|
|
|
Smith-Lever
Act
Act
of 1914 Establishing Cooperative Extension Work
Established
in 1914, Cooperative Extension was designed as a partnership
of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the land-grant
universities, which were authorized by the Federal Morrill
Acts of 1862 and 1890. Legislation in the various States
has enabled local governments or organized groups in
the Nation's counties to become a third legal partner
in this educational endeavor. The congressional charge
to Cooperative Extension through the Smith-Lever Act
of 1914 is far ranging. Today, this educational system
includes professionals in each of America's 1862 land-grant
universities (in the 50 States, Puerto Rico, the Virgin
Islands, Guam, Northern Marianas, American Samoa, Micronesia,
and the District of Columbia) and in the Tuskegee Institute
and sixteen 1890 land-grant universities. The provisions
of the Act, in effect as of December 23, 1985, are shown
below.
In order to aid in diffusing among the people of the United States useful and
practical information on subjects relating to agriculture, uses of solar energy
with respect to agriculture, home economics, and rural energy, and to encourage
the application of te same, there may be continued or inaugurated in connection
with the college or colleges in each State, Territory, or possession, now receiving,
or which may hereafter receive, the benefits of the Act of Congress approved
July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, 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," and of the Act of Congress
approved August thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety, agricultural extension
work which shall be carried on in cooperation with the United States Department
of Agriculture: Provided, That in any State, Territory, or possession in which
two or more such colleges have been or hereafter may be established, the appropriations
hereinafter made to such State, Territory, or possession shall be administered
by such college or colleges as the legislature of such State, Territory, or
possession may direct. For the purposes of this Act, the term "solar energy" means
energy derived from sources (other than fossil fuels) and technologiesincluded
in the Federal Non-Nuclear Energy Research and Developmentict of 1974, as amended
(42 U.S.C. 5901, et seq.).
Cooperative agricultural extension work shall consist of the development of
practical applications of research knowledge and giving of instruction and
practical demonstrations of existing or improved practices or technologies
in agriculture, uses of solar energy with respect to agriculture, home economics,
and rural energy, and subjects relating thereto to persons not attending or
resident in said colleges in the several communities, and imparting information
on said subjects through demonstrations, publications, and otherwise and for
the necessary printing and distribution of information in connection with the
foregoing; and this work shall be carried on in such manner as may be mutually
agreed upon by the Secretary of Agriculture and the State agricultural college
or colleges or Territory or possession receiving the benefits of this Act.
(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 and the Federal Extension Service shall
be entitled to receive annually a sum of money equal to the sums available
from the Federal cooperative extension funds for the fiscal year 1962, and
subject to the same requirements as to furnishing of equivalent sums by the
State, except that amounts heretofore made available to the Secretary for allotment
on the basis of special needs shall continue available for use on the same
basis.
(b) (2) There is authorized to be appropriated for the fiscal year ending June
30, 1971, and for each fiscal year thereafter, for payment to the Virgin Islands,
Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, $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 the 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 for further development of cooperative
extension work in addition to those referred to in subsection (b) hereof shall
be distributed as follows:
1.
Four per centum of the sum so appropriated for each fiscal
year shall be allotted to the Federal Extension Service
for administrative, technical, and other services, and
for coordinating te extension work of the Department and
the several States, Territories, and possessions.
2. Of the remainder so appropriated for each fiscal year 20 per centum shall
be paid to the several States in equal proportions, 40 per centum shall be
paid to the several States in the proportion that the rural population of each
bears to the total rural population of the several States as determined by
the census, and the balance shall be paid to the several States in the proportion
that the farm population of each bears to the total farm population of the
several states as determined by the census: Provided, That payments out of
the additional appropriations for further development of extension work authorized
herein may be made subject to the making available of such sums of public funds
by the States from non-Federal funds for the maintenance of cooperative agricultural
extension work provided for in this Act, as may be provided by the Congress
at the time such additional appropriations are made: Provided further, That
any appropriation made hereunder shall be allotted in the first and succeeding
years on the basis of the decennial census current at the time such appropriation
is first made, and as to any increase, on the basis of decennial census current
at the time such increase is first appropriated.
(d)
The Federal Extension Service shall receive such additional
amounts as Congress shall determine for administration,
technical, and other services and for coordinating the
extension work of the Department and the several States,
Territories, and possessions.
(e) Insofar as the provisions of subsections (b) and (c) of this section, which
require or permit Congress to require matching of Federal funds, apply to the
Virgin Islands of the United States and Guam, such provisions shall be deemed
to have been satisfied, for the fiscal years ending September 30, 1978, and
September 30, 1979, only, if the amounts budgeted and available for expenditure
by the Virgin Islands of the United States and Guam in such years equal the
amounts budgeted and available for expenditure by the Virgin Islands of the
United States and Guam in the fiscal year ending September 30, 1977.
