[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 186 (Wednesday, November 20, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6700-S6702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2557
Mr. ALEXANDER. What I will do is make my offer quickly, and then I
will make my speech following the objection.
Let me summarize, to begin with, that what has just happened is I
have objected to a short-term, piecemeal extension of funding for
historically Black colleges and minority-serving institutions because
it is a bill that, I think, will have great difficulty passing the
Senate because of the way it is not properly funded. What I am about to
offer, and which I will speak on after the objection is made, is
permanent funding for historically Black colleges at the level of $255
million a year--permanent funding--as opposed to short-term, piecemeal
funding as part of a
[[Page S6701]]
package of higher education legislation that has been prepared and
cosponsored by 29 Senators--more Democrats than Republicans--with the
principal other provision being reducing the questions in the FAFSA,
the Federal aid application form, from 108 to between 18 and 30. This
is a bill introduced by the Senator from Alabama, Mr. Jones, and I,
which our Senate committee has been working on for 5 years. It is the
single most important impediment to keeping minority students from
going to college in our State--and I think most States, according to
our former Governor--and it would help 8 million minority students who
fill out this complicated form every year.
I will speak more to that in just a minute, but that is what I am
about to ask my friends on the other side to permit me to pass.
Madam President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent
that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be
discharged from further consideration of S. 2557--the bill I just
described, the permanent funding of historically Black colleges and the
simplification of the FAFSA and other measures--and the Senate proceed
to its immediate consideration. I ask unanimous consent that the bill
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 Ohio.
Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I reserve the right to object.
I and my colleagues here--Senator Carper, Senator Coons, and
prominent Democrats in the education debate--have deep concerns about
Senator Alexander's proposed micropackage. To be sure, it is a
micropackage of higher education bills. It is not a complete
reauthorization.
Our caucus has been clear about what a comprehensive bill should look
like. It addresses access, affordability, accountability, and campus
safety. This Alexander proposal falls well short.
The Senator from Tennessee says this package is bipartisan. That is
sort of true but not entirely. He has made a number of changes to the
underlying bipartisan bills that do not have the support of lead
Democrats on this and, in some cases, the lead Republicans of the
original bills. For example, this package includes a limited repeal of
the ban on Pell grants for incarcerated adults instead of the full
repeal of the ban included in the bipartisan bill. Our bill adds to
Pell grants.
His version of the short-term Pell Grant Program makes significant
changes to the bipartisan JOBS Act of 2019, a bill of which I am an
original cosponsor. The JOBS Act excludes for-profit colleges from
eligibility for the program. We know the Trump administration is all
about for-profit institutions, with the Secretary of Education leading
the charge. This version allows for-profit colleges--the sorts of
schools we know mislead and scam students in too many cases--to sneak
their way into eligibility.
One of the things I admire about the chairman of the HELP Committee--
and have admired since I met him 20-some years ago--was his work not
just as Secretary of Education but his work as president of the
University of Tennessee. He knows what for-profit colleges do for and
to far too many students. His legislation removes a number of the
protections meant to ensure programs eligible for this funding are
actually high-quality ones that educate students. These are just a
couple of the ways this micropackage is different from the original
bipartisan bills. We know the micropackage cannot pass the House.
Chairman Scott and Speaker Pelosi have been clear that they want
comprehensive reform. A comprehensive HEA reauthorization can pass.
That is not what this is.
I hope we can come to a bipartisan agreement, but as we work
together, we can't hold hostage historically Black colleges and
universities. Most of them are in the South. Most of them are in the
States of my colleagues who are from the South. Most of them are in
Republican States with Republican Senators. As mentioned by Senator
Carper and Senator Coons, of Delaware, my State, which is similar to
Delaware, has historically Black colleges. In Ohio, Wilberforce and
Central State are prominent institutions that matter so much to our
State. For the nearly 2 years now since the Trump administration has
been in office, these schools have been in fiscal limbo.
I know Senator Alexander cares about these schools, but there is no
evidence that the President of the United States does. They need their
funding extended now. The mandatory funding, which is vital to these
schools, ran out on September 30 because the Senate refused to act and
because the President didn't seem to care. The House did its job in
passing the FUTURE Act. Now HBCUs are facing impossible decisions in
the face of dwindling funding. The Senate needs to immediately take up
and vote on the bill the House already passed to provide full,
mandatory funding for MSIs and HBCUs.
