[VT | September 27, 2026 | Philadelphia PA]
The U.S. Department of Education on Sept. 22 announced more than $235 million in additional one-time funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities. On Sept. 25, the chairs of the Congressional Tri-Caucus said they support greater investment in those institutions but oppose funding it by redirecting money from other Minority-Serving Institution programs.
The Department’s announcement
The Department announced more than $174 million for HBCUs and more than $61 million for Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, or TCCUs.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said HBCUs have long played a role in expanding educational opportunity, driving innovation, supporting local industries and developing the workforce, and that the new funding will help them continue that work. The Department said that, together with one-time funding provided in 2025, the administration’s additional investment in HBCUs across fiscal years 2025 and 2026 exceeds $612 million.
According to information the Department provided to Inside Higher Ed, the HBCU funding came from a program supporting STEM education and articulation at Hispanic-Serving Institutions. About $14.4 million of the TCCU funding came from the same program, and about $47.2 million came from programs serving Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions, and Native American-Serving Nontribal Institutions.
The Department has said that some MSI programs raise constitutional concerns because eligibility depends in part on the racial or ethnic composition of an institution’s students. It has said it asked Congress to address the issue and worked with the Office of Management and Budget to identify uses of the funds it considers consistent with the law.
The Tri-Caucus statement
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair Grace Meng, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Adriano Espaillat issued the joint statement.
“HBCUs and TCUs are vital institutions that deserve robust federal investment,” the chairs said, using the term Tribal Colleges and Universities.
Their objection centered on the source of the funds. The chairs said Congress appropriated the money for Minority-Serving Institution programs and the students they serve, and that “the administration should respect Congress’s constitutional authority over federal spending and the purposes for which Congress appropriated these resources.”
“Our communities should not be forced to fight over scraps when the federal government should be investing in all of them,” they said, adding that they are working to ensure that Asian, Alaska Native, Black, Hispanic, Native American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students have access to the resources and opportunities they deserve.
The chairs said the administration had taken a similar approach to MSI funding last year.
House education committee ranking member
Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and Workforce, also issued a statement Sept. 25.
“In 2019, Congress passed the bipartisan FUTURE Act which authorized $255 million in mandatory funding to HBCU, TCUs, and MSIs,” Scott said. He said HBCUs and TCUs remain “chronically underfunded and under-resourced,” and that additional funding for them “should not come at the expense of funding MSIs.”
Recipient organizations
The Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which represents publicly supported HBCUs, welcomed the additional investment.
The American Indian Higher Education Consortium welcomed the additional funding for Tribal Colleges and said it had not advocated for reducing funding to other institutions to provide that support.
