Strengthening Minority-Serving Institutions Act of 2018

Mr. President, as I rise for my 220th ``Time to Wake Up'' climate speech, there is abundant evidence that meaningful action on climate change in the United States is unlikely. We have a President who, against all the evidence, claims that climate change is a Chinese hoax. This is the same President who announced last year that he was pulling the United States out of the international Paris Agreement.

This is the same President who installed the theatrically corrupt Scott Pruitt, who owed his entire political career to the fossil fuel industry, to lead, of all things, the Environmental Protection Agency. When Pruitt's endless string of scandals finally proved too much even for this epically swampy administration, President Trump then made a coal industry lobbyist the Acting EPA Administrator.

The fundamentally rotten bargain at the heart of today's Trump politics is that his party is essentially bankrolled by the fossil fuel industry. This is why you see Republicans seeking to freeze voluntary fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars. If consumers pay more at the pump to fill up, fine--what matters is that the oil companies get to keep pumping.

This is why the Republican Clean Power Plan doesn't really reduce carbon emissions. In fact, the EPA's own numbers show that the replacement plan will result in poorer health for Americans, including 1,400 additional deaths a year, but what matters is that the coal companies sell coal.

Republicans even plan to weaken standards on methane leaks. It doesn't matter that methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas. What matters is that the oil and gas industry doesn't have to spend any money to prevent those leaks.

So there is lots of evidence that meaningful action on climate change in this country is unlikely. Yet on Friday I attended the Global Climate Action Summit, organized by California Governor Brown, to keep up progress reducing carbon emissions and fighting the effects of climate change.

At the summit, States, cities, Provinces, and companies from around the world--indeed, foreign nations--made new announcements about climate change and to reduce carbon emissions. Governor Brown himself signed a law requiring 100 percent of California's electricity to be carbon-free by 2045 and committed that California would be carbon- neutral by the same year. Plus, there is that satellite to measure carbon emissions.

New Jersey announced plans to install more than 3,000 megawatts of offshore wind.

States and cities in India announced plans for thousands of electric buses,

cool roofs, and solar-equipped public buildings.

IKEA, the furniture store, announced that all of its delivery services will be zero emissions by 2025.

That is just a small sample of the new commitments--evidence of the determination of Governors, mayors, CEOs, investors, and NGOs to combat climate change despite the failure of Republican leadership in Washington.

But if we are to have any hope of keeping global warming under 2 degrees Celsius--or better yet, 1.5 degrees--we are going to need leadership here. We are going to need a Federal price on carbon. That is why last week's announcement from the Climate Leadership Council was so important. The CLC has been working with former Republican Secretaries of State George Shultz and James Baker and former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for a $40-per-ton carbon fee and return all of the money raised by that carbon fee to American families in the form of a dividend. This plan shares a lot of similarities with the American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act, which I introduced with Senator Schatz of Hawaii. The CLC plan is supported by many corporations, business leaders, and former Republican officials.

Last week, the CLC announced that its $40-per-ton carbon fee would result in emissions reductions substantially better than our present national targets. The CLC also found that 56 percent of Americans-- including majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans-- support it. Seventy-one percent of millennials support a carbon fee, which shows that carbon pricing is coming. The only question is how soon. Americans intuitively understand that it makes sense to impose a fee on something we want less of, whether it is carbon emissions or cigarettes. When the revenues from those fees are returned to the American people, it is better still.

Last week's climate summit featured a discussion on carbon pricing organized by the business community. The fossil fuel industry and its array of front groups will, of course, attack any effort to put a price on carbon emissions. So having companies like Gap, Exelon, Pacific Gas and Electric, and Steelcase speak out in favor of carbon pricing was a good start. When the business community shows broad-based support for carbon pricing, it will be very difficult to argue that it is bad for business, but let's remember that the fossil fuel companies bring heavy artillery to this fight.

Washington State has a carbon fee ballot initiative right now, which has provoked Big Oil to spend $20 million to defeat that initiative, including companies that claim they support a carbon price. Among the donors are BP, Phillips 66, and others that have contributed over $3 million each to oppose the carbon price initiative. So against that Big Oil blowback, it would sure be nice if Washington State's corporate leaders stood up on this.

Starbucks, after all, has a whole web page about climate change and has committed to purchasing 100 percent renewable energy. Amazon has a web page on its efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, and it, too, is aiming to go to 100 percent renewable.

Jeff Bezos, one of the world's richest people, is investing in clean energy, along with another corporate icon of Washington State, Microsoft's Bill Gates. In fact, Microsoft is hard at work reducing carbon emissions in its operations. It even has an internal carbon price to encourage reductions in carbon pollution.

Boeing has a web page cataloging its efforts to combat climate change by making its airplanes more efficient.

So where are they when it comes to their own home State's plan to actually do something about climate change? As we have seen so often here in Washington, DC, as well, it is radio silence. The interesting thing is that Big Oil is actually tiny compared to Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Boeing, and the rest of the tech companies, Wall Street banks, insurance companies, consumer goods companies, retailers, and food and beverage companies that all claim to care about climate change--tiny.

The difference is that Big Oil shows up. It shows up here in Congress. It funds its armada of front groups and trade associations and phony think tanks to steer Republicans here in Congress away from anything limiting carbon pollution, just like it is showing up right now in Washington State to kill an initiative that would limit carbon pollution.

Here is the problem: The good guys aren't showing up. They don't show up here in Congress, and they are letting Big Oil outgun them even in Washington State. In my experience, if you don't show up to the game, you don't win. It is as simple as that.

That is the message I took to last week's summit. I truly appreciate business leaders who talk about the dangers of climate change and the value of carbon pricing. I truly appreciate business leaders who work on reducing carbon emissions within their corporate footprint. But it also matters what you do in the public arena. Show up to fight for the policy you already espouse. Show up here in Congress and in Washington State. Challenge Big Oil rather than forfeit the game before it even begins. This is a fight. There are hydraulics in politics. If no one pushes back, the only team on the field will win.

Well, we can't keep having the fossil fuel industry win this fight because we will all be losers in their win. We have to win, but to do that, we will need companies talking a good game to actually show up on game day.

It is not just time to wake up. It is time to show up.

I yield the floor.

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 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.