Norton Files Another UDC Bill to Assure Equal Treatment with Like Institutions (6/29/07)

Washington, DC-As Congress packed up last evening, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced a bill to put the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) on par with all of the other land grant universities in the country. Since 1974, UDC has been the only all urban land grant institution in the country. However, the University's related community outreach and education activities were not included in the 1974 UDC land grant authorization. Instead, the extension services at the University were awkwardly authorized in the District of Columbia Higher Education and Post Secondary Act of 1974, rather than the Smith - Lever Act which is used to fund extension services at all other land grant institutions. UDC also lacks the same waiver and reduction of matching requirements for agricultural experiment station programs authorized by the Hatch Act that other land grant institutions enjoy. As a result, the University "has been treated unequally, and this bill means change," Norton said. For example, funds are disseminated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the Education Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), designed to provide predominantly minority low-income youth and families with nutrition education that leads to sustainable behavior changes, without any nonfederal matching requirement to the various land grant institutions in the states and territories, except for UDC, which is required to have a 100 percent match if it receives the money. "The language requiring the 100 percent match for District of Columbia EFNEP programs is clearly a relic of the political climate that existed at the time the EFNEP provision was enacted for the District of Columbia in 1974," Norton said.

The Norton bill would eliminate barriers to UDC's participation in the 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 USDA.

This is the second bill Norton has introduced this Congress to strengthen UDC.