HATCH ACT OF 1887
Chapter 314 of the 49th Congress, as amended
HATCH ACT OF 1887
ch314
115–334
Statute Compilation
United States House of Representatives
Office of the Legislative Counsel
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EN
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Hatch Act of 1887
10292
49
1887-03-02
HATCH ACT OF 1887
[Chapter 314 of the 49th Congress; Approved March 2, 1887; 24 Stat. 440]
[As Amended Through P.L. 115–334, Enacted December 20, 2018]
[Currency: This publication is a compilation of the text of Chapter 314 of the 49th Congress. It was last amended by the public law listed in the As Amended Through note above and below at the bottom of each page of the pdf version and reflects current law through the date of the enactment of the public law listed at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/comps/]
[Note: While this publication does not represent an official version of any Federal statute, substantial efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of its contents. The official version of Federal law is found in the United States Statutes at Large and in the United States Code. The legal effect to be given to the Statutes at Large and the United States Code is established by statute (1 U.S.C. 112, 204).]

TABLE OF CONTENTS1
^1
This table of contents is not part of the Act but is included for user convenience.
Sec. 1.
Congressional declaration of purpose; definitions.
Sec. 2.
Congressional statement of policy.
Sec. 3.
Authorization of appropriations and allotments of grants.
Sec. 4.
Use of funds.
Sec. 5.
Payment of allotments to State agricultural experiment stations.
Sec. 6.
Publications of experiment stations.
Sec. 7.
Duties of Secretary; ascertainment of entitlement of State to funds; plans of work.
Sec. 8.
Relation of college or university to State unaffected; division of appropriations.
Sec. 9.
Power to amend, repeal, etc., reserved.
Sec. 10.
Short title.
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, 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.
^2
First Morrill Act. There is a compilation available of this Act.
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 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.C. 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 (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 less than 25 percent shall be allotted to the States for cooperative research employing multidisciplinary approaches in which a State agricultural experiment station, working with another State agricultural experiment station, the Agricultural Research Service, or a college or university, cooperates to solve problems that concern more than 1 State. The funds available under this paragraph, together with the funds available under subsection (b) for a similar purpose, shall be designated as the “Multistate Research Fund, State Agricultural Experiment Stations”.
(4)
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)

Matching Funds.—
(1)

Requirement.—
Except as provided in paragraph (4), no allotment shall be made to a State under subsection (b) or (c), and no payments from the allotment shall be made to a State, in excess of the amount that the State makes available out of non-Federal funds for agricultural research and for the establishment and maintenance of facilities for the performance of the research.
(2)

Failure to provide matching funds.—
If a State fails to comply with the requirement to provide matching funds for a fiscal year under paragraph (1), the Secretary of Agriculture shall withhold from payment to the State for that fiscal year an amount equal to the difference between—
(A)
the amount that would be allotted and paid to the State under subsections (b) and (c) (if the full amount of matching funds were provided by the State); and
(B)
the amount of matching funds actually provided by the State.
(3)

Reapportionment.—
(A)

In general.—
The Secretary of Agriculture shall reapportion amounts withheld under paragraph (2) for a fiscal year among the States satisfying the matching requirement for that fiscal year.
(B)

Matching requirement.—
Any reapportionment of funds under this paragraph shall be subject to the matching requirement specified in paragraph (1).
(4)

Exception for insular areas and the district of columbia.—
(A)

In general.—
Effective beginning for fiscal year 2003, in lieu of the matching funds requirement of paragraph (1), the insular areas of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands of the United States and the District of Columbia shall provide matching funds from non-Federal sources in an amount equal to not less than 50 percent of the formula funds distributed by the Secretary to each of the insular areas, respectively, and the District of Columbia under this section.
(B)

Waivers.—
The Secretary may waive the matching fund requirement of subparagraph (A) for any fiscal year if the Secretary determines that the government of the insular area or the District of Columbia will be unlikely to meet the matching requirement for the fiscal year.
(e)
“Administration” as used in this section shall include participation in planning and coordinating cooperative regional research as defined in subsection (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.
(h)

Peer Review.—
Research carried out under subsection (c)(3) shall be subject to scientific peer review. The review of a project conducted under this subsection shall be considered to satisfy the merit review requirements of section 103(e) of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. 7613(e)).
(i)

Integration of Research and Extension.—
(1)

In general.—
Not less than the applicable percentage specified under paragraph (2) of the Federal formula funds that are paid under this Act and subsections (b) and (c) of section 3 of the Smith-Lever Act (7 U.S.C. 343) to colleges and universities eligible to receive funds under the Act of July 2, 1862 (12 Stat. 503, chapter 130; 7 U.S.C. 301 et seq.), during a fiscal year shall be expended for activities that integrate cooperative research and extension (referred to in this subsection as “integrated activities”).
(2)

