Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation Act

Mr. President, I rise today to talk about an issue that, quite frankly, I do not think gets enough attention on the floor of the Senate or on the floor of the House of Representatives, and that is the state of historically Black colleges and universities, or, as they are commonly known, HBCUs.

Alabama is home to 14 of these institutions, the most of any State in the country. With all due respect to my colleagues, we don't just have the most HBCUs. I believe we have the best.

Tuskegee University is the only HBCU with a college of veterinary medicine. The school produces over 75 percent of African-American veterinarians in the world. It has also just hired its first female university president, Dr. Lily McNair.

Alabama A&M University is the only 1890 land grant university offering four Ph.D. programs. It is also the leading producer of African Americans with Ph.Ds in physics.

Oakwood University is the Nation's fifth highest producer of undergraduate African-American applicants to our country's medical schools.

Alabama State University, whose president, my friend Dr. Quinton Ross, has joined us in the Gallery today, is home to the National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African-American Culture. ASU is currently doing preservation work on some never-before-seen documents, such as court pleadings, bond documents, and other official papers that are connected to the Montgomery bus boycott.

Lawson State Community College was also named a Champion of Change in 2011 by then-President Barack Obama.

There are over 100 accredited HBCUs today across the country, both public and private. They are in 19 States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They enroll approximately 300,000 students--80 percent of whom are African American and 70 percent of whom are from low-income families.

While HBCUs only make up 3 percent of the country's colleges and universities today, they produce nearly 20 percent of all African- American graduates. Among HBCU graduates, there are countless trailblazing Americans who have, quite literally, changed the course of our Nation's history: Dr. Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall, Marian Wright Edelman, Langston Hughes, Katherine Johnson, amongst so many others.

According to the National Science Foundation, between 2002 and 2011, the top eight institutions at which African-American Ph.Ds in science and engineering earned their bachelor's degrees were all HBCUs. HBCUs annually generate $14.8 billion in economic impact and add more than 134,000 jobs for local and regional economies, and 2014 Alabama HBCU graduates can expect total earnings of $130 billion over their lifetimes.

I could go on and on with these remarkable statistics for these remarkable colleges and universities. For all of these incredible achievements, though--for every achievement I have

just named--HBCUs in Alabama and across the country are working against the strong headwinds of serious financial struggles.

The Government Accountability Office recently investigated the capital finance needs of HBCUs at the request of my colleagues Senator Patty Murray and Senator Casey, also of Congressman Bobby Scott and Congressman G.K. Butterfield. The report estimates that 46 percent of all HBCU buildings are in need of replacement or repair. This is due to deferred maintenance, the evolution of higher education and technology, and the fact that many of these buildings are State or federally registered historic places. For example, Tuskegee University is designated as a National Historic Site by Congress. That is a remarkable figure--46 percent--of all buildings in need of repair or replacement. It is one that, I hope, all of my colleagues will agree is wholly unacceptable.

This is not a surprise, though, for those who understand the challenges these institutions have long faced. HBCUs lack a plethora of revenue sources. Public HBCUs rely heavily on State and Federal grants, appropriations, and bonds. Private HBCUs have to rely on private or alumni giving and tuition and fees. On top of that, the GAO found that an HBCU's average endowment is half the size of a similarly sized non- HBCU. That is half the size not of all non-HBCUs but half the size of similarly situated non-HBCUs.

None of the 90 institutions of higher education in this country with endowments greater than $1 billion is an HBCU. This results in an endless cycle for these schools that have contributed so greatly to our country and the talented students they serve. With their limited revenue resources and the discrimination they face in the bond market, it is difficult to maintain campus buildings that attract higher enrollment. Lower enrollment just leads to even less tuition and fewer fees that are collected by each institution. Thus, the cycle continues.

I didn't just come to talk about the problems our HBCUs face without offering some type of solution. I introduce today the Strengthening Minority-Serving Institutions Act, which will permanently extend and increase Federal funds to all minority-serving institutions. These Federal funds are currently set to expire after fiscal year 2019.

My bill goes beyond just supporting HBCUs and is inclusive of other minority-serving schools, like those that primarily admit Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians, Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans, among others. With this legislation, we will increase mandatory funding from $255 million to $300 million for each of these institutions. They will be able to put that money to good use for infrastructure improvements, technology upgrades, and other critical needs that have gone unfulfilled.

While I had hoped we could make this a bipartisan effort, I haven't yet heard back from any of my Republican colleagues. My Republican colleagues represent a fair share of these institutions, and I hope we will still gain some support from across the aisle and move this bill through the Senate.

This bill will not solve all of the challenges HBCUs face--all of the challenges they are working so hard to overcome. Yet I submit it is a step in the right direction. More importantly, it is the right thing to do for these schools that are part of the very foundation of our higher education system in Alabama and across the country.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.