The Cooperative Extension System
Smith-Lever Act
Established in 1914, Cooperative Extension was designed as a
partnership to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the land-
grant universities, which were authorized by the Federal Morill
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
University and sixteen 1890 land-grant universities. The
provisions of the Act, in effect as of November 28, 1990, are
shown below.
SEC. 1. In order to aid in diffusing among the people of the
United States useful and practical information on
subjects relating to agriculture, home economics, and
rural energy, 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 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.
SEC. 2. 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, home economic% 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.
SEC. 3a. 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
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 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.
SEC. 4. 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. The Secretary shall ensure
that each college seeking to receive funds under this
Act has in place appropriate guidelines, as determined
by the Secretary, to minimize actual or potential
conflicts of interest among employees of such colleges
whose salaries are funded in whole or in part with such
funds. 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.
SEC. 5. 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. 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. 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.
SEC. 7. Repealed. (Dealt with an annual report to Congress.)
SEC. 8a. 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.
SEC. 9. 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. 10.1 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.)
'P.L. 96-374, Section 1361(c) states: Any provision of any Act of
Congress relating to the operation or provision of assistance to a
land-grant college in the Virgin Islands or Guam shall apply to the
land-grant college in American Samoa and in Micronesia in the same manner
and to the same extent