.