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A senior White House official said the order will reposition an existing initiative on HBCUs and allow it to work with all the executive agencies and “serve as a strategic partner to the president’s urban agenda,” with the full force of the White House behind it.

However, the official said the order should be viewed as more of a framework and “infrastructure” and not a policy rollout, which will come later.

This #BlackHistoryMonth, @POTUS & I thank the presidents of our Historically Black Colleges & Universities for their commitment to higher ed pic.twitter.com/HPBrAgh9Ti

— Vice President Pence (@VP) February 27, 2017

DeVos is delivering the keynote address Tuesday at an HBCU event at the Library of Congress.

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders contributed to this report.

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