We all agree--Senator Burr, Senator Alexander, the two Senators from
Delaware, and Senator Cardin, who has just joined us--that HBCUs have
fostered generations of Black leaders. They are a critical part of our
Nation's higher ed system. These schools have rich legacies and proven
track records of educating students of color and other underrepresented
students.
Wilberforce was founded in 1856 in Wilberforce, OH, as the Nation's
first private institution of higher ed for Black students. Central
State, which is in the same town across the road in Wilberforce, has a
rich legacy of educating students as an 1890 land grant institution. We
have helped it this year through the Committee on Agriculture,
Nutrition, and Forestry. It is further tasked with strengthening
research, extension, and teaching in food and ag science.
We know that without our HBCUs, millions of Black students would have
been denied the opportunity to pursue higher ed. HBCUs account for
approximately a quarter of all of Black students who earn bachelor's
degrees and nearly a third of all of the African-American students who
earn STEM bachelor's degrees. Our country owes an enormous debt to
these schools that we don't seem to be paying back. That is why it is
unconscionable that the Senate has abandoned these schools and these
students.
I have heard from schools about how their budgets have been thrown
into chaos. They tell me that academia is about planning, and many of
them already operate close to the margins. HBCUs have already received
letters from the Department of Education telling them that they are not
getting future funding and that they can't use any Federal funding for
long-term projects. It could mean program cuts and layoffs. It means no
long-term construction projects. It means not hiring permanent faculty
and not purchasing major equipment. Imagine operating a school like
that.
It is shameful that in 2019 we still ignore schools that serve
students of color by treating this as anything other than a must-pass
bill. I know that very few African Americans voted for President Trump,
and I know he seems to care for only those people who voted for him.
Yet this is an obligation. Senator Alexander wants to fulfill it, but
he is operating in a straitjacket with this President.
It is so important that we do this. The FUTURE Act is budget neutral,
and it is fully paid for. We use the same offset the administration has
used. It is a bipartisan pay-for, not a gimmick.
I should add that less than 2 years ago, this Senate and President
Trump had no problem passing a $1 trillion tax cut for corporations and
the wealthy that wasn't paid for. We have seen that under Republican
leadership in the White House. We have seen what has happened to our
budget debt, and we know corporations have had huge tax cuts. We know
70 percent of the tax cuts went to the wealthiest 1 percent. Yet this
body can't take care of historically Black colleges. They hold schools
that serve students of color to a different standard.
I am hopeful that Senator Alexander, whom I trust, and Senator
Murray, whom I trust, will continue to negotiate a truly bipartisan and
truly comprehensive higher ed reauthorization that supports HBCUs. I
support those efforts. That is the way forward for the priorities that
Senator Alexander has outlined in his micropackage and for the updates
and reauthorizations all of our students and families need. HBCUs and
MSIs can't wait
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until that process is over. They need action now. They have all had to
overcome enough hurdles every day in order to educate their students.
The U.S. Senate should not be one of those hurdles. We need to pass the
FUTURE Act now.
Accordingly, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I see the Senator from Maryland, but
I would like to take a few minutes to describe the proposal to which
Senator Brown just objected.
I appreciate the Senator from Ohio in his saying that he hopes that
Senator Murray and I can do what we usually do, which is to take issues
within our Education Committee and work them out and present them to
the Senate as a whole, but that is not the way this came up. This came
up suddenly, and no one talked to me about it. Here we are when, for 5
years, we have been in the midst of reauthorizing higher education.
Permanently funding historically Black colleges has always been an
important part of that discussion when suddenly here comes this bill as
if there were an emergency.
What I heard my friend from Ohio say is that he objects to my
proposal as a microproposal, as a small proposal, but he is suggesting
an even smaller proposal. He is suggesting a 2-year fix that, in my
opinion, can't pass the Senate because of the way it is funded.
Plus, why would you want a 2-year fix when you have the chairman of
the Education Committee working for the permanent funding of
historically Black colleges and minority-serving institutions? This is
what I have offered on the floor, and that is what has just now been
objected to by the Democrats.
At the same time, he mentioned a number of bills that he thought
needed some changes. The request I made that was objected to also
included simplifying FAFSA, which is the Federal aid application form
that 20 million students fill out every year. Let's put a human face on
that.
