“To establish the Federal Clearinghouse on Grant Opportunities for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section sets forth congressional findings on the contributions of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)—which enroll 8.5% of Black undergraduate students but produce nearly 18% of Black STEM bachelor's degree recipients as of 2024—and their underrepresentation in federal research funding (less than 1% of approximately $60 billion in FY2023 expenditures at colleges and universities), attributing barriers to historical underfunding and smaller endowments. The section further finds that only one HBCU (Howard University) has very high research activity status and recommends strategies including a federal clearinghouse for grant opportunities and best practices, interagency collaboration, merit-review reforms, coordinated agency reviews, and congressional reporting to promote equitable access and build HBCU research capacity.
This section establishes a Federal Clearinghouse on Research Capacity and Grant Opportunities for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)—institutions eligible for aid under part B of title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1060 et seq.)—within the Department of Education. The Clearinghouse, coordinated by the Secretary of Education with the Secretaries of Commerce, Energy, Defense, and Agriculture, the Director of the National Science Foundation, and the Administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency and National Aeronautics and Space Administration, serves as the primary federal resource identifying grant opportunities available to or exclusively for HBCUs that support research and development or institutional research capacity building. It includes best practices and recommendations for HBCUs to access such funding; is staffed by assigned Department personnel and detailees from the coordinating agencies; and is exempt from the Paperwork Reduction Act and Federal Advisory Committee Act.
This section directs the Secretary of Education to notify each part B institution (i.e., historically black college or university, as defined in section 322 of the Higher Education Act of 1965) and Congress upon publication of the Federal Clearinghouse on Grant Opportunities for Historically Black Colleges and Universities; submit an annual report to Congress on the Clearinghouse's contents; and offer quarterly updates on those contents to part B institutions, sending updates to those that opt in.
This section directs the Secretaries of Education, Commerce, Energy, Defense, and Agriculture; the Director of the National Science Foundation; and the Administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to (1) review grant programs administered by their respective agencies and identify any that may be used to implement best practices and recommendations of the Clearinghouse; (2) identify any such best practices and recommendations for which no federal grant program exists that may be used for implementation applicable to the agency; and (3) annually report findings under (2) to the appropriate congressional committees.