Rogers said “excessive” federal spending put many education and other domestic programs “on an irresponsible and unsustainable fiscal path.”

In addition to the cuts for HBCUs and Hispanic-serving colleges, the House GOP plan would eliminate:

n  a $9.6 million program for predominantly Black colleges;

n  a major aid program for tribal colleges, funded at $26 million;

n  a $13 million aid program for Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions;

n  a $3.2 million program for colleges with significant enrollments of Asian American/Pacific Islander students; and

n  a $3.2 million initiative for nontribal institutions with significant Native American enrollments.

Federal support for HBCU graduate institutions would remain at $61 million, while the House would continue a $9 million initiative supporting graduate programs for Hispanic students.

House Republicans may be targeting MSIs because they are getting mandatory funding from last year’s health care reform bill, Bartley said. That law also included several long-discussed changes in federal higher education aid, such as an extra $250 million a year for MSIs over 10 years.

But that pot of money is just for science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, programs, she noted. By comparison, the Title III HBCU program is the “foundation” of federal support, with broad use of dollars for academic and facility improvements.

“These would be deep, deep cuts at a time when there are major demographic changes taking place in the nation,” she added.

While the House Appropriations Committee has yet to pass its bill, plans to cut minority-serving colleges already may not fare well in the Senate. The Appropriations Committee in that chamber has unveiled a spending bill with level funding for the main HBCU and Hispanic-serving programs at $236 million and $104 million, respectively.

Tribal colleges, predominantly Black colleges, and the other small MSI programs also would receive continued funding at current levels.