S.Amdt. 2354

SA 2354. Mr. JONES submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by
him to the bill H.R. 5515, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year
2019 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle E of title V, add the following:

SEC. 558. CONSTRUCTION AND REHABILITATION OF FACILITIES FOR
SENIOR RESERVE OFFICERS' TRAINING CORPS
PROGRAMS AT HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND
UNIVERSITIES AND MINORITY-SERVING INSTITUTION.

(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)
and minority-serving institutions play a vital role in
educating low-income and underrepresented students in areas
of national need.
(2) Historically black colleges and universities and
minority-serving institutions presently contribute to the
defense readiness and national security of the nation by
administering Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC)
programs that prepare students to lead our Armed Forces.
(3) Racial and ethnic minority groups made up 40 percent of
all active-duty members of the Armed Forces in 2015, up from
25 percent in 1990. Minorities make up a significant and
crucial number of the enlisted members in all four of the
Armed Forces and also make up an increasingly important
number of the officer corps, and yet the officer corps does
not yet fully reflect the diversity of the nation. While 12
percent of the nation is African American, only 8 percent of
active-duty officers were African American in the most recent
report on minority officers in 2011. Similarly, Hispanic
Americans make up 15 percent of the population and only 5
percent of the officer corps. And yet a higher number of the
enlisted members of the Armed Forces are minorities.
(4) Providing a facility for Reserve Officers' Training
Corps programs is one of the many financial challenges to
increasing access to the officer track in minority settings.
Considering the financial strains that face the historically
black colleges and universities today, financial strains that
are often even greater than those confronting all of the
nation's colleges and universities in time with increasing
State budget cuts, it is important to provide additional
support to Reserve Officers' Training Corps programs at
historically black colleges and universities across the
country by authorizing the military departments to provide
for the construction or rehabilitation of Reserve Officers'
Training Corps program facilities at historically black
colleges and universities and minority-serving institution
campuses.
(b) Construction and Rehabilitation Authorized.--
(1) In general.--The Secretaries of the military
departments may provide for the construction and
rehabilitation of facilities for Senior Reserve Officers'
Training Corps programs at historically black colleges and
universities and minority-serving institutions that host such
programs.
(2) Special consideration.--In determining whether to
construct or rehabilitate facilities of historically black
colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions
using the authority in paragraph (1), the Secretary of a
military department shall afford special consideration to the
following:
(A) Colleges and universities, and institutions, located in
States in which reside a high number of enlisted members of
the Armed Forces who are members of a minority group.
(B) Colleges and universities, and institutions, with a
high number of Reserve Officers' Training Corps program
participants who are members of a minority group.
(C) Colleges and universities, and institutions, located in
States that are reducing funding for higher education.
(3) Limitation.--The total number of facilities that may be
constructed or rehabilitated using the authority in paragraph
(1) in any fiscal year may not exceed five facilities.
(c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is hereby
authorized to be appropriated for fiscal year 2019 for the
Department of Defense, $20,000,000 for the construction and
rehabilitation of facilities in that fiscal year as
authorized by subsection (b).
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