Booker Urges Senate, McConnell to Renew Funding for Minority-Serving Institutions of Higher Education

New Jersey home to 13 minority-serving institutions

Mandatory federal funding expired on September 30 with no Senate vote

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), whose father graduated from a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), today urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to restore funding for HBCUs, Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), and other minority serving-institutions (MSIs). Mandatory funding benefiting these institutions lapsed on September 30, 2019.

“HBCUs, HSIs, TCUS, and MSIs serve as one of the most significant pathways for diverse communities to access higher education and any lapse in funding could hinder the ability for students of color to succeed. It’s critically important that funding for these institutions is restored to ensure that the educational opportunities for an increasingly diverse student body remain accessible and strong for years to come,” Senator Booker said. “The impact these institutions can have on students of color is priceless. For my father, born poor in the segregated South, attending North Carolina Central University, an HBCU, proved to be a bridge for him and my family to move from poverty to the Middle Class in a single generation. Students across this nation deserve the same chance to thrive.”

Today’s push comes a day after Booker joined his Democratic Senate colleagues in calling on Senate Majority Leader McConnell to hold a vote on Booker’s bipartisan FUTURE Act, which would reauthorize federal funding for these institutions. The House of Representatives approved the legislation unanimously in September.

New Jersey is home to the following 13 Hispanic-serving institutions and Predominantly Black Institutions, which received $47 million in federal funding last fiscal year:

• Bergen Community College
• Bloomfield College
• Essex County College
• Fairleigh Dickinson University
• Felician University
• Hudson County Community College
• Middlesex County College
• Montclair State University
• New Jersey City University
• Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark Campus
• Saint Peter’s University
• Union County College
• William Paterson University

In addition to the FUTURE Act, Booker, a member of the bicameral, bipartisan HBCU Caucus is also the author of the bipartisan HBCU Capital Financing Improvement Act, which would make technical changes to a financing program that helps HBCUs access capital for renovation and construction projects on campus. The technical changes would allow more HBCUs to access the program. Booker is also an original cosponsor of legislation to reauthorize the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Historic Preservation program.

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