Heading into the holiday break, Congress passed a $1.1 trillion omnibus bill to avert a government shutdown through September 30, 2016. The bill included significant increases in Title III funding and increases in Pell grant appropriations and other programs specifically geared towards strengthening historically Black colleges and universities and other minority institutions.
Among the appropriations listed in the mega-bill is a $22 million increase in Title III funding ― which is specifically designated for the strengthening of HBCUs from the Department of Education, and several increases to critical research programs administered by other agencies.
Edith Bartley, vice president of government affairs for the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, said the increases are “really good for the [HBCU] community, particularly in an election year, when we don’t know what will happen” with funding next year.
“We always want to emphasize that there are other accounts across the federal government that are set up for HBCUs outside of the Department of Education, and we saw” promising increases in some of those other appropriations lines, Bartley said.
“We applaud Congress for making increases to those programs, when we’ve seen [proposed] budgets that have proposed cuts to those programs,” she added.
National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education President and CEO Lezli Baskerville said the budget compromises represent “bipartisan support for HBCU and PBI funding in the bill, reminiscent of the bipartisan support HBCUs received in the United States Congress from 1965 until very recent years,” for which she is “especially appreciative.”
But Baskerville said the increases don’t go far enough.
