[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 94 (Thursday, June 7, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3342-S3343]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 2452. Mr. JONES (for himself and Mr. Coons) submitted an amendment 
intended to be proposed by him to the bill H.R. 5515, to authorize 
appropriations for fiscal year 2019 for military activities of the 
Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense 
activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel 
strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was 
ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of subtitle E of title V, add the following:

[[Page S3343]]

  


     SEC. 558. CONSTRUCTION AND REHABILITATION OF FACILITIES FOR 
                   SENIOR RESERVE OFFICERS' TRAINING CORPS 
                   PROGRAMS AT HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND 
                   UNIVERSITIES AND MINORITY-SERVING INSTITUTION.

       (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) 
     and minority-serving institutions play a vital role in 
     educating low-income and underrepresented students in areas 
     of national need.
       (2) Historically black colleges and universities and 
     minority-serving institutions presently contribute to the 
     defense readiness and national security of the nation by 
     administering Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) 
     programs that prepare students to lead our Armed Forces.
       (3) Racial and ethnic minority groups made up 40 percent of 
     all active-duty members of the Armed Forces in 2015, up from 
     25 percent in 1990. Minorities make up a significant and 
     crucial number of the enlisted members in all four of the 
     Armed Forces and also make up an increasingly important 
     number of the officer corps, and yet the officer corps does 
     not yet fully reflect the diversity of the nation. While 12 
     percent of the nation is African American, only 8 percent of 
     active-duty officers were African American in the most recent 
     report on minority officers in 2011. Similarly, Hispanic 
     Americans make up 15 percent of the population and only 5 
     percent of the officer corps. And yet a higher number of the 
     enlisted members of the Armed Forces are minorities.
       (4) Providing a facility for Reserve Officers' Training 
     Corps programs is one of the many financial challenges to 
     increasing access to the officer track in minority settings. 
     Considering the financial strains that face the historically 
     black colleges and universities today, financial strains that 
     are often even greater than those confronting all of the 
     nation's colleges and universities in time with increasing 
     State budget cuts, it is important to provide additional 
     support to Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs at 
     historically black colleges and universities across the 
     country by authorizing the military departments to provide 
     for the construction or rehabilitation of Reserve Officers' 
     Training Corps program facilities at historically black 
     colleges and universities and minority-serving institution 
     campuses.
       (b) Construction and Rehabilitation Authorized.--
       (1) In general.--The Secretaries of the military 
     departments may provide for the construction and 
     rehabilitation of facilities for Senior Reserve Officers' 
     Training Corps programs at historically black colleges and 
     universities and minority-serving institutions that host such 
     programs.
       (2) Special consideration.--In determining whether to 
     construct or rehabilitate facilities of historically black 
     colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions 
     using the authority in paragraph (1), the Secretary of a 
     military department shall afford special consideration to the 
     following:
       (A) Colleges and universities, and institutions, located in 
     States in which reside a high number of enlisted members of 
     the Armed Forces who are members of a minority group.
       (B) Colleges and universities, and institutions, with a 
     high number of Reserve Officers' Training Corps program 
     participants who are members of a minority group.
       (C) Colleges and universities, and institutions, located in 
     States that are reducing funding for higher education.
       (3) Limitation.--The total number of facilities that may be 
     constructed or rehabilitated using the authority in paragraph 
     (1) in any fiscal year may not exceed five facilities.
       (c) Minority-serving Institution Defined.--In this section, 
     the term ``minority-serving institution'' means a minority-
     serving institution for purposes of section 371 of the Higher 
     Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1067q).
       (d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is hereby 
     authorized to be appropriated for fiscal year 2019 for the 
     Department of Defense, $20,000,000 for the construction and 
     rehabilitation of facilities in that fiscal year as 
     authorized by subsection (b).
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