40 U.S.C. § 549 — Donation of personal property through state agencies

(a) Definitions.
(1) “Public agency” means (A) a State; (B) a State political subdivision, including a local-government unit or economic-development district; (C) a State department, agency, or instrumentality, including one created by an agreement among States or political subdivisions; or (D) an Indian tribe, band, group, pueblo, or community on a State reservation.
(2) “State” means a United States State, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, or American Samoa.
(3) “State agency” means an agency designated by State law to distribute fairly and equitably, by donation, property transferred under this section.

(b) Authorization.
(1) In general. At the Administrator’s discretion and under regulations the Administrator prescribes, the Administrator may transfer paragraph (2) property to a state agency.
(2) Property. This means personal property that (A) an executive agency controls and (B) has determined is surplus. In deciding whether to transfer property for donation, the Administrator may not distinguish property capitalized in a title 10 section 2208 working-capital fund, or a similar fund, from other property.
(3) No cost. The transfer is free, except for care and handling costs.

(c) Allocation and transfer.
(1) The Administrator must allocate and transfer property using need-and-use criteria, established after consulting state agencies when feasible. The Administrator must fairly consider, under those criteria, a public agency’s or other eligible institution’s statement of need and interest in the State, and give special consideration to an eligible recipient’s request for a specific item sent through the state agency.
(2) Property must be allocated among States fairly and equitably, considering its condition and original acquisition cost.
(3) The Administrator must transfer to a state agency property it selects for donation within the State: (A) to a public agency for a public purpose for residents of a political area, including conservation, economic development, education, parks and recreation, public health, or public safety; (B) for education or public health, including research, to a tax-exempt nonprofit educational or public-health institution or organization under section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code, including (i) a medical institution, hospital, clinic, health center, or drug-abuse treatment center; (ii) a provider assisting homeless people or people or families below the poverty line as defined in section 673 of the Community Services Block Grant Act; (iii) a school, college, or university; (iv) a school for people with intellectual or physical disabilities; (v) a child-care center; (vi) an FCC-licensed educational radio or television station; (vii) a public-attended museum, which the Administrator must treat as public if the nonprofit institution or organization at least grants any business-hours access request; (viii) a free library serving all residents of a community, district, State, or region; or (ix) a historic light station defined in section 305101(4) of title 54, including one conveyed under section 305103, regardless of how many hours it is open; or (C) to an organization providing veterans’ services, where membership is substantially veterans and its representatives are recognized by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs under section 5902 of title 38.
(4) This subsection does not apply to property transferred under subsection (d).

(d) Department of Defense property.
(1) The Secretary of Defense must decide whether surplus personal property controlled by the Department of Defense is usable and necessary for educational activities of special interest to the armed services, including maritime academies and military, naval, Air Force, or Coast Guard preparatory schools.
(2) If it is, the Secretary must allocate it for the Administrator to transfer to the appropriate state agency for donation to those activities.
(3) If it is not, the property may be disposed of under subsection (c).

(e) State plan of operation.
(1) Before property can be transferred to a state agency, the State must create a detailed plan under this subsection and State law.
(2) Procedure. (A) The plan must consider the relative needs and resources of all public agencies and eligible institutions. The Administrator may consult interested Federal agencies. (B) The plan or major amendment may not be filed until 60 days after general notice is published and interested people have had at least 30 days to comment. (C) The State’s chief executive officer must certify and submit it to the Administrator.
(3) Requirements. The plan must assure that the state agency has (A) organizational and operating authority and capacity, including staff, facilities, and financing, and procedures for accountability, audits, cooperative agreements, compliance and use reviews, equitable distribution and disposal, eligibility, and help through advisory bodies and public and private groups; (B) fair distribution based on relative needs, resources, and ability to use the property; (C) control and accounting systems like those State law requires for State property, unless the chief executive approves other effective systems; (D) return and redistribution when usable property is not used for its donated purpose within one year, or stops being so used within one year after use begins; (E) selection, when practicable, of property requested by an eligible State recipient and, if requested, direct shipment; (F) a fair, equitable, service-based method for any charges covering direct and reasonable indirect costs, including screening, packing, crating, removal, and transportation; (G) reasonable use terms, conditions, reservations, and restrictions, with mandatory such controls for passenger vehicles and items costing $5,000 or more per unit, plus any special handling limits the Administrator imposes; and (H) disposal of unusable property either, subject to the Administrator’s disapproval within 30 days after notice, by transfer to another state agency or abandonment/destruction when it has no commercial value or care and handling would cost more than sale proceeds, or under this subtitle as the Administrator directs. The Administrator may reimburse care and handling expenses from sale proceeds despite subchapter IV and section 702.

(f) Cooperative agreements.
(1) A cooperative agreement may be made between the state surplus-property distribution agency and (A) the Administrator; (B) the Secretary of Education for property under section 550(c); (C) the Secretary of Health and Human Services for property under section 550(d); or (D) a Federal agency head designated by one of those officials.
(2) It may allow a state agency’s property, facilities, personnel, or services to be used by a Federal agency, and Federal resources to be made available to a state agency.
(3) It may require payment or reimbursement. Money received from a state agency must be credited to the fund or appropriation that would otherwise bear the charge.
(4) Surplus property transferred for distribution under subsection (c) may be kept by the state agency for its functions, and, unless the Administrator directs otherwise, title belongs to the state agency. Keeping it is subject to conditions imposed by the Administrator, or by the Education Secretary for section 550(c) property, or by the Health and Human Services Secretary for section 550(d) property.