The President of Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis,
which is a largely minority institution in terms of its students--I see
my colleague from Tennessee is presiding today, and she knows this
institution well--told me they lose 1,500 students every semester
because of the complexity of this form. There are 108 questions. A
bipartisan working group, including Senator Bennet, of Colorado, a
Democrat; Senator Jones, of Alabama, a Democrat; Senator King, of
Maine, an Independent; and many others on our side, we have reduced
these 108 questions to between 18 and 30. It has the support of the
student aid administrators from across the country. It has the support
of college presidents who see their students turned away because their
parents and their grandparents see this as too complex.
Former Governor of Tennessee Bill Haslam led our legislature to
create 2 free years of college tuition in Tennessee, but first you have
to fill this out. Governor Haslam has told me the single biggest
impediment to low-income Tennesseans getting those 2 years of free
education is the complexity of that form.
Why would the Senator object to doing it when we have been working on
it for 5 years and have a bipartisan bill to get it done? Why don't we
pass it? Why don't we make it the law? What do we say to those 1,500
students who don't get to go to college because of this?
At the same time, at the other end of our State, the president of
East Tennessee State University tells me that 70 percent of his student
body is subjected to verification. The way this system works is you
have to give some information to the IRS and some information to the
Department of Education, and if you make one little mistake, they jerk
your Pell grant while they figure out what the problem is. Seventy
percent of the students were subjected to that verification, and some
of them lost their scholarships while that happened. That is totally
unnecessary.
People in Tennessee ask me: If that is true, why don't you pass it?
That is the question I am asking my friends because I just asked the
Senate to pass it, and the Senator objected. Why don't we pass it? Why
don't we make it the law? It is not as if I just showed up one day with
this. We have been all the way through our process of hearings. It has
been through working groups of Democratic and Republican Senators. It
ought to be done.
There is no need for us to come to the floor and say we need to pass
a short-term, 2-year fix for historically Black colleges when, at the
same time, you could have permanent funding for historically Black
colleges and could fix the Federal aid application form that 8 million
minority students fill out every year--8 million students. What are the
Senators going to say to them about why they are not going to make it
easier for them to go to college when we are here, arguing about a
short-term, piecemeal fix for historically Black colleges?
In a way, I am glad we are having this discussion because I have been
trying to bring this to the attention of my colleagues and if you go
home and talk to the families, they will tell you that 20 million fill
this out every year. In Tennessee, it is 400,000. And college aid
administrators will tell you that.
I will give another example. I was in West Tennessee a couple of
weeks ago at an event that was sponsored by the Ayers family. For 20
years, they have given money to help rural kids succeed in college.
What the Ayers have discovered is that instead of spending their money
on scholarships, they are spending it on counselors because counselors
help students more than the money does. They have found there are lots
of scholarships, but it is the counselors who make the difference. Yet
what do the counselors spend their time doing? They help students
answer these unnecessary questions.
So we are blocking and impeding the very students the Senator is
claiming he wants to help when he objects to this bill I offered today.
I want to make it clear that I will come to the floor every day, if I
need to, and offer legislation for the permanent funding of
historically Black colleges and minority-serving institutions, which
will be fully paid for, and a bipartisan proposal to simplify the FAFSA
from 108 questions to 18 to 30 questions, which is estimated by the
Congressional Budget Office to allow for 250,000 new American students
to receive Pell grants as a result of the simplicity of what we have
done.
I am disappointed that we haven't come to a bipartisan result on
that. My friends who are here today know very well that this is the way
I like to work. I believe it is hard to get to the U.S. Senate, that it
is hard to stay here, and that while you are here, you might as well
try to accomplish something. That is what I want to do. I hope we can
do it on higher education.
When we accomplish it, I hope we can say we have agreed on the
permanent funding for historically Black colleges and that we have
elevated the importance of this complicated FAFSA to the attention of
Senators on both sides of the aisle so that we say: Let's get this
done. I don't want to go home any longer and have people ask me: Why
don't you pass that? Why do I have to give the same information to two
different parts of the Federal Government? Why are you discouraging the
very low-income students who ought to be going to college?
I am disappointed in this result today, and I intend to continue to
work for the permanent funding of historically Black colleges.
My last sentence will be this: I want all of the presidents of the 97
institutions to know that the U.S. Department of Education has said
there is full Federal funding for historically Black colleges and
minority-serving institutions for another year. Another year ought to
be plenty of time for us to reject this short-term fix and to adopt a
permanent solution as well as to simplify the FAFSA, have short-term
Pell grants, and take up a variety of other proposals that ought to be
a part of the Higher Education Act.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.