SEC. 207. When used in this title, the term "agricultural products" includes agricultural, horticultural, viticultural, and dairy products, livestock and poultry, bees, forest products, fish and shellfish, and any products thereof, including processed and manufactured products, and any and all products raised or produced on farms and any processed or manufactured product thereof.

SEC. 208. The Secretary of Agriculture shall have the power to appoint, remove, and fix, in accordance with existing law, the compensation of such officers and employees, and to make such expenditures as he deems necessary including expenditures for rent outside the District of Columbia, travel, supplies, books, equipment, and such other expenditures as may be necessary to the administration of this title: Provided, That the Secretary of Agriculture may appoint and fix the compensation of any technically qualified person, firm, or organization by contract or otherwise on a temporary basis and for a term not to exceed six months in any fiscal year to perform research, inspec tion, classification, technical, or other special services, without regard to the civil-service laws or the Classification Act of 1923, as amended.

TITLE III

SEC. 301. In order to aid in implementing the research and service work authorized under titles I and II of this Act, and to assist in obtaining the fullest cooperation among Federal and State agencies, producers, farm organizations, and private industry, in the development of and in effectuating such research and service programs, and in order to secure the greatest benefits from the expenditure of funds, the Secretary of Agriculture shall establish a national advisory committee. The functions of such advisory committee shall be to consult with the Secretary of Agriculture and other appropriate officials of the Department of Agriculture, to make recommendations relative to research and service work authorized by this Act, and to assist in obtaining the cooperation of producers, farm organizations, industry groups, and Federal and State agencies in the furtherance of such research and service programs. The chairman of the committee shall be the Secretary of Agriculture or such other official of the Department of Agriculture as he shall designate. The committee shall consist of eleven members, six of whom shall be representatives of producers or their organizations. The committee shall meet at least once each quarter and at such other times as are deemed necessary. Members of the committee may not appoint alternates to serve in their stead. Committee members other than the chairman shall not be deemed to be employees of the United States and are not entitled to compensation, but the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to allow their traveling and subsistence expenses necessary in connection with their attendance at meetings called by him for the purposes of this section.

SEC. 302. In the furtherance of the research and service work authorized by this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture may, in addition to the national advisory committee, establish appropriate committees, including representatives of producers, industry, government, and science, to assist in effectuating specific research and service programs.

Approved August 14, 1946 (60 Stat. 1082).

Act of 1955 Consolidating the Hatch Act and Laws Supplementary Thereto

An Act to consolidate the Hatch Act of 1887 and laws supplementary thereto relating to the appropriation of Federal funds for the support of agricultural experiment stations in the States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Hatch Act of March 2, 1887, relating to the appropriation of Federal funds for the support of State agricultural experiment stations, is hereby amended to read as follows:

"SECTION 1. It is the policy of Congress to continue the argricultural research at State agricultural experiment stations which has been encouraged and sunported 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, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. 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'; or such other substantially equivalent arrangements as any State shall determine.

"SEC. 2. 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 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. (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) 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 Exeperiment 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.

"(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 (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. 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.

"5. Three per centum shall be available to the Secretary of Agriculture for administration of this Act.

“(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. "(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. 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 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. 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 July 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 September 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 or 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. Bulletins, reports, periodicals, reprints of 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 and shall be mailed under such regulations as 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. 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 July 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 that 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.

"The Secretary of Agriculture shall make an annual report to the Congress during the first regular session of each year of the receipts and expenditures and work of the agricultural experiment stations in all the States under the provisions of this Act and also whether any portion of the appropriation available for allotment to any State has been withheld and if so the reasons therefor.

"SEC. 8. 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. The Congress may at any time, amend, suspend, or repeal any or all of the provisions of this Act."

SEC. 2. The following listed sections or parts of sections of the Statutes at Large heretofore covering the provisions consolidated in this Act are hereby repealed: Provided, however, That any rights or liabilities existing under such repealed sections or parts of sections shall not be affected by their repeal:

Bankhead-Jones Act, title I, sections 2 to 8, June 29, 1935 (49 Stat. 436; 7 U.S.C. 427 a-g).

Section 9, and related provisions of section 11 of the Bankhead-Jones Act, title I, as added by title I of the Research and Marketing Act (60 Stat. 1082; 7 U.S.C. 427h, 427j).

Department of Agriculture Organic Act of 1944, title I, section 105, amending the Bankhead-Jones Act, title I, section 5, by adding subsection (c) (58 Stat. 735; 7 U.S.C. 427d).

