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[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3151 Introduced in House (IH)]

108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3151

  To amend part B of title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to 
   expand the eligibility requirement to include Predominantly Black 
                   Institutions of higher education.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 23, 2003

Mr. Owens (for himself, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Towns, Mr. Rush, Mr. Fattah, 
Mr. Davis of Illinois, Ms. Norton, Ms. Kilpatrick, Mrs. Jones of Ohio, 
    Mr. Wynn, Mr. Payne, and Mr. Meeks of New York) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 
                             the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
  To amend part B of title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to 
   expand the eligibility requirement to include Predominantly Black 
                   Institutions of higher education.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``HBCU Expansion Act of 2003''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Over the last several years post-secondary institutions 
        have faced a dramatic increase in the number of non-traditional 
        students. Predominantly Black Institutions, following the 
        pattern of historically Black colleges and universities 
        (referred to as ``HBCU's''), have helped ease the influx by 
        offering an affordable quality education.
            (2) Currently, more than 100,000 students attend 
        Predominantly Black Institutions. Similar to HBCU's the 
        majority of these students depend heavily on Federal financial 
        aid to graduate from college.
            (3) Predominantly Black Institutions, like HBCU's, provide 
        opportunities for minority students to pursue post-secondary 
        degrees.
            (4) Predominantly Black Institutions, like HBCU's, have 
        produced a cadre of leaders who make up a significant number of 
        the Nation's minority doctors, lawyers and other professionals.
            (5) Predominantly Black Institutions, like HBCU's, provide 
        students from under-served communities with academic and 
        emotional support which translates to high retention and 
        graduation rates.

SEC. 3. QUALIFYING PREDOMINANTLY BLACK INSTITUTIONS.

    Section 322 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1061) is 
amended--
            (1) in paragraph (2)--
                    (A) by striking ``means any'' and inserting ``means 
                (A) any''; and
                    (B) by inserting before the period at the end the 
                following: ``or (B) any Predominantly Black 
                Institution''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(6) The term `Predominantly Black Institution' means any 
        institution of higher education that--
                    ``(A) is an eligible institution under section 
                312(b) that complies with paragraph (1)(C)(i) of such 
                section; and
                    ``(B) at the time of application, has a student 
                enrollment of at least 500 full-time students, at least 
                51 percent of whom are African Americans.''.
                                 <all>
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