(a) Authorization

There are authorized to be appropriated for the purposes of sections 361a to 361i of this title such sums as Congress may from time to time determine to be necessary.

(b) Allotments to States; authorization of appropriations for Virgin Islands and Guam; limitation

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(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 sections 361a to 361i of this title, 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 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 sections 361a to 361i of this title, the amount available and budgeted for expenditure by the Virgin Islands and Guam for the purposes of such sections.

(c) Allotment of additional sums

Any sums made available by the Congress in addition to those provided for in subsection (b) of this section 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 sections 361a to 361i of this title. 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” defined

“Administration” as used in this section shall include participation in planning and coordinating cooperative regional research as defined in subsection (c)(3).

(f) Adjustment of payments

In making payments to States, the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to adjust any such payment to the nearest dollar.

(g) Reductions and reapportionments

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 sections 361a to 361i of this title, 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 7613(e) of this title.

(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 sections 361a to 361i of this title and subsections (b) and (c) of section 343 of this title 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 sections 361a to 361i of this title and subsections (b) and (c) of section 343 of this title, 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 sections 361a to 361i of this title and subsections (b) and (c) of section 343 of this title, 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 343(h) of this title for the same fiscal year.