The Commission shall have a personnel and administration committee composed of the Chairman, the Cochairman, the senior Commission member from the minority party in the House of Representatives, and the senior Commission member from the minority party in the Senate.

All decisions pertaining to the hiring, firing, and fixing of pay of Commission staff personnel shall be by a majority vote of the personnel and administration committee, except that—

(1) the Chairman shall be entitled to appoint and fix the pay of the staff director, and the Cochairman shall be entitled to appoint and fix the pay of his senior staff person; and

(2) the Chairman and Cochairman each shall have the authority to appoint, with the approval of the personnel and administration committee, at least four professional staff members who shall be responsible to the Chairman or the Cochairman (as the case may be) who appointed them.

All staff appointments shall be made without regard to the provisions of title 5 governing appointments in the competitive service, and without regard to the provisions of chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of such title relating to classification and general schedule pay rates.

For purposes of pay and other employment benefits, rights, and privileges and for all other purposes, any employee of the Commission shall be considered to be a congressional employee as defined in section 2107 of title 5.

(1) For purposes of pay and other employment benefits, rights, and privileges and for all other purposes, any employee of the Commission shall be considered to be a congressional employee as defined in section 2107 of title 5.

(2) For purposes of section 3304(c)(1) [1] of title 5, staff personnel of the Commission shall be considered as if they are in positions in which they are paid by the Secretary of the Senate or the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives.

(3) The provisions of paragraphs (1) and (2) of this subsection shall be effective as of June 3, 1976.

(Pub. L. 94–304, § 8, June 3, 1976, 90 Stat. 662; Pub. L. 99–7, § 5, Mar. 27, 1985, 99 Stat. 19; Pub. L. 104–186, title II, § 218(3), Aug. 20, 1996, 110 Stat. 1747.)