An Act to provide for further effectuating the act of May 15, 1862, through the exchange of employees of the United States Department of Agriculture and employees of State political subdivisions or educational institutions.
PL 84-918 (S.1915), enacted 08/02/1956

934 
PUBLIC L,AW 918-AUG. 2, 1956 
[70 ST A T , 
August 2, 1956 
TS. 1915] 
Public Law 918 
CHAPTER 878 
AN ACT 
To provide for further effectuating the Act of May 15,1862, through the exchange 
of employees of the United States Department of Agriculture and employees 
of State political subdivisions or educational institutions. 
Agriculture. 
Dissemination of 
Information. 
Definitions. 
I n t e r c hange of 
en^loyees. 
Department e m -
ployees. 
Salary and leave 
rights. 
46 Stat. 468. 
5 u s e 691 notes. 
68 Stat. 736. 
5 u s e 2091 note. 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and Houm of Representatives 
of the 
United States of Ainerica in Congress assembled, That the Congress 
hereby declares that the objectives of this Act are to aid in the dis-
semination of useful information on subjects connected with agricul-
ture 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; "Sec-
retary" shall mean Secretary of the United States Department of 
Agriculture; and "State" shall mean a State, county, city, municipal-
ity, 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 De-
partment and the State involved. 
Employees who are in a leave-
of-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 
w^ho 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 insurance under 
the Federal Employee's Group Life Insurance Act of 1954, 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 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 
70 S T A T . ] 
PUBLIC LAW 919-AUG. 2, 1956 
9S« 
Travel expenses.. 
State employees.. 
63 Stat., 954. 
5 u s e 1071 note. 
amended (5 U. S. C , sec. 790), as though he were an employee, as 
^3 stat. seo. 
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 Kegulations, 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. 
SEO. 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 con-
sidered 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 
employees of the Department, except as provided in section 7, nor shall 
they be paid a salary or wage by the Department during the period 
of their detail. 
The supervision of the duties of such employees dur-
ing the assignment may be governed by agreement between the Depart-
ment and the State involved. 
SEC. 7. (a) Any State employee who is assigned to the Department 
without appointment shall nevertheless be subject to the provisions 
of sections 281, 283, 284, 434, 1902, 1905, and 1914 of title 18 of the ^g62stat.697,703. 
United States Code and section 99, title 5, of the United States Code. 
(b) Any State employee who is given an appointment while assigned 
to the Department or who is assigned to the Department without 
appointment and who suffers disability or death as a result of personal 
injury arising out of and in the course of such assignment, or sus-
tained in the performance of duties in connection therewith shall be 
treated, for the purpose 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 as a State 
employee. 
SEC. 8. The appropriations of the Department shall be available in 
accordance with the Standardized Government Travel Regulations, 
as amended, for the payment of expenses of travel of persons assigned 
to, but not given appointments by, the Department under authority 
of this Act during the periods of such assignments on the same basis 
as if they were employees of the Department. 
Approved August 2, 1956. 
63 
Stat. 860. 
Travel 
expenses. 
Public Law 919 
CHAPTER 879 
AN ACT 
To further protect and assure the privacy of grand or petit juries in the courts 
of the United States while such juries are deliberating or voting. 
August 2, 1956 
IS. 2887] 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That chapter 73 o:^ 
Grand or petit 
62 Stat. 769.