REPEAL OF SPECIAL AUTHORITIES

Section 403.-This section repeals other employee mobility authorities with the exception of section 314(f) of the Public Health Service Act relating to Commission officers of the Public Health Service.

EFFECTIVE DATE

Section 404.-This section sets the effective date of this title at 60 days after enactment.

TITLE V-GENERAL PROVISIONS

DECLARATION OF PURPOSE

Section 501.-This section sets forth the purpose of this title, which is to provide for the general administration of titles I, II, III, and V of the act, and to provide for the establishment of certain advisory committees.

DEFINITIONS

Section 502.-This section defines, for the purposes of the act, the terms, "Commission", "Federal agency", "State", "local government", and "general local government".

GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS

Section 503.-This section provides that, unless otherwise specifically provided, the Commission shall administer the act, and shall furnish such advice and assistance to State and local governments as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of the act.

In the performance of, and with respect to, the functions, powers, and duties vested in it by the act, the Commission is authorized by subsection (c) to issue standards and regulations necessary to carry out the purposes of the act; to consent to the modification of any contract entered into under the act; to include in any such contracts those covenants, conditions, or provisions the Commission deems necessary to assure that the purposes of the act will be achieved; and to enter into agreements with any Federal agency, State or local government, or other public or nonprofit agency or institution, for the use (on a reimbursable, nonreimbursable, or other basis) of their services and facilities.

Subsection (d) authorizes the Commission to collect information from time to time with respect to State and local government training and personnel administration programs under the act; to make such information available to interested public or private groups, organizations, or agencies; and to conduct research and make evaluations as needed for the efficient administration of the act. In addition, subsection (d) requires the Commission to include a report on the administration of the act in its annual report.

Section 503 further provides that the act's provisions are not a limitation on existing authorities under other statutes. Unless specifically provided otherwise, the act's provisions are in addition to such authorities.

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

Section 504.-This section provides that reports and evaluations shall be made by those State or local government offices designated to administrater an approved program under the act. Such reports and evaluations will be made in such form, at such times, and containing such information concerning the status and use of Federal funds and the operation of the program as may be required by the Commission. In addition, the section requires that such designated State and local government offices keep and make available such records as the Commission may require for the verification of the reports. Similar requirements apply to organizations receiving training grants.

REVIEW AND AUDIT

Section 505.-This section requires grant recipients, for the purpose of audit and examination by the Commission, the head of the Federal agency concerned, and the Comptroller General of the United States, to permit access to any books, documents, papers, and records that are pertinent to the grants received.

DISTRIBUTION OF GRANTS

Section 506.-Subsection (a) provides that the Commission shall allocate 20 percent o the amount available for grants under this act in the most equitable fashion among State and between State and local governments taking into account the population of the recipient jurisdiction, the number of employees affected, the urgency of the program, the need for funds, and the potential of the particular jurisdiction to use the funds most effectively.

Subsection (b) states that 80 percent of the total funds available for grants in each fiscal year shall be apportioned as a weighted formula among the States, taking into consideration such factors as size of population and the number of State and local employees affected. The minimum allocation for local governments shall be 50 percent of the amount allocated to the State. Any unused allocations of such funds may be reallocated by the Commission. Total payments to any one State in any one fiscal year may not exceed 12%1⁄2 percent of the total appropriation for that year.

TERMINATION OF GRANTS

Section 507.-This section authorizes the Commission to terminate payments made by the Commission under the act to a State or local government whenever it finds, after giving the government concerned reasonable notice and opportunity for a hearing, that a program approved under the act has been so changed that it no longer complies with the provisions of the act or that in the operation of the program there is a failure to comply substantially with the provisions of the act.

The government concerned shall be notified by the Commission of its finding before payments are terminated. The Commission may. however, authorize the continuance of payments to those projects which are not involved in the noncompliance. The Commission is

also authorized to resume payments when it is satisfied that such noncompliance has been, or will promptly be, corrected.

ADVISORY COMMITTEES

Section 508.-This section authorizes the Commission to appoint, without regard to the provisions governing appointments in the competitive service, advisory committees to facilitate the administration of this act.

Subsection (b) provides that members of such committees who are not full-time employees of the United States may be compensated at rates not to exceed the daily rate for GS-18 employees, including travel and per diem, while serving on the business of the committees.

APPROPRIATION AUTHORIZATION

Section 509.-This section authorizes such sums to be appropriated as are necessary to carry out the programs authorized by this act without fiscal year limitation.

REVOLVING FUND

Section 510.-This section establishes, within the Commission, a revolving fund for financing functions authorized by the act to be performed on a reimbursable basis, and such other services as the Commission, with the concurrence of the Bureau of the Budget, determines may be performed more advantageously through such a fund

The capital of this fund shall consist of appropriations made for this purpose, as well as unexpended balances of appropriations or funds of activities transferred to the fund and the reasonable value of other assets transferred to the fund. Reimbursements or advance payments made by Federal agencies, the Commission, from State and local governments, or other sources, for supplies and services will be credited to the fund, at rates approximating the expenses of operations. Unobligated and unexpended funds determined by the Commission to be in excess of amounts needed for its operations shall be deposited in the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts.

