Over the past three days, nearly 1,400 community college leaders, students, and other advocates have been in Washington, D.C. for the 2025 Community College National Legislative Summit (NLS). As part of the event, ACCT members from far and wide traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with their elected officials.
Yesterday, 14 lawmakers sent a bipartisan message of support for community colleges during Tuesday’s Community College Congressional Forum in the U.S. Capitol. Among their ranks were numerous first-time Congressional leaders, as well as multiple community college alumni and first-generation college students, all of whom urged community college leaders to advocate for their institutions and students.
“From a policy standpoint, you’re here at a great time,” said Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), who suggested that “we’re in the 9th inning” of longstanding efforts to allow Pell grants to be used for short-term job training programs. “I’m not going to promise you, but… I don’t know why it wouldn’t become law,” Marshall said.
Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.) stressed that community colleges remain the most flexible sector in higher education. “They fit everything. They’re affordable and they’re accessible,” said Norcross, who in his position on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce “hears the stories that you live each and every day.”
Rep. Mark Harris (R-N.C.) said that community colleges “play the vital role in making higher education accessible and helping develop students who are truly ready to contribute to their community,” he said. “You’ll find me today making this commitment to you to use my role on the Education and Workforce Committee to be constantly looking for ways we can empower our communities… and helping you do what you do best.”
“It’s great to see bipartisan support for community colleges,” said Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), who stressed that current students’ needs are “significantly different from what they used to be… whether it be food support, healthcare support, childcare support… they all make a difference in terms of retention and completion of programs. So it’s never been more important to tell your stories and talk about the need for supporting community colleges.”
Sen. Tim Kaine (R-Va.) pointed to his experience teaching welding and carpentry in Honduras as affirming the value “of high-quality career and technical education,” calling short-term Pell his “number one priority” in his role on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). “What an enormously popular bipartisan idea, and yet we still haven’t accomplished it,” he said. “We get very, very close, but all the while gaining more bipartisan support and all the while speaking more directly to the conditions of our economy and the conditions of our workforce.”
As ranking member of the House Committee on Education & Workforce, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) expressed optimism that the reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which was removed at the last-minute from December’s continuing resolution, would be reauthorized, along with short-term Pell. “I think the popularity of the idea will carry the day,” he said. “We expect to be able to get a lot of things done.”
Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.) stressed that she would fight attempts to “take any resources away from our students, our institutions, and our teachers.
“For all of the talk about investing in workforce development, we’re seeing cuts to Pell grants when we know that affordability is already one of the biggest challenges for our students, cuts to workforce training programs at a time when employers are desperate for skilled workers, and cuts to research funding, when our community colleges are are leading the way in innovation,” she said. “We cannot ignore the role that community colleges play in every single corner of this country—rural communities, urban centers, suburbs. Community colleges don't just serve America. They are America.”
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) highlighted her own experience as a community college student as driving her support for opportunity for all students. “Whether it’s looking at the status of Pell Grants… or making sure that GI Bill benefits can be used for certificates or other career pathways than a four-year degree, I am with you and support the role that you play in community colleges, in the one place in the world where there is upward mobility, where you can come in and out of the education system at will,” she said.
Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) called community colleges “the backbone of American education,” pointing to the workforce needs of his region and his own personal experience as a community college student. “It changed my life forever,” he said. “Never forget that what you all do is extremely important.”
Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), the first community college student who participated in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute—and the first CHCI graduate to become a member of Congress—pointed to the value of community colleges. “It’s not where you start, it’s what you do with what’s given with what was given to you that will make a difference in your life,” he said. “I’m a Republican… and we need to make sure that both sides of the aisle understand the nature of these programs and how to protect them.”
Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.), a co-sponsor of the Washington Promise program during his time in the state legislature, credited community colleges with “doing more with less than almost anyone else in the American education space.”
“And it would be wonderful if we helped you do more with more because your mission is so important as we look at our workforce development needs, what’s going on with student debt loads, and just what kind of America we want to be,” he added.
Rep. Adam Gray (D-Calif.) pointed to his time in the state legislature, which made two years of community college free, as affirming the sector's ability to address key challenges. “In California, the most vexing issues, whether it be housing, whether it be healthcare, it’s community colleges that are on the front line of making sure we have the workforce to address them in a meaningful way,” he said.
Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.), a co-sponsor of the Washington Promise program during his time in the state legislature, credited community colleges with “doing more with less than almost anyone else in the American education space.”
“And it would be wonderful if we helped you do more with more because your mission is so important as we look at our workforce development needs, what’s going on with student debt loads, and just what kind of America we want to be,” he added.
Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) shared her personal story about how education “saved my life.” The former National Teacher of the Year stressed her efforts as a legislator to support on-campus childcare and efforts to address food insecurity at colleges. “We need people to go out, get an education, and then go back to their communities to be full and productive citizens,” she said. “I implore you to put names and faces to the budgets and the line items that are being discussed to help [lawmakers] understand not only the impact and the importance of the work that you do, but what happens in the absence that will be created if funding is stripped.”
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), who supported the Phoenix Promise program as a city councilwoman, stressed the “game-changing impact” of community colleges as the region seeks to address workforce needs in semiconductor manufacturing and healthcare. “Community colleges have been a vital partner to us to be able to train the next generation of the workforce in these critical areas that are just going to be incredibly important to our economy moving forward,” she said, urging attendees to “speak with members of Congress, because it is very powerful at this time for them to hear your voice and to understand the impacts their decisions are having.”
The 2025 NLS concluded today with Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah), Chair of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development, who reminded NLS participants that “We have to start highlighting the very best of the best” with our colleges and students."
“Our kids have to be the smartest in the world," he said. "And you prepare them for that… you have a remarkable advocate in me."
ACCT is grateful for the record number of community college advocates whose passion for open access to high-quality higher education for all people brought them to the nation's capital this week. Keep advocating throughout the year for the 2025 Community College Legislative Priorities.
If you aren't already receiving ACCT's Latest Action in Washington newsletter for important policy developments, email publicpolicy@acct.org with "LAW Alerts" in the headline to sign up.
We look forward to seeing you in New Orleans this October for the 2025 ACCT Leadership Congress! We encourage members to submit presentation proposals by the May 23 deadline. Registration will open soon.