§3243 Hispanic-serving Agricultural Colleges and Universities

Summary

Creates a Hispanic-Serving Agricultural Colleges and Universities Fund (the “endowment fund”) and spells out how money goes in, how it is invested, and how income is paid out. The U.S. Treasury must put any appropriated amounts and the interest they earn into the fund and invest the money in U.S. interest-bearing obligations. The fund’s principal (corpus) cannot be spent. On September 30, 2008, and each September 30 after that, Treasury must withdraw that year’s income and send it to the Agriculture Secretary. After paying administration costs, 60 percent of the income goes to the schools based on each school’s Hispanic student count and 40 percent is split equally among the schools. For fiscal year 2008 and each year after, Congress may fund the program. The Agriculture Department is authorized $80,000 times the number of Hispanic-serving agricultural colleges and universities each year; Treasury must pay each school an equal share (which works out to $80,000 per school). The Agriculture Secretary must also make competitive capacity-building grants (not for building construction) that require applications, proof of need, efforts to get other funding, and a non‑Federal match set by the Secretary. The Secretary must also run competitive grants for research, extension, and training in agriculture, human nutrition, food science, bioenergy, and environmental science.