Tim Scott: “Mr. Chairman, this started out as a bipartisan bill designed to expand opportunities and I hope it ends up that way if…”

“Mr. Chairman, this started out as a bipartisan bill designed to expand opportunities and I hope it ends up that way if we defeat this divisive amendment. Mr. Chairman, this language either means nothing because Title VI already prohibits discrimination or it is different from Title VI and that will take years of litigation to interpret what it means. There is one interesting legal point in terms of discrimination on religion. We do not know whether that would mean that religious schools could or could not discriminate or prefer those of its religion. But there is one thing that we know, and that is we could not remedy notorious discrimination if this amendment would pass. Whatever it means, it would attack valuable programs designed to address woeful underrepresentation of minorities in certain fields. There are only a handful of minority Ph.D.'s granted in science every year and outreach initiatives to address this woeful underrepresentation aimed at minorities, such as the Ronald E. McNair program to encourage minorities to pursue doctorates in science. Those programs would be in jeopardy. Let us keep opportunity open. I urge Members to defeat this amendment just like we defeated the last amendment.”