Opinion of the Court
“technician … is an employee of the Department of the Army or the Department of the Air Force,” 32 U. S. C. §709(e); see also 10 U. S. C. §10216(a)(1)(A). Those Departments, in turn, are components of the Department of Defense. 10 U. S. C. §§111(b)(6) and (8). And, components of covered agencies plainly fall within the Statute’s reach. 5 U. S. C. §§7103(a)(12) (contemplating collective bargaining between “the representative of an agency” and “the exclusive representative of employees in an appropriate unit in the agency”) and 7112(a) (contemplating the establishment of “appropriate” bargaining units “on an agency, plant, installation, functional, or other basis”). Accordingly, when petitioners employ and supervise dual-status technicians, they—like components of an agency—exercise the authority of the Department of Defense, a covered agency.
The statutory authority permitting the Adjutant General to employ dual-status technicians reinforces this point. Adjutants general appoint dual-status technicians as civilian employees in the federal civil service. See 5 U. S. C. §2105(a)(1)(F) (providing that the term “ ‘employee,’ ” for purposes of Title 5, ordinarily includes “an individual … appointed in the [federal] civil service by … an adjutant general designated by the Secretary [of the Army or of the Air Force] under section 709[(d)] of title 32”). And, Congress has required the Secretaries of the Army and Air Force to “designate” adjutants general “to employ and administer” technicians. 32 U. S. C. §709(d). That designation is the sole basis for petitioners’ authority to employ technicians performing work in their federal civilian roles, confirming that petitioners act on behalf of—and exercise the authority of—a covered federal agency when they supervise dual-status technicians.
Here, for example, a 1968 order of the Secretary of the Army “designate[s]” and “empower[s]” each adjutant general “to employ and administer the Army National Guard technicians authorized for his State … as the case may be.”
