Norton Makes UDC Eligible for Millions of Dollars in Farm Bill (7/27/07)

Washington, DC- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today won a major victory for the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) with House passage of the Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007 (Farm Bill), which includes Norton provisions enabling UDC's valuable urban agricultural research and extension services to be eligible for millions of dollars in federal grants and other benefits. "These changes are a breakthrough in equal treatment for the nation's only urban land grant institution," Norton said. Currently, UDC is left out of numerous funding opportunities open to similar institutions. For example, the University is required to provide 100 percent matching funds for its Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Programs, unlike all other small land grant institutions. UDC will now have access to grants to significantly upgrade the University's teaching, research and extension programs and facilities, as a result of provisions Norton negotiated into the bill with Agricultural Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN). Norton also got the Congressional Black Caucus to put the UDC provisions in the CBC farm bill package to underscore the importance of the UDC changes based on equal treatment. UDC's Cooperative Extension programs provide pesticide safety training and licensing for professionals; water quality education and monitoring and gardening assistance for D.C. homeowners; and resources for teachers to integrate agriculture in the classroom; among other services.

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 the long-sought Historically Black College and University (HBCU) federal funding status for its undergraduate programs that had always been denied. Earlier this year the Congresswoman introduced a bill to extend HBCU funding to UDC's qualified graduate programs.