LIMITATIONS ON AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS FOR COST SHARING

Section 511.-This section provides that State or local governments, in meeting their share of the costs under this act's grant provisions, may not use Federal funds made available to them under other programs, or funds they have used to meet their share of the costs on other federally assisted programs, except that Federal funds of a program wholly financed by Federal funds may be used to pay a pro rata share of such cost sharing.

METHOD OF PAYMENT

Section 512.-This section authorizes the Commission to pay or accept payments under this act in installments and in advance or by reimbursement. The Commission is authorized to determine the specific method of payment to be employed in a particular case.

EFFECTIVE DATE OF GRANT PROVISIONS

Section 513.-This section provides that the effective date of the grant provisions of this act shall be 180 days after its enactment.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST-EXEMPTION

Section 514.-This section provides a special exemption from the provisions of section 207 (a) and (b) of title 18, United States Code, relating to conflicts of interest. It provides that nothing in the aforesaid subsections (a) and (b) shall prevent a former officer or employee, including a special Government employee, from acting or appearing personally as agent or attorney for a unit of State or local government, or two or more such units, if (i) the former officer or employee is a full-time officer or employee of such unit or units; and (ii) the head of the department or agency concerned with the matter shall certify that in his opinion the interest of the Government will not be prejudiced by such action or appearance by the former officer or employee.

CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

In compliance with subsection 4 of rule XXIX of the Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by the bill, as reported, are shown as follows (existing law proposed to be omitted is enclosed in brackets, new matter is printed in italic, and existing law in which no change is proposed is shown in roman):

The bill repeals the act of August 2, 1956, as amended (7 U.S.C. 1881-1888).

Act of August 2, 1956 (7 U.S.C. 1881-1888)

[Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of American in Congress assembled, That the Congress hereby declares that the objectives of this Act are to aid in the dissemination of useful information on subjects connected with agriculture and to provide a means whereby the Government of the United States and the several States may better cooperate in problems arising as a result of the interrelationships of their work in the field of agriculture.

[SEC. 2. For the purposes of this Act, the term "Department" shall be deemed to mean United States Department of Agriculture; "Secretary" shall mean Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture; and "State" shall mean a State, county, city, municipality, land-grant college, or a college or university operated by any State or local government.

[SEC. 3. In carrying out this Act, the Secretary is authorized through cooperative agreements or otherwise to provide for the interchange of employees of the Department and employees of States. The period of assignment under such an interchange arrangement shall not exceed two years.

[SEC. 4. Employees of the Department participating in an exchange of personnel as authorized in section 3 may be considered during such participation to be (1) on detail to a regular work assignment of the Department, or (2) in a status of leave-of-absence from their positions in the Department. Employees who are considered to be detailed

shall be entitled to the same salary and benefits to which they would otherwise be entitled and shall remain employees of the Department for all other purposes except that the supervision of their duties during the period of detail may be governed by agreement between the Department and the State involved. Employees who are in a leaveof-absence status as provided herein shall be carried on leave without pay: Provided, That they may be granted annual leave to the extent authorized by law and may be granted authorized sick leave only in circumstances considered by the Secretary to justify approval of such leave. Except as otherwise provided in this Act, such employees shall have the same rights, benefits, and obligations as employees generally who are in such leave status but notwithstanding any other provision of law such employees shall be entitled to credit the period of such assignment (1) toward periodic and longevity step-increases, and (2) upon payment into the retirement fund of the percentage of their State salary which would have been deducted from a like Federal salary for the period of such assignment, to credit such period as service within the meaning of the Civil Service Retirement Act; and they shall also be entitled to continuation of their benefits under the Federal Employee's Group Life Insurance Act of 1954 and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Act of 1959, so long as the Department continues to collect the employee's contribution from the employee and to transmit for timely deposit into the employees' life insurance fund or the employees' health benefits fund, as the case may be, the amount of the employee's contribution, and the Government's contribution from Department appropriations. Any employee who participates in an exchange under the terms of this section who suffers disability or death as a result of personal injury arising out of and in the course of an exchange, or sustained in the performance of duties in connection therewith shall be treated, for the purposes of the Federal Employees' Compensation Act, as amended (5 U.S.C., sec. 790), as though he were an employee, as defined in such Act, who had sustained such injury in the performance of such duty, but shall not receive benefits under that Act for any period for which he elects to receive similar benefits from a State agency.

[SEC. 5. Appropriations of the Department shall be available, in accordance with Standardized Government Travel Regulations, as amended, for the expenses of travel of employees assigned to States on either a detail or leave basis, expenses of transportation of their immediate families and expenses of transportation of their household goods and personal effects to the location of the posts of assignment and for such expenses for the return of employees to their official stations, but shall not be available for expenses of travel of the employees during such period of assignment.

[SEC. 6. Employees of States who are assigned to the Department under authority of this Act may (1) be given appointments in the Department covering the periods of such assignments, or (2) be considered to be on detail to the Department. Appointments of persons so assigned may be made without regard to the civil-service laws or regulations. Persons given appointment in the Department shall be paid at rates of compensation in accordance with the Classification Act of 1949, as amended. State employees who are assigned to the Department without appointment shall not be considered to be