Table 17.-FEDERAL FUNDS ALLOTTED TO THE STATES FOR VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION FOR THE 1949-50 SCHOOL YEAR EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS OF THE IMPROVEMEN IMPROVEMENT of agricultural production was one of the dominant purposes of Congress in establishing the United States Department of Agriculture. Accomplishment of this purpose depends largely upon education and consequently the Department has shown significant interest in education throughout the years of its operations. The Department operates five substantial programs related to education which require the allocation of approximately $140,000,000 of Federal money annually. In addition, it conducts numerous other activities in the field of education. One of these, the United States Department of Agriculture Graduate School located in Washington, D. C., serves about 6,000 students. This school is almost entirely self-supporting and does not require the outlay of any significant amount of Federal money. The five programs in which large amounts of Federal money are allocated for educational programs are described briefly in the following sections. AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS Agricultural Experiment Stations, which are units of the land-grant colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts, have received Federal aid under several congressional acts for operating expenses. The earliest was approved in 1887 and the latest one in 1946. The first three enactments provided "flat grants" to the States. These were approved in 1887, 1906, and 1925, respectively. Additional Federal aid, in excess of the annual "flat grant" of $90,000 per State (except Alaska) approved prior to 1935, has been allocated for the most part on a matching basis. FEDERAL GRANTS-IN-AID In 1887 the Hatch Act was passed. It provides that an appropriation of $15,000 may be made each year for each State or Territory, then established or to be established, to "aid in acquiring and diffusing among the people of the United States useful and practical information on subjects connected with agriculture, and to promote scientific investigation and experiment respecting principles and application of agricultural science." The law makes it the duty of the United States Department of Agriculture to coordinate the work and to disseminate research findings of the experiment stations. The law also places certain responsibilities upon the recipients of the grants. For example, each State is required to file annual reports with the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Treasury of the United States and to prepare and publish special reports at regular intervals. The second law, the Adams Act, was passed in 1906. It increased the amount of Federal Government aid for research by agricultural experiment stations. The annual appropriation per State or Territory (except Alaska) is $15,000. By its wording, this law provides for continuing appropriations. However, since it is considered as supplementary to the Hatch Act which does not so provide, the Congress makes annual appropriations for the amounts specified by both acts. The law of 1906 also increased the duties of the United States Department of Agriculture with respect to the administration of these funds. Nearly two decades elapsed after the passage of the Adams Act before additional funds, exceeding the previously approved $30,000 per State, were provided by a third law. In 1925, the Purnell Act was passed. It authorizes an additional flat grant of $60,000 to be apportioned annually for agricultural experiment station work in each State or Territory. The Secretary of Agriculture is charged with the proper administration of the law. The Bankhead-Jones Act of 1935 is the fourth law under which Federal Government funds are provided for State agricultural experiment stations. The amounts authorized to be appropriated increased annually until 1940. In 1936, the first year the law was in operation, the total amount authorized for distribution to the States and Territories was $600,000. In 1937 it was $1,200,000, and it continued to increase by $600,000 each year for 3 more years, when the annual amount became fixed at $3,000,000. However, appropriations have not equalled the authorizations in any year since 1938. They totaled $2,863,708 in the 1949-50 school year. These allocations to the States are in addition to the funds appropriated under the three earlier laws. The allocations are contingent upon an annual appropriation authorization. Unlike the earlier acts, however, this one provides that most of the funds shall be allotted to each State and Territory in the same proportion that the rural population of each is to the total rural population of the entire 48 States and 3 Territories. Furthermore, it provided that no allotment or payment of funds shall be made to a given State or Territory in excess of the amount the area makes available from its own funds for experiment station work. Because of this apportionment plan, allotments under the Bankhead-Jones Act vary considerably among the States. For example, during the 1949-50 school year, Alaska received the smallest allotment, $2,628, while Texas received the largest amount, $173,213. The average allotment per State or Territory was $56,151. An amendment to the Bankhead-Jones Act of 1935 which was enacted in 1946, as part of the Research and Marketing Act of 1946, authorizes additional appropriations for research by agricultural experiment stations in the States and Territories up to a total of $20,000,000 or such additional sums as Congress may deem appropriate. The first appropriation under the amendment was made for the 194748 school year and totaled $2,500,000. This act provides that 20 percent of the appropriation in any year shall be expended for marketing research. This act also established an entirely new formula for allotment of funds to the State agricultural experiment stations. It provides that 20 percent of the amount appropriated in any year shall be distributed equally among the 48 States and 3 Territories; 26 percent shall be distributed on the basis of relative rural population; and 26 percent shall be distributed to each State and Territory in the same proportion that the farm population of each is to the total farm population of the entire 48 States and 3 Territories. All of the above 72 percent of appropriations must be matched in full by the States. Twenty-five percent of the appropriation in any year may be allotted on the basis of research proposals for regional research projects which must be cooperative between at least two State stations. Allotments under this 25 percent of the appropriation, known as Regional Research Fund, are based upon recommendations of a committee of nine persons representing the State agricultural experiment stations. This Fund is not distributed on the basis of any prescribed formula. The remaining 3 percent of the appropriation in any year is available to the Office of Experiment Stations, Department of Agriculture for administration. The Regional Research Fund and the amounts for administration need not be matched. The total appropriation under the 1946 amendment to the Bankhead-Jones Act for the 1949-50 school year was $5,000,000 of which $3,600,000, or 72 percent, was allotted by formula to the 48 States, Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. Alaska and Texas were low and high with allotments under this appropriation of $20,920 and $185,537, respectively. The average allotment per State was $70,588 for the 1949-50 school year. Total amounts allotted for State agricultural experiment stations in accordance with the provisions of the five acts are presented for recent years in table 18. Allotments to individual States for the 1948-49 school year are presented in column 3 of table 3, and those for the 1949-50 school year are listed in table 19. It should be noted that amounts allotted to the State agricultural experiment stations for cooperative regional research are not included Table 18.-FEDERAL FUNDS ALLOTTED TO AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS 1944-45-1949-5012 Total... Hatch Act 1887. Adams Act 1906. Purnell Act 1925. $7, 001, 207. 08 $7, 206, 208 $8,950, 807.90 $9, 703, 707. 59 811, 006, 207. 84 1 Table excludes amounts allotted from Regional Research Fund and from title II of the Research and Marketing Act. Data supplied by the Department of Agriculture, Office of Experiment Stations. Table 19.-FEDERAL FUNDS ALLOTTED TO THE STATES FOR AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS, FOR THE 1949-50 SCHOOL YEAR12 1 Table excludes amounts allotted from Regional Research Fund and from title II of the Research and Marketing Act. Data supplied by the Department of Agriculture, office of Experiment Stations. |