The U.S. Congress approved the original Hatch Act in 1887. The legislation established funding for agricultural experiment stations (i.e. Agricultural Research Division) within all land-grant Universities. The stated aims of this legislation were:

• to promote the efficient production, marketing, distribution, and utilization of products of the farm as essential to the health and welfare of our peoples,
• to promote a sound and prosperous agriculture and rural life as indispensable to the maintenance of maximum employment and national prosperity and security,
• to assure agriculture a position in research equal to that of industry.

To accomplish these aims, agricultural experiment stations are mandated to spend authorized appropriations "...to conduct original and other researches, investigations, and experiments bearing directly on and contributing to the establishment and maintenance of a permanent and effective agricultural industry of the United States, including researches basic to the problems of agriculture in its broadest aspects, and such investigations as have for their purpose the development and improvement of the rual home and rural life and the maximum contribution by agriculture to the welfare of the consumer..."

The appropriations (called formula funds or base funds) are provided to ARD with an equal match of state funds required.