§7751 Cooperation

Summary

The Secretary may work with other U.S. agencies, state and local governments, foreign governments, groups, or people at home or abroad to carry out the chapter. Anyone working with the Secretary must have the legal authority to do work on all lands in the foreign country or State except lands owned or controlled by the United States, and must have any other facilities or tools the Secretary requires. The Secretary can give biological pest-control methods that use organisms to States, federal agencies, or others. The Secretary can also help run programs to improve plants, plant products, and biological control organisms. The Secretary must handle import and export plant-health issues using sound science and following international agreements. To do that, the Secretary can negotiate directly with foreign plant-health officials, give technical help and training to countries that ask for it, and keep plant-health and quarantine experts posted in other countries to help set up systems, assist with protection work, and act as liaisons. A State may pass on cost-sharing or financing it gets from a cooperative agreement with the Secretary to a local government. To qualify, the local government must be working on the pest problems covered by the agreement and be able to document the pest-control activities it carries out like the USDA or the State agriculture department would.