Act of March 2, 1887;(1)
ch. 314,24 stat.440,7 U.S.C.361a et seq.
Chap. 314. -- AN ACT
to establish agricultural experiment stations in connection with the colleges
established in several States under the provisions of an act approved July
second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and of the acts supplementary thereto
Be it enacted by the
Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled,
Section 1.(2) It is
the policy of Congress to continue the agricultural research at State agricultural
experiment stations which has been encouraged and supported by the Hatch Act
of 1887, the Adams Act of 1906, the Purnell Act of 1925, the Bankhead-Jones
Act of 1935, and title I, section 9, of that Act as added by the Act of August
14, 1946, and Acts amendatory and supplementary thereto, and to promote the
efficiency of such research by a codification and simplification of such laws.
As used in this Act the terms "State" or "States" are defined to include the
several States, including the District of Columbia,(3) Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto
Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.(4) As used in this Act, the term "State
agricultural experiment station" means a department which shall have been
established, under the direction of the college or university or agricultural
departments of the college or university in each State in accordance with
an Act approved July 2, 1862 (12 Stat.503), entitled "An Act donating public
lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for
the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts";(5) or such other substantially
equivalent arrangements as any State shall determine.
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Sec.2.(6) It is further
the policy of the Congress to promote the efficient production, marketing,
distribution, and utilization of products of the farm as essential to the
health and welfare of our peoples and to promote a sound and prosperous agriculture
and rural life as indispensable to the maintenance of maximum employment and
national prosperity and security. It is also the intent of Congress to assure
agriculture a position in research equal to that of industry, which will aid
in maintaining an equitable balance between agriculture and other segments
of our economy. It shall be the object and duty of the State agricultural
experiment stations through the expenditure of the appropriations hereinafter
authorized to conduct original and other researches, investigations, and experiments
bearing directly on and contributing to the establishment and maintenance
of a permanent and effective agricultural industry of the United States, including
researches basic to the problems of agriculture in its broadest aspects, and
such investigations as have for their purpose and development and improvement
of the rural home and rural life and the maximum contribution by agriculture
to the welfare of the consumer, as may be deemed advisable, having due regard
to the varying conditions and needs of the respective states.
Sec.3.(7) (a) There
are hereby authorized to be appropriated for the purposes of this Act such
sums as Congress may from time to time determine to be necessary.
(b)(1)(8) Out of such
sums each State shall be entitled to receive annually a sum of money equal
to and subject to the same requirement as to use for marketing research
projects as the sums received from Federal appropriations for State agricultural
experiment stations for the fiscal year 1955, except the amounts heretofore
made available from the fund known as the "Regional research fund, Office
of Experiment Stations" shall continue to be available for support of cooperative
regional projects as defined in subsection 3(c)(3), and the said fund shall
be designated "Regional research fund, State agricultural experiment stations",
and the Secretary of Agriculture shall be entitled to receive annually for
the administration of this Act, a sum not less than that available for this
purpose for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1955: Provided, That if the
appropriations hereunder available for distribution in any fiscal year are
less than those for the fiscal year 1955 the allotment to each State and
the amounts for Federal administration and the regional research fund shall
be reduced in proportion to the amount of such reduction.
(2) There is authorized
to be appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1973, and for each
fiscal year thereafter, for payment to the Virgin Islands and Guam, $100,000
each, which sums shall be in addition to the sums appropriated for several
States of the United States and Puerto Rico under the provisions of this
section. The amount paid by the Federal Government to the Virgin Islands
and Guam pursuant to this paragraph shall not exceed during any fiscal
year, except the fiscal years ending June 30, 1971, and June 30, 1972,
when such amount may be used to pay the total cost of providing services
pursuant to this Act, the amount available and budgeted for expenditure
by the Virgin Islands and Guam for the purposes of this Act.
