Duties of Secretary; ascertainment of entitlement of State to funds; plans of work

The Secretary of Agriculture is charged with the responsibility for the proper administration of sections 361a to 361i of this title, 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 said sections, including participation in coordination of research initiated under said sections 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. On or before the first day of October in each year after the passage of sections 361a to 361i of this title, 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 said sections and the amount which thereupon each is entitled, respectively, to receive. The balance of any annual funds provided under sections 361a to 361i of this title 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. 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. 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 361c(c) of this title to those States for which no deduction under subparagraph (A) has been taken for that fiscal year. Before funds may be provided to a State under sections 361a to 361i of this title for any fiscal year, a plan of work to be carried out under sections 361a to 361i of this title shall be submitted by the proper officials of the State and shall be approved by the Secretary of Agriculture. Each plan of work for a State required under subsection (d) shall contain descriptions of the following: 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). The Secretary of Agriculture shall develop the protocols in consultation with the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics Advisory Board established under section 3123 of this title and land-grant colleges and universities. To the maximum extent practicable, the Secretary shall consider a plan of work submitted under subsection (d) to satisfy other appropriate Federal reporting requirements.