Conferee Norton Protected Funding for UDC in Farm Bill Passed by House and Senate (5/15/08)

Washington, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said today that sections she has long sought are in the Farm Bill on its way to the President today, but expressed concern over "serious defects" in some of the bill's provisions. For the first time, the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) qualifies for millions of dollars in grants. Norton, who used her seniority to be appointed a Farm Bill conferee, protected provisions from her bill to put UDC, the only all urban land grant institution in the country, on par with other land grant universities in the country. Norton's bill eliminates barriers to the University's participation in agricultural research and extension programs and provides the authority needed for the University to participate in capacity building and facilities programs now being administered at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"I appreciate the working relationship that House Chairman Collin Peterson and Senate Chairman Tom Harkin and my House and Senate colleagues on the Agriculture Committee generously formed with me to produce this path-breaking bill. Access to these first-time funds cover the waterfront - from vital nutrition programs to facilities. The new congressional majority has shown it intends to honor D.C.'s long quest for equal treatment, whether the vote or access to critical funds."

In particular, the farm bill frees UDC from the legislative relic that awkwardly authorized community outreach and education activities at UDC in the District of Columbia Higher Education and Post Secondary Act of 1974, rather than the Smith-Lever Act, which funds extension services at other land grant institutions. Now, the University will be able to expand to provide services, such as pesticide safety training and licensing for professionals; water quality education and monitoring; gardening assistance for D.C. homeowners; and resources for teachers to bring appropriate material to the classroom; among other services. UDC will also be able to use federal funds from the Education Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) to provide youth and families with nutrition education that leads to sustainable behavior changes without any nonfederal matching requirement, the same as other land grant institutions in the states and territories.

Until Norton's bill, UDC was the only land grant institution required to have a 100 percent match to receive funding. Norton also managed to include a provision to extend to UDC the same waiver and reduction of matching requirements for agricultural experiment station programs as authorized by the Hatch Act and that other land grant institutions enjoy. Other provisions provide UDC access to grants and fellowships for food and agricultural sciences education, and grants to upgrade the University's food and agriculture facilities.

Norton has long fought for equal treatment for the District's only state university. In 1999, when Norton's D.C. tuition assistance grant bill (DCTAG) was passed, she insisted that Congress also give UDC its long-sought Historically Black College and University (HBCU) federal funding status for its undergraduate programs. Earlier this year the Congresswoman introduced a bill to extend HBCU funding to UDC's qualified graduate programs, and such funding for the David A. Clarke School of Law pending in the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

Norton, who will travel to Haiti tomorrow on an emergency mission brought on by the food crisis there, said, "Crop subsidies and increased exportation of food grown on American soil displace crops grown in the developing world, reduce global supply, and exacerbate the already dire food crisis that has come to the forefront of the political discourse here and worldwide." Norton is particularly concerned that the bill also mandates ethanol production from corn, making it nearly impossible for many farmers to grow anything other than corn to be used for ethanol. Norton hopes to get some changes when she returns from Haiti.