(c) Any sums made available
by the Congress in addition to those provided for in subsection (b) hereof
for the State agricultural experiment station work shall be distributed
as follows:
1. Twenty per centum
shall be allotted equally to each State;
2. Not less than
52 per centum of such sums shall be allotted to each State, as follows:
One-half in an amount which bears the same ratio to the total amount to
be allotted as the rural population of the State bears to the total rural
population of all the States as determined by the last preceding decennial
census current at the time each such additional sum is first appropriated;
and one-half in an amount which bears the same ratio to the total amount
to be allotted as the farm population of all the States as determined
by the last preceding decennial census current at the time such additional
sum is first appropriated;
3. Not more than
25 per centum shall be allotted to the States for cooperative research
in which two or more State agricultural experiment stations are cooperating
to solve problems that concern the agriculture of more than one State.
The funds available for such purposes, together with funds available pursuant
to subsection (b) hereof for like purpose shall be designated as the "Regional
research fund, State agricultural experiment stations", and shall be used
only for such cooperative regional projects as are recommended by a committee
of nine persons elected by and representing the directors of the State
agricultural experiment stations, and approved by the Secretary of Agriculture.
The necessary travel expenses of the committee of nine persons in performance
of their duties may be paid from the fund established by this paragraph.
4. (Repealed)(9)
5. Three per centum
shall be available to the Secretary of Agriculture for administration
of this Act. These administrative funds may be used for transportation
of scientists who are not officers or employees of the United States to
research meetings convened for the purpose of assessing research opportunities
or research planning.(10)
(d) Of any amount in
excess of $90,000 available under this Act for allotment to any State, exclusive
of the regional research fund, State agricultural experiment stations, no
allotment and no payments thereof shall be made in excess of the amount
which the State makes available out if its own funds for research for the
establishment and maintenance of facilities necessary for the prosecution
of such research: And provided further, That if any State fails to make
available for such research purposes for any fiscal year a sum equal to
the amount in excess of $90,000 to which it may be entitled for such year,
the remainder of such amount shall be withheld by the Secretary of Agriculture.
(e) "Administration"
as used in this section shall include participation in planning and coordinating
cooperative regional research as defined in subsection 3(c)3.
(f) In making payments
to States, the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to adjust any such
payment to the nearest dollar.
Sec.4.(11) Moneys appropriated
pursuant to this Act shall also be available, in addition to meeting expenses
for research and investigations conducted under the authority of section 2,
for printing and disseminating the results of such research, retirement of
employees subject to the provisions of an Act approved March 4, 1940 (54 Stat.39),
administrative planning and direction, and for the purchase and rental of
land and construction, acquisition, alteration, or repair of buildings necessary
for conducting research. The State agricultural experiment stations are authorized
to plan and conduct any research authorized under section 2 of this Act in
cooperation with each other and such other agencies and individuals as may
contribute to the solution of the agricultural problems involved, and moneys
appropriated pursuant to this Act shall be available for paying the necessary
expenses of planning, coordinating, and conducting such cooperative research.
Sec.5.(12) Sums available
for allotment to the States under the terms of this Act, excluding the regional
research fund authorized by subsection 3(c)3, shall be paid to each State
agricultural experiment station in equal quarterly payments beginning on the
first day of October of each fiscal year upon vouchers approved by the Secretary
of Agriculture. Each such station authorized to receive allotted funds shall
have a chief administrative officer known as a director, and a treasurer or
other officer appointed by the governing board of the station. Such treasurer
or other officer shall receive and account for all funds allotted to the State
under the provisions of this Act and shall report, with the approval of the
director to the Secretary of Agriculture on or before the first day of December
of each year a detailed statement of the amount received under provisions
of this Act during the preceding fiscal year, and of its disbursement on schedules
prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture. If any portion of the allotted
moneys received by the authorized receiving officer of any State agricultural
experiment station shall by any action of contingency be diminished, lost,
or misapplied, it shall be replaced by the State concerned and until so replaced
no subsequent appropriation shall be allotted or paid to such State.
Sec.6.(13) Bulletins,
reports, periodicals, reprints or articles, and other publications necessary
for the dissemination of results of the researches and experiments, including
lists of publications available for distribution by the experiment stations,
shall be transmitted in the mails of the United States under penalty indicia:
Provided, however, That each publication shall bear such indicia as are prescribed
by the Postmaster General may from time to time prescribe. Such publications
may be mailed from the principal place of business of the station or from
an established subunit of said station.
