Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021
Has Congress moved to enact President Biden’s campaign promise to increase funding to HBCUs?
The Biden administration appears likely to fall far short of a campaign pledge to invest $70 billion in historically Black colleges and other minority-serving institutions to “lower students’ costs, increase graduation rates, establish research centers, build high-tech labs, and more.”
In March 2021, the White House proposed $45 billion in research and development funds for HBCUs and MSIs, as part of the administration’s $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill. With disagreement among congressional Democrats over funding levels and priorities, the bill’s most recent version allocates only $2 billion for the institutions, in the form of competitively-awarded grants rather than direct allocations. Those institutions would still receive $27 billion in tuition subsidies and $1.45 billion of institutional aid.
In response, a group of HBCU presidents wrote a letter to members of Congress, urging “direct action” through the reconciliation bill to eliminate historical under-investments.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Biden for President Fact sheet: Joe and Kamala will empower Black men
- White House Fact sheet: The American Jobs Plan
- AP News Black colleges’ funding hopes dim amid federal budget battle
- Inside Higher Ed HBCUs get less than they say is needed in Build Back Better Act
- 1890 Universities Foundation Letter urging HBCU funding increases
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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