Sponsors (20)
The bill expands access to scholarships for students at 1890 institutions and provides stable, dedicated CCC funding, but does so by diverting CCC resources—creating budgetary trade-offs that could reduce agricultural program flexibility and introduce uncertainty in award timing when funds are tight.
Students at 1890 land-grant institutions become explicitly eligible for bachelor's and graduate scholarships, increasing access to higher education for those students and strengthening 1890 colleges and universities.
The bill guarantees $15 million annually from the Commodity Credit Corporation (starting FY2025) to support the scholarship program, providing predictable funding that helps sustain awards year-to-year.
Extends discretionary funding authority and ties award frequency to available funds, allowing program administrators to align awards with actual budget resources and avoid overcommitment.
Taxpayers indirectly support a guaranteed $15 million per year from CCC resources, which represents a public cost and could require offsets elsewhere in federal spending.
Directing CCC funds to scholarships may reduce the CCC's flexibility to support commodity programs or emergency agricultural assistance in some years, potentially harming farmers and rural communities.
Tying award timing and size to the availability of subsection (b)(1) funding could make awards unpredictable in years of constrained funding, complicating students' financial planning.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Expands and secures scholarship funding for students at 1890 land‑grant institutions by explicitly allowing awards for bachelor’s and graduate degree programs and by requiring $15 million in annual funding from Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) funds starting in fiscal year 2025. It also makes an existing discretionary funding authority open‑ended (applies from FY2020 onward) and ties the timing of academic‑year awards to the availability of the new mandatory funds. The changes direct the Secretary of Agriculture to implement these scholarship provisions with the new funding flow and availability rules, increasing predictability and duration of scholarship support for students at 1890 institutions.
Introduced February 12, 2025 by David Scott · Last progress February 12, 2025