[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 79 (Monday, May 14, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H4918-H4920]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXTENDING DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE ACCESS ACT OF 1999
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 1124) to extend the District of Columbia College
Access Act of 1999.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1124
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. 5-YEAR REAUTHORIZATION OF TUITION ASSISTANCE
PROGRAMS.
(a) Public School Program.--Section 3(i) of the District of
Columbia College Access Act of 1999 (sec. 38-2702(i), DC
Official Code) is amended by striking ``each of the 7
succeeding fiscal years'' and inserting ``each of the 12
succeeding fiscal years''.
(b) Private School Program.--Section 5(f) of such Act (sec.
38-2704(f), DC Official Code) is amended by striking ``each
of the 7 succeeding fiscal years'' and inserting ``each of
the 12 succeeding fiscal years''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Davis) and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Westmoreland)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois.
General Leave
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1124, the District of Columbia College Access Act
of 1999, will reauthorize funding for the District of Columbia Tuition
Assistance Grant, the DCTAG program, which will help promote higher
education for high school graduates in the District of Columbia.
DCTAG provides grants for District high school students to attend
public colleges and universities nationwide at in-state tuition rates.
Additionally, the bill provides smaller grants for District students to
attend private institutions in the D.C. metropolitan area and to attend
Historically Black Colleges and Universities nationwide.
The impact of this legislation on the community and in the lives of
the students who receive the grants cannot be minimized. DCTAG reaches
students and communities where there is no hope of being able to obtain
a college education. This is particularly true for many of the students
that participate in DCTAG. Fifty-eight percent of the students who
participate in the program come from low-income households.
Furthermore, students that participate are attending educational
institutions that are known to nurture students of color. Five of the
top 10 schools these students attend are HBCUs: Hampton University,
Morehouse College, Virginia Union University, St. Augustine's College,
and Bennett College.
While students from all races participate in the program and attend
over 270 institutions in 47 States, including nationally recognized
public institutions like the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the
University of Illinois, the University of California-Berkeley, and Ohio
State University, this program serves a community that is lacking
resources for students of color from low-income households.
Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the ranking minority member,
Representative Tom Davis, and, of course, the distinguished gentlewoman
from the District of Columbia for introducing and championing this
legislation.
I urge all of my colleagues to support it.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
This bill would simply reauthorize the DCTAG program for an
additional 5 years and enable District residents to
[[Page H4919]]
continue to attend certain colleges and universities at in-state rates.
President Bush, in his budget submission for fiscal year 2008, has
included sufficient funds to make this happen. I know that Ranking
Member Davis, Mr. Davis of Illinois, and Ms. Norton have worked very
hard to bring this bill to the floor.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield such
time as she may consume to the author of this legislation, the
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia, Delegate Eleanor Holmes
Norton.
Ms. NORTON. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I certainly thank
him for his own hard work and strong support on this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak in support of H.R. 1124, the bill that
will reauthorize the District of Columbia Access Act of 1999 and extend
the District of Columbia Tuition Assistance Grant program, which it
authorizes, for an additional 5 years, and, of course, to thank the
House for a bill that has afforded higher education to many students
who would otherwise have not received it. I especially thank Chairman
Henry Waxman and Chairman Danny Davis for facilitating early
consideration of this noncontroversial bill on suspension. A very
special thanks is particularly due to committee ranking member and co-
author Tom Davis for his strong and indispensable leadership on this
legislation when he was Chair of the full committee and for his
continued strong support of DCTAG.
This legislation is already returning unusually large dividends for
the Federal investment. DCTAG has increased college attendance of D.C.
students by an astonishing 60 percent over 5 years. For the 2005-2006
school year, almost 5,000 students received funding from DCTAG to
enroll in 646 universities and colleges in 47 States, the District of
Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Most of these students are the
first in their families to attend college. These documented results
represent the city's most important progress toward developing a
workforce that can meet the increasing education requirements for
employment at average wages in the region. Importantly, this
legislation has been instrumental in reversing the steady flight of
taxpayers from the District of Columbia, many of whom left the District
in order to gain access to lower cost State colleges and universities
in the region.
DCTAG acts as a proxy and a substitute for a State university system
for the District, which has an open admissions State university, the
University of the District of Columbia, but, unlike every State, has no
unified system of several colleges and universities. UDC, supported
entirely by the city and tuitions of students, is the university of
choice for students who must get their education in the District and is
itself indispensable to the city, and so much so that I used the
opportunity provided by this bill to achieve funded historically black
college status for the UDC that the city has long sought for its State
university because the University of the District of Columbia is one of
the oldest Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the United
States. As a result, UDC has received an attractive annual HBCU payment
since 1999. However, this bill provides higher education access to
young people here equivalent to opportunities available in all the
States, rather than only one university, and increases the number of
choices necessary to meet today's D.C. student population. Maryland and
Virginia, for example, each provide more than 30 different college
options to residents. DCTAG provides up to $10,000 annually, which
covers State college tuition at most public colleges, or provides up to
$2,500 annually to attend private institutions in the city and region.
DCTAG has enjoyed strong bipartisan support since it was created in
1999. The President has shown his confidence in the program by
including $35 million for DCTAG in his fiscal year 2008 budget request.
The D.C. State Education Office deserves special credit for working
diligently and successfully since the bill was enacted to maintain a
very solid administration of the program. The District has even moved
ahead of the curve to foreclose any future funding shortfalls by
engaging in careful planning and calculations, measuring expected
demand and costs and has made adjustments in offerings accordingly.
We are particularly grateful to business leaders in the region, led
by Donald Graham, chairman of The Washington Post, who was instrumental
in helping to convince Congress of the necessity for the bill. Mr.
