December 6, 2012
NJ Revilla-Garcia

HACU urging HSIs to take action on the impending Fiscal Cliff

Last week the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) and HSIs participated in a conference call with the White House on the impending Fiscal Cliff.

“Since Congress has very little time left to make a decision that would prevent the fiscal cliff from going into effect this January, we are calling on HSIs to take action,” said HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores, in an email to HSIs. “We are urging presidents, faculty, staff and students at HSIs to contact their members of Congress and ask them to stop the sequester process and to preserve funding for HSI programs.”

The sequestration process will impose mandatory cuts beginning January 2013 unless Congressional action is taken to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” which could result in dramatic and devastating cuts to funding of numerous programs, many of which serve the diverse student populations at HSIs. The Office of Management and Budget outlined projected mandatory cuts should sequestration go into effect:

• 8.2% cut to discretionary non-defense programs (that would apply to all discretionary HSI programs, i.e. Title V, Parts I and II, and the USDA HSI program)
• 7.6% cut to non-defense mandatory programs (STEM grants for HSIs would be affected; Pell grants are exempt)
• 9.6% cut to Defense programs (veterans’ education benefits are excluded from these cuts)

HACU has provided a sample letter available as a Word document here. For additional information, contact Laura Maristany, Executive Director of Legislative Affairs at 202-261-2090.