[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2931 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2931

  To amend part B of title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to 
   expand the eligibility requirement to include Predominantly Black 
                   Institutions of higher education.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 16, 2005

  Mr. Owens introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend part B of title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to 
   expand the eligibility requirement to include Predominantly Black 
                   Institutions of higher education.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``HBCU Expansion Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Over the last several years post-secondary institutions 
        have faced a dramatic increase in the number of non-traditional 
        students. Predominantly Black Institutions, following the 
        pattern of historically Black colleges and universities 
        (referred to as ``HBCU's''), have helped ease the influx by 
        offering an affordable quality education.
            (2) Currently, more than 100,000 students attend 
        Predominantly Black Institutions. Similar to HBCU's the 
        majority of these students depend heavily on Federal financial 
        aid to graduate from college.
            (3) Predominantly Black Institutions, like HBCU's, provide 
        opportunities for minority students to pursue post-secondary 
        degrees.
            (4) Predominantly Black Institutions, like HBCU's, have 
        produced a cadre of leaders who make up a significant number of 
        the Nation's minority doctors, lawyers, and other 
        professionals.
            (5) Predominantly Black Institutions, like HBCU's, provide 
        students from under-served communities with academic and 
        emotional support which translates to high retention and 
        graduation rates.

SEC. 3. QUALIFYING PREDOMINANTLY BLACK INSTITUTIONS.

    Section 322 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1061) is 
amended--
            (1) in paragraph (2)--
                    (A) by striking ``means any'' and inserting ``means 
                (A) any''; and
                    (B) by inserting before the period at the end the 
                following: ``or (B) any Predominantly Black 
                Institution''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(6) The term `Predominantly Black Institution' means any 
        institution of higher education that--
                    ``(A) is an eligible institution under section 
                312(b) that complies with paragraph (1)(C)(i) of such 
                section; and
                    ``(B) at the time of application, has a student 
                enrollment of at least 500 full-time students, at least 
                51 percent of whom are African Americans.''.
                                 <all>