[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 176 (Tuesday, November 5, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6369-S6370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 2486
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, we need to pass the FUTURE Act to help
students in historically Black colleges and universities, minority-
serving institutions, and we need to do that now.
I am here to advocate on behalf of Maryland's four HBCUs that face a
funding cliff due to congressional inaction. Without the immediate
passage of the FUTURE Act, Bowie State University, Coppin State
University, Morgan State University, and the University of Maryland
Eastern Shore face a collective $4.2 million funding shortfall now that
the Higher Education Act's authorization for mandatory funding for
these institutions lapsed October 1 of this year.
This clean, bipartisan, and paid-for 2-year authorization gives
breathing room to continue to negotiate the full reauthorization of the
Higher Education Act without holding these historically underfunded
institutions hostage.
Our HBCUs and MSIs know they can count on this mandatory funding each
year to strengthen their course offerings and in-demand STEM programs,
make infrastructure improvements, and provide academic counseling and
student support services to first-generation and historically
underrepresented students.
Throwing the budgets of these institutions into chaos directly harms
their ability to serve their students and communities. Institutions
would have to make decisions about potentially reducing levels of
academic services, delaying needed infrastructure investments, and make
longstanding staffing decisions. These decisions are being made all
across the country at schools of each of our States. Collectively, the
MSIs risk losing out on $255 million in mandatory funding. This is an
unnecessary obstacle our HBCUs and MSIs do not need to face. We have a
paid-for available for us today to address this issue.
We can get this done now. The House is prepared to accept this 2-year
extension, which gives us a chance to negotiate a complete
reauthorization of the Higher Education Act but does not hold these
institutions hostage with the mandatory funding that is provided by
law.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the
immediate consideration of Calendar No. 212, H.R. 2486; that the Murray
amendment at the desk be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be
considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, reserving the right to object.
I thank the distinguished Senator from Maryland for giving me this
opportunity to present the right way to help historically Black
colleges and universities, and I intend to do that when he is finished
speaking about this and explain what we can do together.
Unfortunately, the bill he proposes is a shortcut the House took,
which has no way to pass the Senate. It is based upon a budget gimmick
and uses a method of funding that many Senators object to. It creates a
new funding cliff within 23 months, and it is unnecessary because the
Secretary of Education has written all of the heads of historically
Black colleges and universities to say that there are sufficient funds
until next September so there is no funding problem.
This gives me an opportunity--which I will do in a just a moment--to
suggest the right way to do it. The right way to do it is to do
permanent funding of historically Black colleges and universities in a
package of bills I have introduced. That package includes other
legislation--which I will discuss when my time comes--which include
simplifying the FAFSA.
It is a bill Senator Jones and I have introduced which will help 20
million families, including almost every student at a historically
Black college or minority-serving institution. The bill package also
includes grants for prisoners and short-term Pell grants, and it
simplifies the student aid letters.
This package is ready. It includes short-term Pell grants, as I
mentioned. This package has been put together by a number of Democratic
and Republican Senators. It is ready to pass the Senate and ready for
the President to sign it. It permanently funds Black colleges and
universities instead of this shortcut.
In a moment, I will talk more about that, but in the meantime, I
object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from Maryland.
[[Page S6370]]
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I greatly respect the chairman of the
committee. I know of his sincerity in dealing with higher education and
education in our country, but the issue is pretty simple. Without the
continuation of mandatory funding as provided by current law,
historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving
institutions cannot rely upon the funding source the chairman is
talking about. There are going to be tough decisions that have to be
made on infrastructure improvements, tough decisions on staffing, and
there is no need for it.
We all agree that mandatory funding should continue. I am all for
permanent extension. This UC will give us the 2-year window to make
sure we pass the Higher Education Act reauthorization to fund that.
The issues the chairman is going to talk about are all matters that
are under discussion and debate that have to be worked out between the
members of his committee, the floor, and reconciliation between the
House and the Senate. In the meantime, historically Black colleges and
universities and minority-serving institutions will suffer.
I fully support what the chairman is trying to do getting matters
accomplished, but if I understand the unanimous consent he will be
asking for, it doesn't deal with all the issues that need to be dealt
with. We have to fully address the challenges students face with
college access, affordability, accountability, and campus safety. The
chairman's bill does not meet that test and limits what we could do in
the future to meaningfully address the cost of attending and succeeding
in colleges. The bill continues to let the realities of getting a
college degree--the challenges of childcare, housing, food, textbooks--
go unaddressed for our country's growing diversity of students,
including student veterans, students with disabilities, students of
color, and students of low-income families or those who are the first
in their families to attend college.
I agree with the chairman. Let's bring the Higher Education Act
forward and debate it but don't hold these institutions that have
historically been discriminated against hostage to a program we all
agree needs to be continued.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, why would we hold hostage bipartisan
legislation that would simplify the FAFSA from 108 questions to 18 to
30--the Federal aid that 20 million families fill out every year in
this country--unnecessarily? Why are we holding that hostage? Why are
we holding hostage the legislation introduced by Senator Portman and
Senator Kaine and cosponsored by Cardin, Gillibrand, Hassan, Klobuchar,
Stabenow, Baldwin, Brown--these are all Democrats--here is a
Republican, Capito, Coons, Ernst, Jones, Moran, Shaheen, Sinema, Smith,
Wicker, and Braun.
This is legislation we all agree on--or at least that many agree on--
on short-term Pell grants. Then we have Senators Grassley, Smith,
Cassidy, Ernst, Hassan, Jones, Klobuchar, Manchin, and Rubio, who would
like to simplify the Federal aid letters so you don't get a letter in
the mail, if you are living in Maryland or Tennessee, and think you
have a grant you don't have to pay back, when in fact it is a loan you
do have to pay back.
We also agree on increasing the maximum Pell grant. We also agree on
how to pay for it. We also agree on permanent funding for the
historically Black colleges and institutions in a way that the Budget
Committee can easily approve, and it can pass the Senate.
If we can agree on all that and it all helps students at historically
Black colleges and minority-serving institutions, then why don't we
pass it? Why don't we do that? Why do we come up with a short-term,
gimmick-supported, House-passed bill that sets up a new cliff? Why
don't we take a permanent funding, with a Budget Committee-approved way
of paying for it, and do some other things that we have been working on
for 5 years in a bipartisan way? This is not an Alexander proposal.
This is a package of proposals by 29 Senators--17 Democrats and 12
Republicans. It is ready to pass the Senate; it is ready to be worked
on with the House of Representatives; and it is ready to be signed by
the President of the United States.
Let me add to this. The Secretary of Education, and people seem to
ignore this, has written all the presidents of the historically Black
colleges and said there is enough money in the bank to pay for all
their funding until next September. So we have nearly a year to do this
the right way instead of the wrong way. We are not on vacation. I know
everybody is talking about impeachment, but we have lots of students
around this country who would like to have a simpler way to go to
college. We have lots of historically Black institutions and minority-
serving institutions that would like to have a permanent method of
funding. We have lots of employers and potential employees who want a
short-term Pell grant.
Simplifying FAFSA would actually add, according to the Congressional
Budget Office, 250,000 Pell grants, and it would increase the number of
Americans who are eligible for the maximum Pell grant. All that is
ready to go. All that is ready to go so why don't we do that instead?
I thank the Senator from Maryland for giving me an opportunity and a
reason to bring up my package of bills with permanent funding of the
historically Black colleges and universities paid for, not by a
gimmick, but by a Budget Committee-approved method that President Trump
and President Obama both had in their budgets.