Applicable percentages.—
(A)

1997 expenditures on multistate activities.—
Of the Federal formula funds that were paid to each State for fiscal year 1997 under this Act and subsections (b) and (c) of section 3 of the Smith-Lever Act (7 U.S.C. 343), the Secretary of Agriculture shall determine the percentage that the State expended for integrated activities.
(B)

Required expenditures on multistate activities.—
Of the Federal formula funds that are paid to each State for fiscal year 2000 and each subsequent fiscal year under this Act and subsections (b) and (c) of section 3 of the Smith-Lever Act (7 U.S.C. 343), the State shall expend for the fiscal year for integrated activities a percentage that is at least equal to the lesser of—
(i)
25 percent; or
(ii)
twice the percentage for the State determined under subparagraph (A).
(C)

Reduction by secretary.—
The Secretary of Agriculture may reduce the minimum percentage required to be expended by a State for integrated activities under subparagraph (B) in a case of hardship, infeasibility, or other similar circumstance beyond the control of the State, as determined by the Secretary.
(3)

Applicability.—
This subsection does not apply to funds provided—
(A)
by a State or local government pursuant to a matching requirement;
(B)
to a 1994 Institution (as defined in section 532 of the Equity in Educational Land-Grant Status Act of 1994 (Public Law 103–382; 7 U.S.C. 301 note)); or
(C)
to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, or Guam.
(4)

Relationship to other requirements.—
Federal formula funds described in paragraph (1) that are used by a State for a fiscal year for integrated activities in accordance with paragraph (2)(B) may also be used to satisfy the multistate activities requirements of subsection (c)(3) of this section and section 3(h) of the Smith-Lever Act (7 U.S.C. 343(h)) for the same fiscal year.
Sec. 4.
[7 U.S.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 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.
[7 U.S.C. 361e]
Sums available for allotment to the States under the terms of this Act, excluding the Multistate Research Fund, State Agricultural Experiment Stations, 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 government 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 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.
[7 U.S.C. 361f]
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. Such publications may be mailed from the principal place of business of the station or from an established subunit of said station.
SEC. 7.
[7 U.S.C. 361g]

DUTIES OF SECRETARY; ASCERTAINMENT OF ENTITLEMENT OF STATE TO FUNDS; PLANS OF WORK.
(a)

Duties of Secretary.—
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.
(b)

Ascertainment of Entitlement.—
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.
(c)

Carryover.—
(1)

In general.—
The balance of any annual funds provided under this Act to a State agricultural experiment station for a fiscal year that remains unexpended at the end of the fiscal year may be carried over for use during the following fiscal year.
(2)

Failure to expend full allotment.—
(A)

In general.—
If any unexpended balance carried over by a State is not expended by the end of the second fiscal year, an amount equal to the unexpended balance shall be deducted from the next succeeding annual allotment to the State.
(B)

Redistribution.—
Federal funds that are deducted under subparagraph (A) for a fiscal year shall be redistributed by the Secretary in accordance with the formula set forth in section 3(c) to those States for which no deduction under subparagraph (A) has been taken for that fiscal year.
(d)

Plan of Work Required.—
Before funds may be provided to a State under this Act for any fiscal year, a plan of work to be carried out under this Act shall be submitted by the proper officials of the State and shall be approved by the Secretary of Agriculture.
(e)

Requirements Related to Plan of Work.—
Each plan of work for a State required under subsection (d) shall contain descriptions of the following:
(1)
A summary of planned projects or programs in the State using formula funds.
(2)
A description of the manner in which the State will meet the requirements of subsections (c)(3) and (i)(2) of section 3.
(3)
A description of matching funds provided by the State with respect to the previous fiscal year.
(f)

Research Protocols.—
(1)

Development.—
The Secretary of Agriculture shall develop protocols to be used to evaluate the success of multistate, multi-institutional, and multidisciplinary research activities and joint research and extension activities in addressing critical agricultural issues identified in the plans of work submitted under subsection (d).
(2)

Consultation.—
The Secretary of Agriculture shall develop the protocols in consultation with the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics Advisory Board established under section 1408 of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3123) and land-grant colleges and universities.
(g)

Treatment of Plans of Work for Other Purposes.—
To the maximum extent practicable, the Secretary shall consider a plan of work submitted under subsection (d) to satisfy other appropriate Federal reporting requirements.
Sec. 8.
[7 U.S.C. 361h]
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 shall be divided between such institutions as the legislature of such State shall direct.
Sec. 9.
[7 U.S.C. 361i]
The Congress may at any time, amend, suspend, or repeal any or all of the provisions of this Act.
SEC. 10.
[7 U.S.C. 361a note]

SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Hatch Act of 1887”.