General powers

Except as provided in paragraph (2), the chairman of the Commission shall— Subject to approval by a majority vote of all the commissioners in office, the chairman may— Except for employees excepted under civil service rules, all employees of the commission shall be appointed from lists of eligibles to be supplied by the Director of the Office of Personnel Management and in accordance with the civil service law. All of the expenses of the commission, including all necessary expenses for transportation incurred by the commissioners or by their employees under their orders in making any investigation or upon official business in any other places than at their respective headquarters, shall be allowed and paid on the presentation of itemized vouchers therefor approved by the chairman (except that in the case of a commissioner, or the personal staff of any commissioner, such vouchers may be approved by that commissioner). The principal office of the commission shall be in the city of Washington, but it may meet and exercise all its powers at any other place. The commission may, by one or more of its members, or by such agents as it may designate, prosecute any inquiry necessary to its duties in any part of the United States or in any foreign country. The commission is authorized to establish and maintain an office at the port of New York for the purpose of directing or carrying on any investigation, receiving and compiling statistics, selecting, describing, and filing samples of articles, and performing any of the duties or exercising any of the powers imposed upon it by law. The commission is authorized to adopt an official seal, which shall be judicially noticed.