Graham and the business leaders did not stop there, however. They
established the College Access Program, which we call CAP, to provide
additional financial support.
{time} 1215
More important, CAP provides essential guidance and encouragement to
students as they reach the critical time decision for college. We are
also grateful to CAP for supplying a support network that has helped
the District's TAG program receive excellent, excellent retention
rates. For example, of the 1,091 DCTAG freshmen in 2001-2002, 72
percent returned as sophomores; of that, 79 percent returned as
juniors; 82 percent as seniors, and 77 percent of the seniors
graduated. This, I am sure Members recognize, is very enviable
retention in college graduate rates compared with others around the
country.
CAP's 100 percent private funding by business leaders, most from the
region, not from the city, is nothing less than a vote of confidence in
DCTAG that I believe is warranted by the legislation's documented
results.
It is difficult to think of congressional legislation that has
brought such immediate and positive results, or that is more
appreciated by D.C. residents. To be sure, our D.C. homebuyer and
business tax credits, unique to the District and reauthorized again
last year, have had similar measurable and documented effects on
increasing homeownership and keeping taxpaying residents and businesses
in a city without a State tax base that instead must itself carry many
State costs. However, if there are to be homeowners and taxpayers in
the District of Columbia in the 21st century, many more of them must
have college training.
The economy of this Federal city will always be tied to Federal jobs
and jobs related to Federal jobs at the high end. The stability of the
Federal sector here has been indispensable to many aspects of the
city's economy, but too few of the public and private sector jobs go to
District residents. For example, the District continues to be a virtual
job machine for the region. The District created 8,500 jobs in the last
12 months, but its unemployment rate remains almost twice the rate in
this region. This disparity represents an education and training
mismatch that must be eliminated to assume a decent future for the
city's young residents.
H.R. 1124 is one of the District's top priorities this year because
of the program's proven benefits to the economy of the city and region,
and especially to the city's residents and families. Families have been
willing to make the necessary sacrifices to meet the costs of large
annual increases in State tuition nationwide, even though the amount
they receive from TAG has not increased at all and remains a maximum
$10,000 annually, and this despite the modest family incomes of most of
our students.
This immensely successful and popular higher education program has
proven itself over and over again. It would be difficult, indeed, to
think of a program that has returned so much to the city and the
Federal Government for the modest amount of Federal funding. Of any
measure that I will bring before the House this year, H.R. 1124
certainly ranks near the top in deserving continuing support.
I appreciate the strong bipartisan support and the support of the
President of the United States that this vital Federal educational
assistance program has received, and I ask for the continued support of
the House. I believe the results fostered by the program have earned
the support.
I strongly urge approval of 1124.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, simply to close, let me just
suggest that with more than 500,000 individuals who live in the
District of Columbia, and they've only got one public institution of
higher education, the University of the District of Columbia, one could
really say that this program provides a level of equity that is a level
playing field, and somwhat equal opportunity given the fact that it is
not
[[Page H4920]]
a State. For the young people who live in the District, it is an
excellent program. I would urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor
of it.
Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I've traveled a long road
with the District of Columbia Access Act--from March 1, 1999, when it
was introduced, until the present day.
That road took us through the predecessor subcommittee I chaired at
the time, to the full Government Reform Committee, to the House and
Senate floor, and then to the White House, where then-President Clinton
signed the measure on November 12, 1999.
In all of its legislative approvals the College Access Act--also
known as the Tuition Assistance Grant Program--was passed unanimously,
by voice vote. President Clinton had included sufficient money in his
budget submission that year, and a statement of administration policy
endorsed the approach we had taken in authorizing use of those funds.
I am deeply proud of our hard, bipartisan effort in enacting this
measure and in reauthorizing it 2 years ago.
My thanks to Eleanor Holmes Norton, who was ranking member of the
District of Columbia Subcommittee in 1999, and who has worked
tirelessly to enhance this legislation ever since.
I would also like to thank my then-counterpart in the Senate, George
Voinovich, for his continuing support, and Senators Warner and Durbin
for working with us to improve this legislation.
I'm also grateful to my namesake Chairman Danny Davis, chairman of
the subcommittee, for holding a hearing on this bill March 22, ranking
subcommittee member Kenny Marchant for his support, and Chairman Waxman
for marking this bill up so expeditiously.
The 5-year reauthorizing legislation before us today will enable
District residents to continue to attend colleges and universities at
in-State rates. President Bush, in his budget submission for fiscal
year 2008, has included sufficient funds to make this happen.
Then-Mayor Anthony Williams and now D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty have both
strongly supported this law as being very important for District high
school graduates. The Tuition Assistance Program has doubled the total
number of District students attending college since 1999-2000, the
school year before the program started. We have incentivized getting a
college education.
This law is a classic ``leveling of the playing field.'' No city or
county in the country is required to supplement in-State rates with
local funds, and neither should the taxpayers in the Nation's capital
be saddled with this burden. Neither should the city be penalized for
its own success in administering this program.
Back on March 4, 1999, when I first introduced this bill, I went to
nearby Eastern High School with Ms. Norton. I was deeply moved by the
reaction of the students. I will never forget how so many took our
hands, looked into our eyes, and thanked us for introducing the
original bill.
I'm proud of all we have been able to do in the Nation's capital
since 1995, when the city was literally bankrupt. Economic development,
public safety, the real estate market, and so many other aspects of
city life have changed for the better.
But nothing has given me more satisfaction than working to improve
educational opportunity. Fighting for equal educational opportunity is
one of the reasons I entered public life.
We need a healthy city to have a healthy Washington region.
Reauthorizing this law, which has expanded higher educational
choices, is a strong part of our vision for the future.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my
time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 1124.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will
be postponed.
____________________