Brian Jones: “I am here once again to urge the Senate to take up the FUTURE Act, to extend funding for our historically Black colleges…”

“I am here once again to urge the Senate to take up the FUTURE Act, to extend funding for our historically Black colleges and universities. I see my great friend, the Senator from Tennessee, across the way, and I know the Senator, as a music fan and a musician himself, understands the term ``broken record.'' A broken record is that record that is an old album and the vinyl has a little bit of a flaw, and it just gets stuck on the same lyric, the same refrain, and keeps going back to it. That is what I feel like today. I also know that with just a little pressure on those old vinyl records, just a little bit of pressure, you can go right through that and get to melody. That is what I was hoping to do today, that we could put just enough pressure on the Senate and others to go right through and fund HBCUs. The deadline for that funding ends September 30. People will say it is not going to turn the lights out in our historically Black colleges and universities, and it is not. I get that. We also know we have to plan. We have to look months in advance. We have to look a year in advance to make sure that funding is there. This bill--a similar bill has passed the House of Representatives unanimously. In this partisan world we are living in, it passed the House unanimously the other day. It has overwhelming bipartisan support in this body. This is something our historically Black colleges and universities need today. They don't need to wait.…”