{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://adams.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/pelosi-remarks-ahead-roundtable-hbcu-presidents-and-chancellors", "Pelosi Remarks Ahead of Roundtable with HBCU Presidents and Chancellors", "2017-09-29", "2017", "2017-09", "Democrat", "House", "NC", "Alma Adams", "A000370", "adams.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined Congresswoman Alma Adams, Congressman Bobby Scott and Members of the Congressional Black Caucus to deliver remarks ahead of a roundtable with Historically Black Colleges And Universities (HBCU) Presidents and Chancellors to discuss House Democrats\u2019 HBCU legislative priorities.\u00a0 Below are the Leader\u2019s remarks:\nLeader Pelosi.\u00a0 Very honored to be here with all of our colleagues and the Congressional Black Caucus, of course, is on board with all of this.\u00a0 I am honored to be here with Congresswoman Alma Adams and our Ranking Member Mr. [Bobby] Scott and our colleagues to welcome all of you to Washington D.C. and to commend you for the difference you have made already and recognizing much more needs to be done as we see on this beautiful card.\nJust for a little background, when we passed the Affordable Care Act, we passed the Higher Education bill as well and we crossed a threshold there.\u00a0 We would not have been able to do that without your help.\u00a0 Mr. [James] Clyburn, [Congressman] John Lewis were very much a part of this, as were all the other members of the Congressional Black Caucus.\u00a0 But the fact is, in that bill, we went from incrementally increasing, 16 million, 20, this, that, to a very big bill close to two and a half billion dollars for minority-serving institutions, a large chunk of that for HBCUs.\u00a0 Again, you made that happen, so I thank you.\nBut again, much more needs to be done in every aspect of what we do.\u00a0 Whether we are talking about infrastructure, and I commend Congresswoman Alma Adams for what she is doing on her capital improvement bill, about infrastructure, about the schools, the agriculture bill and how that\u2019s a pocket we can put our hand in and very important to the mission of the HBCUs.\u00a0 The list goes on \u2013 whether we are talking about Pell Grants and how we can make the funding mandatory, reliable and bigger, so I\u2019m sure we will have that discussion.\nI want to acknowledge Dr. [David] Wilson because I had the privilege of speaking at Morgan State a couple years ago.\u00a0 I\u2019m from Baltimore so that was a big thrill for me.\u00a0 Thank you Dr. [David] Wilson for your hospitality.\u00a0 I was at Fisk University last year and that was fun too. \u00a0So I\u2019m available, any invitations you want to extend!\n[Laughter]\nBecause we\u2019re at a pivotal place, when we talk about infrastructure, we have to remember \u2013 labs, infrastructure attracts talent, talent attracts capital, capital attracts more infrastructure to attract more capital.\u00a0 So when we\u2019re going into the future with our innovation agenda with our Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Pay, Better Future. \u00a0It\u2019s very important we\u2019re equipping all of our young people with tools for the jobs for the 21st century and their education is part of it.\nMr. Butterfield and I have talked in the past about when people celebrate so-and-so giving X number of dollars to Stanford or Harvard or what \u2013 that\u2019s really nice. I think they should tithe \u2013 they should give 10 percent to a minority serving institution so that it isn\u2019t just drawing the money to the same places and therefore the kids.\u00a0 The kids.\u00a0 We want the kids to go to school in a place they\u2019re comfortable, where they love the atmosphere, they love the atmosphere and all the rest but they also \u2013 we can\u2019t have an opportunity cost for them because it doesn\u2019t have the facilities that we want to have.\nWe have to think \u2013 you\u2019ve all been thinking \u2013 government has to be thinking bigger, different, in entrepreneurial ways about how we get that money both [on the] public side, private side, philanthropic side, about how we get that money to institutions of higher learning.\u00a0 So again, the facilities attracts talent, attracts the capital and the cycle goes on.\u00a0 It\u2019s absolutely essential if we\u2019re going to have the infrastructure that works for everyone, every place in America and investing in education.\nThe big fight we have here is the battle of the budget and they\u2019ll say curb this spending and curb that spending in education or this or that because we have to reduce the deficit.\u00a0 This is a fact \u2013 nothing brings more money to the treasury than investing in education. \u00a0Early childhood, K-12, higher education, lifetime learning for our workers.\nSo if you want to reduce the deficit, invest more in education. \u00a0Don\u2019t think that tax cuts for the rich are going to have a dynamic effect and grow our economy: no. \u00a0Educating our people. \u00a0All of our people. \u00a0And doing so in a way that equips them with the tools of the 21st century. \u00a0All these things with innovation, artificial intelligence, all the rest of it. \u00a0We want our kids to avail themselves of the opportunities that are there.\nI thank you for the priorities that you have put here on this card and I look forward to working with you and our discussion. \u00a0We\u2019ll talk more specifically about some of it. \u00a0The capital improvement legislation that [Congresswoman] Alma [Adams] has put forward is so very important to all that we\u2019ve just discussed.\nI am honored to serve in the Congress with the Ranking Member [Bobby Scott] on the Education and Workforce Committee. \u00a0He understands these issues so thoroughly.\nI don\u2019t know if it is my privilege to introduce him or if I should be yielding back to [Congresswoman] Alma [Adams] but you have to know the clarity of his understanding on these issues, the way he teaches the rest of us. \u00a0Not only these issues, some people think he\u2019s the best lawyer in the Congress when talking about justice and our judicial system. \u00a0Any subject that you can name, whether it\u2019s our budget, whether it\u2019s the specifics of our investments in education, whether it\u2019s where we have economic justice, social justice, justice in the courts, I could talk a long time and you probably think I will about the work that he\u2019s done. \u00a0Instead, I\u2019m just going to yield to him so he can give you the benefit of his thinking.\nThank you [Congressman] Bobby [Scott].", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://adams.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/pelosi-remarks-ahead-roundtable-hbcu-presidents-and-chancellors"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9502079337835312, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}