Historic Preservation Fund Historically Black Colleges and Universities Grants

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to state my excitement that Democrats and Republicans were able to come together to add two million dollars to the Historic Preservation Fund grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the FY18 appropriations bill passed on the House floor today.

Last year, Congress appropriated $4 million for grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities under the National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund. Unfortunately, this year President Trump's FY18 budget eliminated all funding for this program. I was glad to see that both Democrats and Republicans strongly disagreed with President Trump's misguided cut, and ultimately decided to increase the total funding of HBCU grants to $5 million for FY18.

My district, the 7th Congressional District of Alabama, is well-known as the Civil Rights District. The State of Alabama is also home to fifteen Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the most in the country. These important grants will provide assistance to repair and restore historic buildings on our HBCU campuses. Our HBCUs are rich with history that deserves to be preserved for future generations, and I can think of no better institution than our Nation's storytellers, the National Park Service, to do the job. Moreover, this funding will help revitalize our HBCU campuses, and help stimulate economic revitalization in their communities.

Again, I would like to thank Chairman Calvert and Ranking Member McCollum for working with me in the past, as well as Assistant Leader Clyburn for offering an Amendment to increase HBCU Grant funding by $2 million. This is an important program for our HBCUs, and I will continue to work across the aisle to ensure that these funds are protected in the final FY18 budget.

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