U.S. Rep. David Scott, GA-13 and U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, FL-5 worked to ensure that 1890 land grant Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) got a historic funding boost from the $867 billion Farm Bill. The bill includes $80 million in new funding to land-grant HBCUs for student scholarships. This will come from $40 million in discretionary authorization and another $40 million in mandatory funding.
Florida A&M University, Scott and Lawson’s alma mater, will get $2 million each year in new scholarship funding from the bill.
“I am especially proud of the $80M we have secured in funding for new scholarships for students attending the 19 African American 1890’s land-grant colleges and universities across the nation,” Scott said. “These scholarships will play a critical role in providing greater assistance for beginning farmers, and providing financial scholarships to bring more young people of all races who attend these outstanding universities for careers in the wonderful, and exciting, and growing world of agriculture businesses.”
“It is critical that our nation’s HBCUs have the resources necessary to succeed,” said Lawson, a member of the House Agriculture Committee and the HBCU Caucus. “This bill provides guaranteed funding for HBCUs and takes essential steps to create parity between the 1890 land grants and their 1862 counterparts.”
FAMU will be able to use the money to recruit new top flight high school seniors to its College of Agriculture and Food Sciences (CAFS). CAFS offers undergraduate majors in agribusiness, agronomy, animal science, biological & agricultural systems engineering, food science, entomology, and veterinary technology. It also offers a master of science degrees in most of those fields as well as an entomology cooperative Ph.D. with the University of Florida.