Lesser-Known Public Colleges Increase Federal Lobbying

Stepped-up efforts reap big rewards; a relatively small investment brings in $3-million in earmarks

Colloquy Live: Read the transcript of a live, online discussion with W.J. (Happy) Fulford III, executive director of governmental relations at the University of South Alabama, about why colleges hire their own lobbyists in Washington and what they get for their money.

Table: What several public colleges spent on lobbying in 2003 and what they got in 2004

Article: Lobbying to Bring Home the Bacon

Article: Lobbyist Profiles

Article: So You Want to Hire a Lobbyist...

Article: In State Capitals, Public Colleges Adapt to a Tough Game

Database: Federal lobbying expenditures by academe for 2003, searchable by institution name and lobbying firmBy KELLY FIELD

In a wood-paneled room in the back of La Colline, a French restaurant two blocks from the Capitol, a group of 30 Michigan lobbyists and businesspeople have gathered to hear Rep. Sander M. Levin give his outlook for the waning Congressional session. When breakfast is served, the Michigan Democrat approaches the podium and removes his sports coat, declaring: “I don’t feel like a guest here. I’ve known some of you for a long time.”

Over the next half hour, the congressman weighs in on the highway bill, charitable-giving legislation, and Sen. John Kerry’s chances in Michigan. “This has been the most intense political year we’ve had since I’ve been here,” the 11-term legislator tells the crowd. “It’s hard to see how we’ll finish anything except for the [corporate] tax bill” before the November election.

That’s bad news for Melissa Yutzey Bourke, a lobbyist for Western Michigan University who is in Washington for three days, in part to lobby for a charitable-giving bill that could help colleges solicit more money from recent graduates and retirees. But her frenetic schedule does not permit her to dwell on the possible setback. Within an hour she will be racing up to Congress, two faculty members and an administrator in tow, for a “meet and greet” with lawmakers. Then it’s off to the National Science Foundation for another meeting. The goal, she says, is to get the faculty members “in the door” of the grant-making process so that federal agency reviewers “have an idea of who Western Michigan is.”

An energetic 28-year-old, Ms. Bourke is one of a growing number of lobbyists for lesser-known public colleges who travel to Washington at least monthly to press for legislation and directed Congressional grants, or earmarks, that would benefit their institutions. Such visits have paid off for institutions like Western Michigan, which increasingly rely on Congressional largess to pay for the buildings and research centers they hope will help them compete for federal and state grants.

Edward M. Elmendorf, senior vice president for government relations at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, estimates that half of his group’s 430 members, which tend to be smaller regional colleges, now have some presence in Washington, either through their own staff lobbyists or by using contract lobbyists. Many of them only began lobbying in the last 5 to 10 years.

“Most are looking at it as their chance to invest in Microsoft,” said Mr. Elmendorf. “Our members don’t have a lot of money to spend, and if they invest it, it’s sort of a stock.”

A Good Investment

And a high-yielding stock it has proved to be.

In 2003, Western Michigan spent $148,500 on contract lobbyists, according to a review of federal lobbying records by The Chronicle. That number does not reflect the university’s spending on its own lobbyists, since federal law requires universities to report only payments for employees who spend more than 20 percent of their time lobbying the federal government. Ms. Bourke and her boss do not meet that threshold.

Even so, Western Michigan’s return on its investment was impressive: $3-million in earmarks in the appropriations bills for the 2004 fiscal year, including $2-million for a nanotechnology research and computation center. A university press release from 2002 boasted that the center would secure Western Michigan’s “foothold in one of the hottest and fastest-growing areas of scientific research and development.”

Some of Western Michigan’s peers reaped even larger rewards. The University of Southern Mississippi spent $240,000 on two Washington lobbying firms and got $6.5-million in earmarks. The University of South Alabama spent $259,000 on three outside lobbyists and received $7.4-million in earmarks.

