With the collapse of a congressional “super committee” charged with cutting $1.2 trillion in federal spending, most education programs face the prospect of moderate to deep cuts beginning in January 2013 — including programs for minority-serving colleges and universities.
“I think this super committee was a super failure,” said Antonio Flores, president of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, on Tuesday, shortly after the 12-member panel finished its work without an agreement. Congress created the committee to identify additional deficit reductions that lawmakers were unable to agree upon last summer during the debate on the nation’s debt ceiling.
Six Republicans and six Democrats had met since early fall to consider options with a pre-Thanksgiving deadline. Under legislation passed earlier this year, the committee’s failure triggers across-the-board cuts after the November 2012 elections.
“Uncertainty is the name of the game now. It’s like playing Russian roulette with the economy,” Flores told Diverse.
The cuts, known as a “sequester,” would amount to about 10 percent of federal spending on historically Black colleges and minority-serving institutions in 2013, said Edith Bartley, government affairs director for the United Negro College Fund.
With continued inaction, similar cuts could take effect annually for a decade, she said.
“The pie will definitely be shrinking,” Bartley told Diverse. “The only way it can be stopped is if Congress reconvenes another group with a new deadline. It’s an extremely difficult situation.”
