The President is authorized, by order in writing, to transfer at any time the whole or any part of any office, bureau, division, or other branch of the public service engaged in statistical or scientific work, from the Department of State, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the United States Postal Service, or the Department of the Interior, to the Department of Commerce; and in every such case the duties and authority performed by and conferred by law upon such office, bureau, division, or other branch of the public service, or the part thereof so transferred, shall be thereby transferred with such office, bureau, division, or other branch of the public service, or the part thereof which is so transferred. All power and authority conferred by law, both supervisory and appellate, upon the department from which such transfer is made, or the Secretary thereof, in relation to the said office, bureau, division, or other branch of the public service, or the part thereof so transferred, shall immediately, when such transfer is so ordered by the President, be fully conferred upon and vested in the Department of Commerce, or the Secretary thereof, as the case may be, as to the whole or part of such office, bureau, division, or other branch of the public service so transferred.

(Feb. 14, 1903, ch. 552, § 12, 32 Stat. 830; July 26, 1947, ch. 343, title II, § 201(a), 61 Stat. 499; Aug. 10, 1949, ch. 412, § 4, 63 Stat. 579; Pub. L. 91–375, §§ 4(a), 6(o), Aug. 12, 1970, 84 Stat. 773, 783.)