[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 155 (Tuesday, September 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6225-S6227]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. JONES (for himself, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr. Cardin, Mr. 
        Brown, Mr. Booker, Ms. Warren, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Van 
        Hollen, Ms. Klobuchar, Ms. Harris, Mrs. McCaskill, Mr. 
        Menendez, Ms. Smith, Ms. Duckworth, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Markey, 
        Mr. Udall, Mr. Coons, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Carper, Mr. Casey, Mr. 
        Durbin, Mr. Tester, and Mrs. Feinstein):
  S. 3467. A bill to permanently reauthorize mandatory funding programs 
for historically Black colleges and universities and other minority-
serving institutions; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions.
  Mr. JONES. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about an issue that, 
quite frankly, I do not think gets enough attention on the floor of the 
Senate or on the floor of the House of Representatives, and that is the 
state of historically Black colleges and universities, or, as they are 
commonly known, HBCUs.
  Alabama is home to 14 of these institutions, the most of any State in 
the country. With all due respect to my colleagues, we don't just have 
the most HBCUs. I believe we have the best.
  Tuskegee University is the only HBCU with a college of veterinary 
medicine. The school produces over 75 percent of African-American 
veterinarians in the world. It has also just hired its first female 
university president, Dr. Lily McNair.

  Alabama A&M University is the only 1890 land grant university 
offering four Ph.D. programs. It is also the leading producer of 
African Americans with Ph.Ds in physics.
  Oakwood University is the Nation's fifth highest producer of 
undergraduate African-American applicants to our country's medical 
schools.
  Alabama State University, whose president, my friend Dr. Quinton 
Ross, has joined us in the Gallery today, is home to the National 
Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African-American Culture. ASU 
is currently doing preservation work on some never-before-seen 
documents, such as court pleadings, bond documents, and other official 
papers that are connected to the Montgomery bus boycott.
  Lawson State Community College was also named a Champion of Change in 
2011 by then-President Barack Obama.
  There are over 100 accredited HBCUs today across the country, both 
public and private. They are in 19 States, the District of Columbia, 
and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They enroll approximately 300,000 
students--80 percent of whom are African American and 70 percent of 
whom are from low-income families.
  While HBCUs only make up 3 percent of the country's colleges and 
universities today, they produce nearly 20 percent of all African-
American graduates. Among HBCU graduates, there are countless 
trailblazing Americans who have, quite literally, changed the course of 
our Nation's history: Dr. Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall, Marian 
Wright Edelman, Langston Hughes, Katherine Johnson, amongst so many 
others.
  According to the National Science Foundation, between 2002 and 2011, 
the top eight institutions at which African-American Ph.Ds in science 
and engineering earned their bachelor's degrees were all HBCUs. HBCUs 
annually generate $14.8 billion in economic impact and add more than 
134,000 jobs for local and regional economies, and 2014 Alabama HBCU 
graduates can expect total earnings of $130 billion over their 
lifetimes.
  I could go on and on with these remarkable statistics for these 
remarkable colleges and universities. For all of these incredible 
achievements, though--for every achievement I have

[[Page S6227]]

just named--HBCUs in Alabama and across the country are working against 
the strong headwinds of serious financial struggles.
  The Government Accountability Office recently investigated the 
capital finance needs of HBCUs at the request of my colleagues Senator 
Patty Murray and Senator Casey, also of Congressman Bobby Scott and 
Congressman G.K. Butterfield. The report estimates that 46 percent of 
all HBCU buildings are in need of replacement or repair. This is due to 
deferred maintenance, the evolution of higher education and technology, 
and the fact that many of these buildings are State or federally 
registered historic places. For example, Tuskegee University is 
designated as a National Historic Site by Congress. That is a 
remarkable figure--46 percent--of all buildings in need of repair or 
replacement. It is one that, I hope, all of my colleagues will agree is 
wholly unacceptable.
  This is not a surprise, though, for those who understand the 
challenges these institutions have long faced. HBCUs lack a plethora of 
revenue sources. Public HBCUs rely heavily on State and Federal grants, 
appropriations, and bonds. Private HBCUs have to rely on private or 
alumni giving and tuition and fees. On top of that, the GAO found that 
an HBCU's average endowment is half the size of a similarly sized non-
HBCU. That is half the size not of all non-HBCUs but half the size of 
similarly situated non-HBCUs.
  None of the 90 institutions of higher education in this country with 
endowments greater than $1 billion is an HBCU. This results in an 
endless cycle for these schools that have contributed so greatly to our 
country and the talented students they serve. With their limited 
revenue resources and the discrimination they face in the bond market, 
it is difficult to maintain campus buildings that attract higher 
enrollment. Lower enrollment just leads to even less tuition and fewer 
fees that are collected by each institution. Thus, the cycle continues.
  I didn't just come to talk about the problems our HBCUs face without 
offering some type of solution. I introduce today the Strengthening 
Minority-Serving Institutions Act, which will permanently extend and 
increase Federal funds to all minority-serving institutions. These 
Federal funds are currently set to expire after fiscal year 2019.
  My bill goes beyond just supporting HBCUs and is inclusive of other 
minority-serving schools, like those that primarily admit Asian 
Americans, Pacific Islanders, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians, 
Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans, among others. With this 
legislation, we will increase mandatory funding from $255 million to 
$300 million for each of these institutions. They will be able to put 
that money to good use for infrastructure improvements, technology 
upgrades, and other critical needs that have gone unfulfilled.
  While I had hoped we could make this a bipartisan effort, I haven't 
yet heard back from any of my Republican colleagues. My Republican 
colleagues represent a fair share of these institutions, and I hope we 
will still gain some support from across the aisle and move this bill 
through the Senate.
  This bill will not solve all of the challenges HBCUs face--all of the 
challenges they are working so hard to overcome. Yet I submit it is a 
step in the right direction. More importantly, it is the right thing to 
do for these schools that are part of the very foundation of our higher 
education system in Alabama and across the country.
                                 ______