20 U.S.C. § 55 (2024)

This is the official text of 20 U.S.C. § 55 (2024), part of Federal (US Code)’s United States Code — the codified general and permanent federal statutes of the United States, organized into more than 50 numbered titles by subject.

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Acceptance of other sums

Official statutory text

The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to receive into the Treasury, on the same terms as the original bequest of James Smithson, such sums as the Regents may, from time to time, see fit to deposit, not exceeding, with the original bequest, the sum of $1,000,000. This shall not operate as a limitation on the power of the Smithsonian Institution to receive money or other property by gift, bequest, or devise, and to hold and dispose of the same in promotion of the purposes thereof.

(R.S. §5591; Mar. 12, 1894, ch. 36, 28 Stat. 41.)

Editorial Notes

Codification

R.S. §5591 derived from act Feb. 5, 1867, ch. 34, §1, 14 Stat. 391.

Amendments

1894—Act Mar. 12, 1894, made limitation on deposits into the Treasury inapplicable to receipt of gifts, bequests and devises and dispositions of money or other property.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.