Act approved June 7, 1888, amending the Hatch Act (25 Stat. 176; 7 U.S.C. 372).

Adams Act approved March 16, 1906 (34 Stat. 63; 7 U.S.C. 369, 371, 373, 366, 374, 375, 361, 376, 380, 382).

Purnell Act approved February 24, 1925 (43 Stat. 970; 7 U.S.C. 370, 371, 373, 374, 375, 376, 366, 361, 380, 382).

The Acts extending the benefits of the foregoing Acts to the Territory of Hawaii, the Territory of Alaska, and Puerto Rico; Hawaii, Act of May 16, 1928 (45 Stat. 571; 7 U.S.C. 386, 386a, 386b); Alaska Act of June 20, 1936 (49 Stat. 1553), as amended by Public Law 739, approved August 29, 1950 (7 U.S.C. 369a); Alaska, Act of February 23, 1929 (45 Stat. 1256; 7 U.S.C. 386c); Puerto Rico, Act of March 4, 1931 (46 Stat. 1520; 7 U.S.C. 386d, e, f).

Such portion of the Department of Agriculture Appropriation Act of 1890, approved March 2, 1889, as related to examination of soils by experimental stations (25 Stat. 841; 7 U.S.C. 364).

That part of the Act of October 1, 1918, relating to the Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station (40 Stat. 998; 7 U.S.C. 383).

Approved August 11, 1955.

634244 - 62-19

USDA Policy Letters Concerning Federal Grant Payments to States Programs

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Washington, D.C., March 20, 1906.

To the Directors of the Agricultural Experiment Stations:

Congress having passed the Adams Bill, which provides for an increased annual appropriation for agricultural experiment stations, and the measure having been approved by the President, it becomes my duty to undertake the administration of this law.

In order to facilitate the prompt and effective organization of work under this Act, and to provide for a proper accounting for expenditures authorized by said Act, I have prescribed a schedule for the report of such expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1906, and until further orders, in accordance with section 2 of said Act. Copies of this schedule will be sent later.

The Director of the Office of Experiment Stations is hereby designated my representative in all matters relating to the business of this Department in connection with the administration of this law, and the Office of Experiment Stations will aid in promoting effective work under this Act in the same general way as it has heretofore in relation to the Hatch Act.

Under the terms of the Act, it will be necessary that a separate account of the Adams fund shall be kept at each station, which should be open at all times to the inspection of the Director of the Office of Experiment Stations, or his accredited representative.

In the interpretation of this Act and the examination of the work and expenditures of the stations under it, I have instructed the Director of the Office of Experiment Stations to be guided by the following principles:

The Adams fund is "to be applied only to paying the necessary expenses of conducting original researches or experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the United States." It is for the "more complete endowment and maintenance" of the experiment stations, presupposing the provision of a working plant and administrative officers. Accordingly, expenses for administration, care of buildings and grounds, insurance, office furniture and fittings, general maintenance of the station farm and animals, verification and demostration experiments, compilations, farmers' institute work, traveling, except as is immediately connected with original researches in progress under this Act, and other general expenses for the maintenance of the experiment stations, are not to be charged to this fund. The Act makes no provision for printing or for the distribution of publications, which should be charged to other funds.

In order that there may be no doubt as to the disposal of the Adams fund, each station should outline a definite programme of experimental work to which it will devote this fund, and expenses for other work should not be charged to it. The work contemplated by this Act will, as a rule, necessarily cover more than one year, and changes in the programme once adopted should not be made until the problems under investigations have been solved, or their solution definitely shown to be impracticable. This will give ample opportunity for making plans for winding up any particular piece of work and beginning another with such deliberation as will provide for the suitable and economical expenditure of this fund without resort to doubtful expedients or expenditures. It is much to be desired that this fund shall be a strong incentive to the careful choice of problems to be investigated, thorough and exhaustive work in their solution, and the securing of permanent and far-reaching results on which can be safely based demonstration and verification experiments leading to the general improvement of farm practice in many particulars.

No change will be made in the attitude of this Department toward expenditures under the Hatch Act. The Hatch fund should be as carefully guarded as ever, and be devoted to substantial experimental work and the printing and dissemination of the results of such work.

The increased liberality of the Federal Government in providing for the endowment of research and experimentation in agriculture should be a further incentive to the States and local communities to supplement these funds for the extension of demonstration experiments, farmers' institutes, agricultural colleges, schools, and courses of instruction, and the general education of the rural communities along industrial lines, in order that the masses of our farmers may be so educated from early youth that they will appreciate the benefits of original research and experimentation as applied to agricultural