Evans-Brown Military Academy Diversity Legislation Passes House
WASHINGTON (Dec. 9, 2022) – Congressman Dwight Evans (D-PA-3rd) welcomed House passage this week of legislation similar to an initiative he co-introduced with Congressman Anthony Brown (D-MD-4th) to improve diversity at the nation's military service academies.
After negotiations with the Senate, the House passed a compromise version of the Evans-Brown amendment as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, considered to be one of the few "must-pass" bills that Congress handles each year. The bill now returns to the Senate.
"The military service academies represent a tremendous opportunity for those interested in serving their country in that way – including a free four-year university education. So I have been working for several years to improve the diversity of the academies' student population, particularly among applicants from the 3rd Congressional District. I'm very pleased that a version of our amendment has passed," Evans said.
Brown said, "Our country's diversity has always been our greatest strength. Ensuring our military academies reflect the face of our nation is essential to our overall national security. We need to identify when and where we fall short of our goals and expectations in diversity, equity and inclusion in our academies and armed services, and work together to address those disparities."
The adopted version of the Evans-Brown amendment would modify the Department of Defense's annual report on demographics of military service academy applicants with a view to identifying disparities in demographic categories and identifying suspected causes of such disparities within the application or nominating process.
The overall bill also includes a 4.6 percent pay raise for service members; funds for the Defense Department to increase the basic allowance for housing for service members and their families; over $131.7 million for research activities at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which is a 22.8 percent increase in funding for basic research and historic funding for research activities; and establishing a pilot program to increase research capacity at minority-serving institutions.
Evans represents the only Pennsylvania congressional district with a majority African American population. The 3rd Congressional District includes Northwest and West Philadelphia and parts of North, South, Southwest and Center City Philadelphia.
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