Officials at all three universities said that new presidents at the institutions were behind a recent ramp-up in lobbying.

“We wanted to become a Carnegie doctoral-research-extensive institution,” explained Cecil D. Burge, vice president for research and economic development at Southern Mississippi. Earmarks, he said, have allowed the university to build new labs and recruit top-notch faculty, helping it attract more Ph.D.'s.

For universities that want to move up in the rankings, however, success is determined in part by the clout of their Congressional delegations. Both Southern Mississippi and South Alabama have a home-state senator on the Senate Appropriations Committee, as does the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, one of the biggest winners among state institutions. Last year Las Vegas spent $260,000 on two Washington lobbying firms, and went home with $19-million in earmarks, proof of the power of well-connected representatives.

But even colleges without a representative on an appropriations panel can use lawmakers from other districts in their states to leverage influence on Capitol Hill. Western Michigan, for example, lobbies Rep. Carolyn C. Kilpatrick, a Western Michigan graduate and a Democratic member of the House Appropriations Committee, even as it seeks support from Rep. Fred Upton, a Republican and its own local congressman.

Meanwhile, colleges from states with well-placed lawmakers in Congress often find themselves in a fierce competition for federal funds with other institutions in their states. Though lobbyists who work for different colleges in a particular state tend not “to ask for money in the same areas,” the reality is that “a delegation is only going to be able to bring so much money to their state,” said W.J. (Happy) Fulford III, executive director of governmental relations for South Alabama.

To increase their chances, universities may form partnerships with other colleges in their state, or join forces with institutions from other states that have representatives on the Appropriations Committee. Colleges may also tailor their requests to Congressional priorities, such as biodefense research, which has benefited from an influx of federal dollars recently. “We try to marry our interests with those of the agencies so we both benefit,” Mr. Burge said.

Contacts Through Contracts

That marriage is where contract lobbyists come in.

Based at Washington law firms and lobbying shops, contract lobbyists keep university lobbyists apprised of trends, notifying them when federal programs are established or eliminated and alerting them when money for existing programs is added or cut. They also accompany college-employed lobbyists to their Washington meetings, as Tricia K. Markwood did during Ms. Bourke’s recent visit.

“We’re their eyes and ears,” said Ms. Markwood, a lobbyist with Preston Gates Ellis LLC, a law firm that represents Western Michigan. “We give them an overview of what’s hot and not.”

Contract lobbyists let universities know “what the actual resources are,” said Mr. Fulford. “They help us determine if there is a chance of getting funding.”

They also provide valuable links to Capitol Hill. Because many contract lobbyists are former Congressional staff members, they tend to know the legislative process -- and its players -- better than colleges do. Ms. Markwood, for example, worked for a Michigan congressman before becoming a lobbyist. Two of the lobbyists for South Alabama are onetime employees of a former House Appropriations subcommittee chairman and a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Southern Mississippi is represented, in part, by a law firm whose members include the former legislative director for Sen. Thad Cochran, Republican of Mississippi and a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. And the University of Nevada at Las Vegas retains a firm whose president, Martin A. Russo, served in the House of Representatives for 18 years and whose chief operating officer was the former chief of staff for Roy D. Blunt, Republican of Missouri, the House majority whip.

Those backgrounds give contract lobbyists readier access to the high-placed legislators who provide the pork-barrel projects.

For state institutions like Western Michigan, the investment in contract lobbyists has been a sound one. In the fiscal-2004 appropriations bills, Ms. Markwood helped Ms. Bourke secure the $2-million for the nanotechnology research and computation center, as well as $500,000 for wireless technology in health care and $500,000 for environmental and molecular science.

Still, that doesn’t mean that university lobbyists like Ms. Bourke can sit back and relax. When Congress reconvenes, she’ll be back on Capitol Hill to lobby legislators, introduce professors, and fight for more federal money.

http://chronicle.com Section: Government & Politics Volume 51, Issue 9, Page A32