Sec.7.(14) The Secretary
of Agriculture is hereby charged with the responsibility for the proper administration
of this Act, and is authorized and directed to prescribe such rules and regulations
as may be necessary to carry out its provisions. It shall be the duty of the
Secretary to furnish such advice and assistance as will best promote the purposes
of this Act, including participation in coordination of research initiated
under this Act by the State agricultural experiment stations, from time to
time to indicate such lines of inquiry as to him seem most important, and
to encourage and assist in the establishment and maintenance of cooperation
by and between the several State agricultural experiment stations, and between
the stations and the United States Department of Agriculture.
On or before the first
day of October in each year after the passage of this Act, the Secretary
of Agriculture shall ascertain as to each State whether it is entitled to
receive its share of the annual appropriations for agricultural experiment
stations under this Act and the amount which thereupon each is entitled,
respectively, to receive.
Whenever it shall
appear to the Secretary of Agriculture from the annual statement of receipts
and expenditures of funds by any State agricultural experiment station that
any portion of the preceding annual appropriation allotted to the station
under this Act remains unexpended, such amount shall be deducted from the
next succeeding annual allotment to the State concerned.
If the Secretary of
Agriculture shall withhold from any State any portion of the appropriations
available for allotment, the facts and reasons therefor shall be reported
to the President and the amount involved shall be kept separate in the Treasury
until the close of the next Congress. If the next Congress shall not direct
such sum to be paid, it shall be carried to surplus.
Sec.8.(15) Nothing in
this Act shall be construed to impair or modify the legal relation existing
between any of the colleges or universities under whose direction State agricultural
experiment stations have been established and the government of the States
in which they are respectively located. States having agricultural experiment
stations separate from such colleges or universities and established by law,
shall be authorized to apply such benefits to research at stations so established
by such States: Provided, That in any State in which more than one such college,
university, or agricultural experiment station has been established the appropriations
made pursuant to this Act for such State shall be divided between such institutions
as the legislature of such State shall direct.
Sec.9.(16) The Congress
may at any time, amend, suspend, or repeal any or all of the provisions of
this Act.
Endnotes:
(1) The Hatch Act was
amended in its entirety by the Act of August 11, 1955, ch. 790, 68 Stat.671.
(2) 7 U.S.C.361a.
(3) Amended by Public
Law 93-471, 88 Stat. 1429, which defined State to include the District of
Columbia.
(4) Amended by Public
Law 92-318, 86 Stat. 351, which defined State to include Guam and the Virgin
Islands.
(5) First Morrill Act
(6) 7 U.S.C. 361b. v
(7) 7 U.S.C. 361c.
(8) The Act of June
23, 1972, Public Law 93-318, Title V, sec. 506, 86 Stat. 351, designated existing
provisions as par. (b)(1) and added par. (b)(2).
(9) The Food and Agricultural
Act of 1977, Public Law 95-113, section 1466, 91 Stat. 1018, repealed (c)4
which read: "Not less than 20 per centum of any sums appropriated pursuant
to this subsection for distribution to States shall be used by State agricultural
experiment stations for conducting marketing research projects approved by
the Department of Agriculture."
(10) The last sentence
of paragraph (5) was added by the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, Public
Law 95-113, section 1446, 91 Stat. 1018.
(11) 7 U.S.C. 361d.
(12) 7 U.S.C. 361e,
Act of April 21, 1976, Public Law 94-273, 90 Stat. 373, substituted "October"
and "December" for "July" and "September".
(13) 7 U.S.C. 361f.
(14) 7 U.S.C. 361g.
Public Law 94-273, 90 Stat. 376, substituted "October" for "July" in second
paragraph. The last paragraph of section 7 which required annual reports was
repealed by Public Law 86-533, sec. 1(22), 74 Stat. 249.
(15) 7 U.S.C. 361h.
Amended by the Act of August 11, 1955, ch. 790, sec. 1, 69 Stat.674.
(16) 7 U.S.C. 361i.
Amended by the Act of August 11, 1955, c. 790, sec 1, 69 Stat.674.
