For immediate release

HACU celebrates selection of Congressman Lewis
as new chair of House Appropriations Committee

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) praised today’s decision of the House of Representatives to name U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis of California chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee for the 109th Congress.

“HACU applauds the choice of Congressman Lewis, a celebrated champion of Hispanics in California and nationwide, as the new chair of the House Appropriations Committee,” said HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores.

“Congressman Lewis has long been a hero of HACU as past chair of the House National Security Appropriations Subcommittee and the House VA-HUD and Independent Agencies Subcommittee for his help in winning substantial federal funding increases for programs at Hispanic-serving colleges and universities ,” Flores said.

HACU represents over 400 colleges and universities that collectively serve more than two-thirds of all Hispanic higher education students in the United States and include leading higher education institutions throughout the Americas and in Spain.

“HACU looks forward to Congressman Lewis’s new role as chair of a committee that will shape the nation’s federal funding priorities. His championship of our communities and of our children spans his distinguished career in public service from his earlier leadership in the California State Legislature to his service to the nation in the United States Congress since 1978,” Flores said.

“We will continue to look to his leadership in expanding access to college for our nation’s largest ethnic population and for all Americans in his new role as chair of the House Appropriations Committee,” Flores said.

For more information about HACU, contact HACU’s national headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, at (210) 692-3805. Or visit www.hacu.net.