Method of Determining Whether States Have Contributed 40 Percent of the Total Expenditures for Brucellosis Eradication Program

The Secretary of Agriculture requested a decision concerning the wording of the 1979 appropriation act. The Secretary believed the act allowed a change in the method used to determine the percentage of funds required for matching by the States. Since 1967, the Department of Agriculture (DOA) has interpreted the annual appropriation provision requiring minimum matching "by any State" of at least 40 percent to mean the accumulation of all contributions by a State since 1963 in determining whether the matching requirement for the brucellosis program has been met. For 1979, the provision was changed to require matching "by the States" on a 60/40 basis. The DOA believed that this change authorized aggregation of all State contributions since 1963 rather than on a state-by-state basis. GAO disagreed because legislative intent does not support this interpretation by the DOA. GAO will not object to an aggregation of all State contributions for the fiscal year in question, however, for the following reasons: the provision applies to only one fiscal year, many States have contributed in past years over and above the required matching share, and the Federal Government will not be obliged to assume more than its share of the cost of the program. Nevertheless, it was suggested that DOA should seek Congressional clarification of the scope of the matching requirement for application in future years.