Land Grant & Sea Grant:
The Smith-Lever Act, Chapter 79
Act of May 8, 1914, ch.79, 38 Stat. 372, 7 U.S.C. 341 et seq.
Chap.79. -- AN ACT To provide for cooperative agricultural extension work between the agricultural colleges in the several States receiving the benefits of an Act of Congress approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and the Acts supplementary thereto, and the United States Department of Agriculture.
SEC.1.(1) 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,(2)home economics, and rural energy,(3) and to encourage the application of the 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 acts" (Twelfth Statues at Large, page five hundred and three)(4) and of the Act of Congress approved August thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety (Twenty-sixth Statutes at Large, page four hundred and seventeen and chapter eight hundred and forty-one),(5) 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 technologies included in the Federal Non-Nuclear Energy Research and Development Act of 1974, as amended.(6)
SEC.2.(7) Cooperative agricultural extension work shall consist of the giving of instruction and practical demonstrations in agriculture, uses of solar energy with respect to agriculture,(8) home economics, and rural energy,(9) 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.
SEC.3. (10) a) There are hereby authorized to be appropriated for the purposes of this Act such sums as Congress may from time to time determine 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 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.
(2)(11) There is authorized to be appropriated for the fiscal year(12) ending June 30, 1971, 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 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 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 the extension work for 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 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 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 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)(13) 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 expenditures by the Virgin Islands of the United States ang Guam in the fiscal year ending September 30, 1977.
SEC.4.(14) 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 July, October, January, and April 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, at detailed statement of the amount so received during the previous fiscal year and its disbursement, on forms prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture.
SEC.5.(15) 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 bey 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. No 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.
SEC.6.(16) 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 Sate from which funds have been withheld in order that the Sate 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.
SEC.7.(17) (Repealed)
SEC.8.(18) (a) The Congress finds that there exists special circumstances in certain agricultural areas which cause such areas to be at the 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(19) on the basis of special needs in such areas as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture.
(c) In determining that the area has such 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 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.
SEC.9.(20) The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to make such rules and regulations as may be necessary for carrying out the provisions of this Act.
SEC.10.(21) The term "State" means the States of the Union, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam.
Endnotes
(1) 7 U.S.C. 341. The Smith-Lever Act was amended in its entirety by the Act of June 26, 1953, ch. 157, 67 Stat. 83. Section 1 was amended as follows: added, "Territory, or possession" wherever appearing; added "continued or"; and deleted ":Provided further, That, pending the inauguration and development of the cooperative extension work herein authorized, nothing in this Act shall be construed to discontinue either the farm management work or the farmers' cooperative demonstration work as now conducted by the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture" following "may direct".
(2) Reference to "solar energy" added by the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, Public Law 95-113, section 1447(1), 91 Stat. 1011.
(3) Reference to "rural energy" added by the Biomass Energy and Alcohol Fuels Act of 1980, Public Law 96-294, section 256, 94 Stat.708.
(4) First Morrill Act.
(5) Second Morrill Act.
(6) See note 2.
(7) 7 U.S.C. 342. Amended by the Act of June 26, 1953, ch. 157, 67 Stat.83, and further amended by the Act of October 5, 1962. Public Law 87-749, 76 Stat.745, as follows: The Act of June 26, 1953, inserted "and subjects relating thereto" after "agriculture and home economics" near beginning of section, and inserted the reference to necessary printing and distribution of information. The Act of October 5, 1962 inserted "or Territory or possession" following "college or colleges".
(8) See note 2.
(9) See note 3.
(10) 7 U.S.C. 343. This section appears as amended by the Act of October 5, 1962, exclusive of subsequent amendments noted below. Prior to amendment by the Act of June 26, 1953, ch. 157, 67 Stat. 83, this section reads as follows: "That for the purpose of paying the expenses of said cooperative agricultural extension work and the necessary printing and distributing of information in connection with the same, there is permanently appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $480,000 for each year, $10,000 of which shall be paid annually, in the manner hereinafter provided to each State which shall by action of its legislature assent to the provisions of this Act: Provided, That payment of such installments of appropriation hereinbefore made as shall become due to any State before the adjournment of the regular session of the legislature meeting next after the passage of this Act may, in the absence of prior legislative assent, be made upon the assent of the governor thereof, duly certified to the Secretary of the Treasury: Provided further, That there is also appropriated an additional sum of $600,000 for the fiscal year following that in which the foregoing appropriation first becomes available, and for each year thereafter for seven years a sum exceeding by $500,000 the sum appropriated for each preceding year, and for each year thereafter there is permanently appropriated for each year the sum of $4,100,000 in addition to the sum of $480,000 hereinbefore provided: Provided further, That before the funds herein appropriated 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 additional sums shall be used only for the purposes hereinbefore stated, and shall be allotted annually to each State by the Secretary of Agriculture and paid in the manner hereinbefore provided, in the proportion which the rural population of each State bears to the total rural population of all the States as determined by the next preceding Federal census: Provided further. That no payment out of the additional appropriations herein provided shall be made in any year to any State until an equal sum has been appropriated for that year by the legislature of such State, or provided by State, county, college, local authority, or individual contributions from within the State, for the maintenance of the cooperative agricultural extension work provided for in this Act.
