---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 554a"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "554a"
heading: "Employees to be appointed without regard to political affiliations"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/554a"
units:
  - "Chapter 3 — Forests; Forest Service; Reforestation; Management"
  - "Subchapter I — General Provisions"
---

# §554a. Employees to be appointed without regard to political affiliations


Forest inspectors, superintendents, supervisors, surveyors, rangers, and fire patrol are to be hereafter appointed by the [Secretary](/usc/16/580p.md?p=3) of Agriculture wholly with reference to their fitness and without regard for their political affiliations.


## Source credit

(July 7, 1898, ch. 571, § 1, 30 Stat. 673; Feb. 1, 1905, ch. 288, § 1, 33 Stat. 628.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Transfer of Functions

Act Feb. 1, 1905, transferred certain functions with regard to the administration of public forests from Secretary of the Interior to Secretary of Agriculture.