Photo: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Nikema Williams (GA-05) addressed the growing concerns over funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in the proposed budget reconciliation package:

“As the American Jobs and Families Plans have morphed into reconciliation legislation, we have had to do more with less. Nowhere has that been more evident than downsizing President Biden’s proposed $45 billion for institutions including HBCUs to $2 billion.

“I am a proud third-generation HBCU graduate and have the honor of representing the District with the highest concentration of HBCUs in the country. HBCUs are drivers of economic development and proven partners in the work to close the racial wealth gap. We owe it to millions of Black and low-income students around the country to ensure reconciliation is not the end of our investments in HBCUs this Congress.

“I am ready to fight for increased funding for HBCUs – in the reconciliation process and beyond. To start, we need President Biden, House and Senate Leadership, and House Education & Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott to ensure that the final reconciliation package does not put HBCUs in competition with other institutions for already limited resources. It is time for lasting investments in HBCU infrastructure.”