(f) (1) The Secretary of Agriculture may conduct educational, instructional,
demonstration, and publication distribution programs through the Federal Extension
Service and enter into cooperative agreements with private nonprofit and profit
organizations and individuals to share the cost of such programs through contributions
from private sources as provided in this subsection.
(f) (2) The Secretary may receive contributions under this subsection from
private sources for the purposes described in paragraph (1) and provide matching
funds in an amount not greater than 50 percent of such contributions.
On or about 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 appropriation for cooperative
agricultural extension work under this Act and the amount which it is entitled
to receive. Before the funds herein provided shall become available to any
college for any fiscal year, plans for the work to be carried on under this
Act shall be submitted by the proper officials of each college and approved
by the Secretary of Agriculture. Such sums shall be paid in equal quarterly
payments in or about October, January, April, and July of each year to the
treasurer or other officer of the State duly authorized by the laws of the
State to receive the same, and such officer shall be required to report to
the Secretary of Agriculture on or about the first day of April of each year,
a detailed statement of the amount so received during the previous fiscal year
and its disbursement, on forms prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture.
If any
portion of the moneys received by the designated officer
of any State for the support and maintenance of cooperative
agricultural extension work, as provided in this Act, shall
by any action or contingency be diminished or lost or be
misapplied, it shall be replaced by said State, and until
so replaced no subsequent appropriation shall be apportioned
or paid to said State. Nor portion of said moneys shall
be applied, directly or indirectly, to the purchase, erection,
preservation, or repair of any building or buildings, or
the purchase or rental of land, or in college-course teaching,
lectures in college, or any other purpose not specified
in this Act. It shall be the duty of said colleges, annually,
on or about the first day of January, to make to the Governor
of the State in which it is located a full and detailed
report of its operations in extension work as defined in
this Act, including a detailed statement of receipts and
expenditures from all sources for this purpose, a copy
of which report shall be sent to the Secretary of Agriculture.
If the Secretary of Agriculture finds that a State is not entitled to receive
its share of the annual appropriation, the facts and reasons therefor shall
be reported to the President, and the amount involved shall be kept separate
in the Treasury until the expiration of the Congress next succeeding a session
of the legislature of the State from which funds have been withheld in order
that the State may, if it should so desire, appeal to Congress from the determination
of the Secretary of Agriculture. If the next Congress shall not direct such
sum to be paid, it shall be covered into the Treasury.
Repealed. (Dealt with an annual report to Congress.)
(a) The Congress finds that there exists special circumstances in certain areas
which cause such areas to be at a disadvantage insofar as agricultural development
is concerned, which circumstances include the following:
- (1)
There is concentration of farm families on farms either
too small or too unproductive or both;
- (2)
such farm operators because of limited productivity are
unable to make adjustments and investments required to
establish profitable operations;
- (3)
the productive capacity of the existing farm unit does
not permit profitable employment of available labor;
- (4)
because of limited resources, many of these farm families
are not able to make full use of current extension programs
designed for families operating economic units nor are
extension facilities adequate to provide the assistance
needed to produce desirable results.
(b)
In order to further the purposes of section 2 in such areas
and to encourage complementary development essential to
the welfare of such areas, there are hereby authorized
to be appropriated such sums as the Congress from time
to time shall determine to be necessary for payments to
the States on the basis of special needs in such areas
as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture.
(c) In determining that the area has a special need, the Secretary shall find
that it has a substantial number of disadvantaged farms or farm families for
one or more of the reasons heretofore enumerated. The Secretary shall make
provisions for the assistance to be extended to include one or more of the
following:
- (1)
Intensive on-the-farm educational assistance to the farm
family in appraising and resolving its problems;
- (2)
assistance and counseling to local groups in appraising
resources for capability of improvement in agriculture
or introduction of industry designed to supplement farm
income;
- (3)
cooperation with other agencies and groups in furnishing
all possible information as to existing employment opportunities,
particularly to farm families having underemployed workers;
and
- (4)
in cases where the farm family, after analysis of its
opportunities and existing resources, finds it advisable
to seek a new farming venture, the providing of information,
advice, and counsel in connection with making such change.
(d)
No more than 10 per centum of the sums available under
this section shall be allotted to any one State. The Secretary
shall use project proposals and plans of work submitted
by the State Extension directors as a basis for determining
the allocation of funds appropriated pursuant to this section.
(e) Sums appropriated pursuant to this section shall be in addition to, and
not in substitution for, appropriations otherwise available under this Act.
The amounts authorized to be appropriated pursuant to this section shall not
exceed a sum in any year equal to 10 per centum of sums otherwise appropriated
pursuant to this Act.
The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to make such rules and regulations
as may be necessary for carrying out the provisions of this Act.
The term "State" means the States of the Union, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands,
Guam, and the northern Mariana Islands.
(Code
reference is 7 U.S.C. 341 et seq.)
Return
to A
Land-Grant Institution page |
