1 ACT OF MARCH 2, 1887, 1 Commonly Known as the Hatch Act of 1887 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 to the 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. [7 U.S.C. 361a] 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, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands. As used in this Act, the term "State agricultural experiment station" means a department which shall have been established, under 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"; 2 or such other substantially equivalent arrangements as any State shall determine. SEC. 2. [7 U.S.C. 361b] 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 1The Hatch Act was amended in its entirety by the Act of August 11, 1955, ch. 790, 68 Stat. 671. 2 First Morrill Act. See the compilation of this Act. basic to the problems of agriculture in its broadest aspects, and such investigations as have for their purpose the 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 U.S.Č. 361c] (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) 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 that amounts heretofore made available from the fund known as the "Regional research fund. Office of Experiment Stations" shall continue to be available for the 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 year thereafter, for payment to the Virgin Islands and Guam, $100,000 each, which sums shall be in addition to the sums appropriated for the 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 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 the State bears to the total 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 (6) hereof for like purpose shall be designated as the "Regional research fund, State agricultural experiment stations". 4. (Repealed) 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. (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 of its own funds for research and 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 and reapportioned among the States. (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. (g) If in any year the amount made available by a State from its own funds (including any revenue-sharing funds) to a State agricultural experiment station is reduced because of an increase in the allotment made available under this Act, the allotment to the State agricultural experiment station from the appropriation in the next succeeding fiscal year shall be reduced in an equivalent amount. The Secretary shall reapportion the amount of such reduction to other States for use by their agricultural experiment stations. SEC. 4. [7 US.C. 361d] Moneys appropriated pursuant to this Act shall also be available, in addition to meeting expenses for research and investigations conducted under 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 the 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 in |