Subject to subsection (b), nothing in this subchapter shall affect the authority of any management official of the Department, in accordance with applicable law—

(1) to determine the mission, budget, organization, and internal security practices of the Department, and the number of individuals in the Service or in the Department;

(2) to hire, assign, direct, lay off, and retain individuals in the Service or in the Department, to suspend, remove, or take other disciplinary action against such individuals, and to determine the number of members of the Service to be promoted and to remove the name of or delay the promotion of any member in accordance with regulations prescribed under section 4005(b) of this title;

(3) to conduct reductions in force, and to prescribe regulations for the separation of employees pursuant to such reductions in force conducted under section 4010a of this title;

(4) to assign work, to make determinations with respect to contracting out, and to determine the personnel by which the operations of the Department shall be conducted;

(5) to fill positions from any appropriate source;

(6) to determine the need for uniform personnel policies and procedures between or among the agencies to which this subchapter applies; and

(7) to take whatever actions may be necessary to carry out the mission of the Department during emergencies.

Nothing in this section shall preclude the Department and the exclusive representative from negotiating—

(1) at the election of the Department, on the numbers, types, and classes of employees or positions assigned to any organizational subdivision, work project, or tour of duty, or on the technology, methods, and means of performing work;

(2) procedures which management officials of the Department will observe in exercising any function under this section; or

(3) appropriate arrangements for employees adversely affected by the exercise of any function under this section by such management officials.

(Pub. L. 96–465, title I, § 1005, Oct. 17, 1980, 94 Stat. 2131; Pub. L. 103–236, title I, § 181(b), Apr. 30, 1994, 108 Stat. 417; Pub. L. 103–415, § 1(jj)(2), Oct. 25, 1994, 108 Stat. 4303.)