This week, Members of the Congressional Tri-Caucus – which includes the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) – sent a letter to House leadership and appropriators to encourage including the FUTURE Act in an upcoming agreement to fund the government.
The letter was signed by Tri-Caucus leaders including CBC Chair Karen Bass (CA-37), CHC Chair Joaquin Castro (TX-20), CAPAC Chair Judy Chu (CA-27), and Congresswoman Alma Adams (NC-12), co-author of the FUTURE Act, as well as CHC Education and Labor Task Force Chair Raúl Grijalva (AZ-3), CAPAC Education Task Force Chair Mark Takano (CA-41), and CBC Education and Labor Task Force Co-Chairs Danny Davis (IL-7), Frederica Wilson (FL-24), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12).
“The Future Act is important to the funding of all Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). These institutions of higher learning produce some of our nation’s brightest and most accomplished students and professionals in all fields, including in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. At a time when many families are struggling to survive and trying to plan for college, the Future Act is critical to providing mandatory funding for MSIs. Higher education is a proven path to professional success and financial security for many in our communities of color,” said the Tri-Caucus Chairs.
“The FUTURE Act is a bipartisan, bicameral bill that protects vital funding for our HBCUs and Minority-Serving Institutions,” said Congresswoman Alma Adams. “For too long, the needs of our HBCUs, TCUs, HSIs, PBIs, AANAPISIs, and MSIs have gone unaddressed, limiting opportunity for millions of low-income, first generation college students of color. With the Senate failing to act, we urge our colleagues to do the right thing and support the futures of our students and America’s STEM economy.”
Under Title III, Part F of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA), this funding is used to support tutelage in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields at MSIs, but its authorization expired on September 30, 2019. H.R. 2486, the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education (FUTURE) Act, which passed the House by voice vote on September 17th, would have extended mandatory funding for this program through FY 2021.
Posted By: Reginald Culpepper
Thursday, November 14th 2019 at 2:13PM
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