The Director, subject to the policy direction of the Board, is authorized to make grants to museums to increase and improve museum services, through such activities as—
(1) programs to enable museums to construct or install displays, interpretations, and exhibitions in order to improve their services to the public;
(2) assisting them in developing and maintaining professionally-trained or otherwise experienced staff to meet their needs;
(3) assisting them to meet their administrative costs in preserving and maintaining their collections, exhibiting them to the public, and providing educational programs to the public through the use of their collections;
(4) assisting museums in cooperation with each other in the development of traveling exhibitions, meeting transportation costs, and identifying and locating collections available for loan;
(5) assisting them in conservation of their collections; and
(6) developing and carrying out specialized programs for specific segments of the public, such as programs for urban neighborhoods, rural areas, Indian reservations, and penal and other State institutions.
(1) The Director, subject to the policy direction of the National Museum Services Board, is authorized to enter into contracts and cooperative agreements to provide financial assistance in order to undertake projects designed to strengthen museum services, except that any contracts or cooperative agreements entered into pursuant to this subsection shall be effective only to such extent or in such amounts as are provided in appropriations Acts.
(2) No financial assistance may be provided under this subsection to pay for operational expenses.
(3) The aggregate amount of financial assistance made under this subsection shall not exceed 5 percent of the amount appropriated under this subchapter for such fiscal year.
Grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements under this section for any fiscal year may not exceed 50 per centum of the cost of the program for which the grant or financial assistance is made, except that not more than 20 per centum of the funds available under this section for any fiscal year may be available for grants or financial assistance in such fiscal year without regard to such limitation.
The Director shall establish procedures for reviewing and evaluating grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements made or entered into under this section. Procedures for reviewing grant applications or contracts and cooperative agreements for financial assistance under this section shall not be subject to any review outside of the Institute.
(Pub. L. 94–462, title II, §206, Oct. 8, 1976, 90 Stat. 1977; Pub. L. 96–496, title II, §201(d), Dec. 4, 1980, 94 Stat. 2592; Pub. L. 101–512, title III, §318 [title II, §203], Nov. 5, 1990, 104 Stat. 1960, 1975.)
1990—Subsec. (a)(5). Pub. L. 101–512, §318 [title II, §203(a)], substituted “their collections” for “artifacts and art objects”.
Subsec. (b)(1). Pub. L. 101–512, §318 [title II, §203(b)(1)], substituted “agreements to provide financial assistance in order to undertake projects” for “agreements with professional museum organizations to provide financial assistance to such organizations in order to enable such organizations to undertake projects”.
Subsec. (b)(2). Pub. L. 101–512, §318 [title II, §203(b)(2)], struck out subpar. (A) which read: “No financial assistance may be provided under this subsection for any project for a period in excess of one year.” and struck out subpar. (B) designation before “No financial assistance”, “the” before “operational expenses”, and “of any professional museum organization” after “operational expenses”.
Subsec. (b)(3). Pub. L. 101–512, §318 [title II, §203(b)(3)], struck out “to professional museum organizations” before “shall not exceed”.
Subsec. (b)(4). Pub. L. 101–512, §318 [title II, §203(b)(4)], struck out par. (4) which defined “professional museum organization” for purposes of this subsection.
1980—Subsecs. (b), (c). Pub. L. 96–496, §201(d)(1), (2), added subsec. (b), redesignated former subsec. (b) as (c), and as so redesignated inserted “, contracts, and cooperative agreements” and “or financial assistance” in two places.
Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 96–496, §201(d)(3), added subsec. (d).
Amendment by Pub. L. 101–512 effective Oct. 1, 1990, see section 318 [title IV, §403(a)] of Pub. L. 101–512, set out as a note under section 951 of this title.
Pub. L. 98–146, title II, Nov. 4, 1983, 97 Stat. 949, provided in part: “That regulations of the Institute shall require (1) an appeal process for applications rejected because of technical deficiency, (2) reconsideration of applications upon receipt of materials in a timely manner if the application was rejected because material did not accompany the application, and (3) waivers of certain records under circumstances which would require such waivers: Provided further, That no regulations may be established that prohibit grants to any institution which is a recipient of a challenge grant from either the National Endowment for the Arts or the National Endowment for the Humanities.”
Similar provisions were contained in the following prior appropriation act:
Pub. L. 97–394, Dec. 30, 1982, 96 Stat. 1994.
This section is referred to in section 967 of this title.