The Act of June 26, 1953, ch. 157, 67 Stat. 83 amended this section to read:
"(a) There are hereby authorized to be appropriated for the purposes of this Act such sums as congress may from time to tome determine to be necessary.
"(b) Out of such sums, each State, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Federal Extension Service shall be entitled to receive annually a sum of money equal to the sums received from Federal cooperative extension funds for the fiscal year 1953, and such sums shall be subject to the same requirements as to furnishing of equivalent sums by the State, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico as existed immediately prior to the passage of this Act, 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: Provided, That, in addition, Puerto Rico shall be authorized to receive the total initial amount set by the provisions of the Act of October 26, 1949 (63 Stat. 926), and this amount shall be increased each succeeding fiscal year in accordance with such provisions until the total sum shall include the maximum amount set by the provisions of the Act of October 26, 1949, and Puerto Rico shall be entitled to receive such amount annually thereafter.
"(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 among the States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico by the Secretary of Agriculture on the basis of special needs as determined by the Secretary.
"2. Fifty per centum of the remainder of the sum so appropriated for each fiscal year shall be paid to the several States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico in the proportion that the rural population of each bears to the total rural population of the several States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, as determined by the census, and the remainder shall be paid to the several States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico in the proportion that the farm population bears to the total farm population of the several States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, as determined by the census: Provided, That payments 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, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico 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 each 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 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.
(11) Paragraph (2) was added by the Act of June 23, 1972, Public Law 92-318, section 506(3), 86 Stat. 351, effective after June 30, 1970.
(12) The Act of April 21, 1976, Public Law 94-274, section 201(15) and (22), 90 Stat. 383, provides that the "period July 1, 1976 through September 30, 1976 shall be treated as a fiscal year" for the purpose of section 3(b)(2) and 3(c).
(13) Subsection (e) was added by the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, Public Law 95-113, section 1465, 91 Stat. 1018.
(14) 7 U.S.C. 344. The Act of June 26, 1953, ch. 157, 67 Stat. 83, amended this section to read as it appears exclusive of subsequent amendments noted below.
The Act of October 5, 1962. Public Law 87-749, section 1(f), 76 Stat. 745, deleted: ",Territory, or possession" following "State" each place it appears; substituted "quarterly" for "semiannual"; and substituted "in or about July, October, January, and April" for "on the first day of January and July".
The Act of April 21, 1970, Public Law 94-273, section 15, 90 Stat. 379, substituted "of October" for "of July" and substituted "of April" for "of January".
(15) 7 U.S.C. 345. The Act of June 26, 1953, ch. 157, 67 Stat. 83, amended this section to read as it appears exclusive of the amendments noted in note 14.
(16) 7 U.S.C. 346. The Act of June 26, 1953, ch. 157, section 1, 67 Stat. 85, amended this section to read as it appears exclusive of subsequent amendments noted in note 14.
(17) 7 U.S.C. 347. Repealed by the Act of June 29, 1960, Public Law 86-533, section 1(21), 74 Stat. 249.
(18) 7 U.S.C. 347a. Added by the Act of August 11, 1955, ch. 768, 69 Stat. 683, which renumbered original section 8 to read "section 9".
(19) The Act of October 5, 1962, Public Law 87-749, section 1(h), 76 Stat. 745, deleted "Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico" following "States".
(20) 7 U.S.C. 348. Amended by the Act of June 26, 1953, ch. 157, 67 Stat. 83.
(21) 7 U.S.C. 349. Added by the Act of October 5, 1962, Public Law 87-749, section 1(i), 76 Stat. 745. Amended by the Act of June 23, 1972, Public Law 92- 318, section 506(h), 86 Stat.351, to include the Virgin Islands and Guam.