President Donald Trump on Thursday signed into law the FUTURE Act, which restores millions in federal funding to historically black Universities (HBCUs) and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs).
U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala, applauded the Senate for passing his bipartisan legislation on Dec. 10 to refund the minorty-serving schools.
“This day has been more than a year in the making and it will be a welcome relief to the HBCUs in Alabama that serve tens of thousands of our best and brightest. Today we are sending an important message of support for our HBCUs and showing in no uncertain terms that we believe they are vital to our system of higher education,” Jones said in a statement Dec. 10.
The Senate’s vote to pass the legislation came after the U.S. House reached a deal that included some consumer privacy protections related to student loan applications.
“We attained our goal because we had powerful bipartisan support at every point in the legislative process,” United Negro College Fund President Michael L. Lomax said in a statement after Trump signed the act into law. “Now, HBCUs and MSIs can continue their important work of educating our next generation of [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] scholars.”
“We are having a couple of big legislative weeks & getting things done!” Tweeted Sen. Doug Jones on Thursday evening. “Our bill, the FUTURE Act will permanently fund Historically Black Colleges & Universities. This is now law & is a big deal. With it we are able to fully support an array of future generations of leaders!!”
