§3732 Postgraduation Recruitment, Education and Training Programs

Summary

The Secretary must create and run a program to recruit Indian professionals who finished college or graduate school to work in Bureau agricultural programs or, if the tribe agrees, in tribal agricultural programs. Under rules the Secretary sets, the program will hire these professionals and pay off their outstanding student loans. The time they must work for the program depends on how big the loan is. The Secretary must also run cooperative internship and training programs so Bureau, tribal, and other federal agricultural staff can learn skills and work together. Internships let Bureau and Indian employees work in other Interior Department agencies and let personnel from other agencies (with more than six years of federal service) work in the Bureau or, with tribal consent, in tribal programs. Originating federal agencies keep paying salary and benefits for their employees, host agencies pay salary and benefits for Indian employees, and participants may get a bonus after the internship. The Secretary must keep a Trust Services Division program that gives orientation on tribal–federal relations, ongoing technical agricultural education, and training in agricultural businesses and marketing.