# 550.402 Definitions.
*Agency* means an Executive agency, as defined in section 105 of title 5, United States Code.
*Day* means a calendar day, except when otherwise specified by the head of an agency.
*Dependent* means a family member of the employee residing with the employee and dependent on the employee for support.
*Designated representative* means a person 16 years of age or over who is named by an employee for the purpose of caring for a dependent.
*Domestic partner* means a person in a domestic partnership with an employee or annuitant of the same sex.
*Domestic partnership* means a committed relationship between two adults of the same sex in which the partners—
(1) Are each other's sole domestic partner and intend to remain so indefinitely;
(2) Maintain a common residence, and intend to continue to do so (or would maintain a common residence but for an assignment abroad or other employment-related, financial, or similar obstacle);
(3) Are at least 18 years of age and mentally competent to consent to contract;
(4) Share responsibility for a significant measure of each other's financial obligations;
(5) Are not married or joined in a civil union to anyone else;
(6) Are not the domestic partner of anyone else;
(7) Are not related in a way that, if they were of opposite sex, would prohibit legal marriage in the U.S. jurisdiction in which the domestic partnership was formed;
(8) Are willing to certify, if required by the agency, that they understand that willful falsification of any documentation required to establish that an individual is in a domestic partnership may lead to disciplinary action and the recovery of the cost of benefits received related to such falsification, as well as constitute a criminal violation under 18 U.S.C. 1001, and that the method for securing such certification, if required, will be determined by the agency; and
(9) Are willing promptly to disclose, if required by the agency, any dissolution or material change in the status of the domestic partnership.
*Evacuated employee* means an employee of an agency who has received an order to evacuate.
*Family member* means an individual with any of the following relationships to the employee:
(1) Spouse, and parents thereof;
(2) Sons and daughters, and spouses thereof;
(3) Parents, and spouses thereof;
(4) Brothers and sisters, and spouses thereof;
(5) Grandparents and grandchildren, and spouses thereof;
(6) Domestic partner, and children and parents thereof, including a domestic partner of any individual in paragraphs (2)-(5) of this definition; and
(7) Any individual related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.
*Order to evacuate* means an oral or written order to evacuate an employee from an assigned area.
*Safe haven* means a designated area to which an employee or dependent will be or has been evacuated.
*United States* means the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, and any territory or possession of the United States.
[59 FR 66632, Dec. 28, 1994, as amended at 65 FR 41869, July 7, 2000; 77 FR 42904, July 20, 2012]