NASULGC's Farm Bill Provisions

462. FAS Internships;
University-Assisted Funding

Summary

Authorizes a Foreign Agricultural Service internship program
for students in agriculture and related studies to serve as interns at FAS
posts outside the United
States. Authorizes funding of $1 million
per year.

Legislative
Language

SEC. 462. FAS INTERNSHIPS; UNIVERSITY-ASSISTED FUNDING.

(a) PURPOSE.—The purpose of
this section is to establish a new internship program to maintain and
strengthen the competitiveness of the United States in international
agricultural trade by authorizing the Foreign Agricultural Service to accept
students who are enrolled in agriculture and related studies in colleges and
universities in the United States to serve as interns for limited terms at
FAS posts outside the United States.

(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this
section:

(1) COLLEGE OR
UNIVERSITY.—the term “college or university” means an
institution of higher education as defined in section 102(a) of the Higher
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002(a)); and

(2) FAS.—the term
“FAS” means the Foreign Agricultural Service of the Department of
Agriculture.

(c) MEMORANDA OF
UNDERSTANDING.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Each internship shall be planned and administered in
accordance with a memorandum of understanding between the FAS officer-in-
charge at the post and an appropriate senior academic official of the college
or university where the intern is a student.

(2) CONTENTS.—In order to
assure maximum benefit to the FAS office, the intern, the college or
university, the United States Government, and the United States citizens served by
the FAS, the memorandum shall—

(A) establish the procedures and
terms that will be followed in the relationship between the FAS and the
college or university over a multi- year period;

(B) assign specific goals for the
internship, and responsibility for the supervision of the intern and for the
evaluation of the intern’s performance; and

(C) contain
the assurances described in subsection (e)(2) in a manner satisfactory to the
FAS.

(3) SUPERVISION.—The
responsibility for supervising and evaluating the work of an intern may be
shared, at the discretion of the FAS officer-in-charge, with non-US citizens
employed by the FAS, faculty from the cooperating college or university, or
other Federal Government personnel outside the FAS.

(4) EXCHANGE OF LETTERS.--In the
absence of a multi-year memorandum of understanding, a single internship of a
specific student may be arranged through an exchange of letters between the
FAS officer-in-charge at post and the appropriate senior academic official at
the student’s college or university, specifying the terms of the
internship.

(5) MULTIPLE AGREEMENTS.--An FAS
officer-in-charge may accept interns under memoranda of understanding with
more than one college or university, and a college or university may have
entered into memoranda of understanding with more than one FAS post. Groups
of colleges or universities may jointly enter into memoranda of understanding
with one FAS post for the placement of interns.

(d) FAS DUTIES.—The
officer-in-charge at the FAS post shall—

(1) provide the intern with work
supervision, work space, support for security clearance, credentials, and
other requirements to perform the assigned tasks for the FAS;

(2) assist an intern, when
possible, in identifying local housing and transportation that may be
available at reduced or no cost; and

(3) prepare
interns for their expected FAS responsibilities based upon planning between
the FAS posts and cooperating universities.

(e) UNIVERSITY DUTIES.—The
college or university shall—

(1) select the intern, with the
concurrence of the FAS, and

(2) provide satisfactory
assurances to the FAS officer-in-charge at the foreign post that the intern
has or will be provided sufficient financial resources to cover round-trip
international airfare to the post, medical insurance while at the post, costs
of food and lodging, local travel costs to and from the post, and any
applicable stipend, as agreed upon by the FAS and the college or university.

(f) AUTHORIZATION OF
APPROPRIATIONS.—There are authorized to be
appropriated to carry out this section not to exceed $1,000,000 for each of
the fiscal years 2008 through 2014. Not more than 10 percent of funds
appropriated to carry out this section in any fiscal year may be used to pay
administrative expenses of the FAS.