Wet the Line: Catch the Fish

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Wet the Line Catch the Fish

• H. J. Swender, EdD
• President, Frank Phillips College
• Borger, Texas
• Mary Jacquart, Ph.D.
• Director, Federal Government Relations
• Minnesota State Colleges and Universities

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All politics is local Tip O'Neill (D-MA)
Speaker of the House 1977-1987

• Who serves your area on the U.S. House of
  Representatives?
• Who are your Senators?
• What committees are they on?
• When was the last time a member of your
  congressional delegations visited your campus?
• When was the last time you visited your
  congressional delegation?

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The Federal Budget Process
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Authorizations and Appropriations Whats the
Difference?

• Authorizations
• Prerequisite to spending
• Creates Direct/Mandatory OR Discretionary
  Spending
• Enact legislation for program operations
• Guides appropriation level

• Appropriations
• Secured funds for specific programs
• Defined spending for Agencies, programs and
  divisions
• Say how funds may be spent
• Must be within limits set by Budget Committees

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Spending How is the federal budget distributed?

• Provided through Appropriations Bills (11 House,
  12 Senate)
• Discretionary a little more than 1/4 of all
  federal spending

Senate Committee on Appropriations, Summer 2005
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"The elephant in the room is the huge deficit,"
said Congressman Dale Kildee (D-Michigan)
Debbie Tomassi "The Elephant in the Living
Room Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery, Seattle
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Who Decides What to Fund?

• Senate Committee on Appropriations created by the
  Fortieth Congress in March 1867,
• "to divide the onerous labors of the Finance
  Committee with another committee"
• Separated the tax-writing and appropriating
  processes
• Goals
• to control the appropriations process
• to ensure better management of Government spending

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A Very Competitive Environment
Patty Murray
Conrad Burns
Byron Dorgan
Judd Gregg, Patrick Leahy
Herb Kohl
Larry Craig
Tim Johnson
Arlen Specter
Tom Harkin
Mike Dewine
Harry Reid
Barbara Mikulski
Richard Durbin
Robert Bennett
Sam Brownback
Dianne Feinstein
Christopher Bond
Wayne Allard
Mitch McConnell
Robert Byrd, Ranking Minority
Pete Domenici
Richard Shelby
Kay Bailey Hutchison
Mary Landrieu
Ted Stevens
Daniel Inouye
Thad Cochran, Chair
109th Congress Senate Appropriations Committee
Members
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A Very Competitive Environment
John Peterson, Don Sherwood, John Mertha, Chaka
Fattah
David Obey, Ranking Minority
Ray LaHood, Mark Kirk, Jesse Jackson
John Olver
Ralph Regula, David Hobson, Marcy Kaptur
Norman Dicks
Patrick Kennedy
Dennis Rehberg
James Walsh, John Sweeney, Nita Lowey, Jose
Serrano, Maruice Hinchey
Martin Sabo
Rodney Freling- huysen, Steven Rothman
Joe Knollenberg, Carolyn Kilpatrick
Michael Simpson
Jerry Lewis. Chair, Duke Cunningham, John
Doolittle, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Sam Farr
Tom Latham
Rosa DeLauro
Alan Mollohan
Peter Visclosky
Frank Wolf, Virgil Goode, James Moran
JoAnn Emerson
Todd Tiahrt
Harold Rogers, Anne Northup
Jim Kolbe, Ed Pastor
Ernest Istook,
Zach Wamp
Charles Taylor, David Price
Marion Berry
James Clyburn
Jack Kingston, Sanford Bishop
Henry Bonilla, Kay Granger, John Abney
Culberson, John Carter, Chet Edwards
Rodney Alexander
Bill Young, Dave Weldon, Ander Crenshaw, Allen
Boyd
Robert Aderholt, Bud Cramer Jr.
Roger Wicker
109th Congress House Appropriations Committee
Members
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Appropriation Subcommittees

• Agriculture
• Commerce, Justice, State
• (Science/State/Justice/Commerce House)
• Defense
• Energy and Water
• Foreign Operations
• (State/Foreign Operations - House)
• Homeland Security
• Interior
• (Interior Environment House)

• Labor, Health and Human Services and Education
• Military Construction
• Transportation, Treasury HUD, Judiciary
• Veterans Affairs/Military
• District of Columbia
• Legislative Branch

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APPROPRIATIONS BILL
DEPARTMENT (Education, HHS, Labor,
Agriculture, etc.)
PROGRAM (FIPSI, HRSA, NSF, etc.)
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Pork Barrel Funding

• Meets one or more of the following criteria
• Requested by only one chamber of Congress
• Not specifically authorized
• Not competitively awarded
• Not requested by the President
• Greatly exceeds the Presidents budget request or
  the previous years funding
• Not the subject of congressional hearings or
• Serves only a local or special interest.
• Citizens Against Government Waste
  (www.cagw.org)

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Earmark Projects 1995-2005
Projects
Year
Source CAGW
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Earmark Spending 1995-2005
Billions
Year
Source CAGW
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Sir Thomas Gresham 1519-1579

• ,bad money drives out good money.

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Consequences

• The situation forces colleges universities to
  pursue "pork-barrel" politics rather than
  securing funds through open, peer-reviewed
  competitions. 
• Funding becomes based on how well an institution
  is "connected" rather than on the merits of the
  proposed project.
• The Demise of FIPSE? http//www.winona.edu/grants/
  GBarchives/Gbjan.htm

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FIPSE 2005 example

• House appropriated 34,138,000
• Senate proposed 32,201,000
• House-Senate Conference compromised on
  155,311,000
• FPC of Borger, TX received 250,000 for
  Education Technology

For details in your area of interest
see http//chronicle.com/stats/pork/ Subscription
required for log-in
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Our Prescription

• Cast the net
• Assess institutional and faculty strengths,
  uniqueness, capacity
• Check the tackle box
• Assess the institutional support network
• Business/Industry, partner, community,
  association, grassroots support
• Throw a line
• Test the project request ideas with
  delegation/staff
• Embark on some serious fishing!
• Make formal project request, lobby project

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Keys to thriving in the new political
environment - I

• Maintain close and constant personal contact with
  your Senators and Representative. Know their
  personal interests.
• Maintain even closer contact with the members of
  the staffs of your Senators and Representatives.
• An old adage advises its nice to be asked.
  Invite your Senators and Representative or
  members of their staffs to appear at as many
  institutional functions as possible, even though
  they will seldom be able to accept.

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Keys to thriving in the new political
environment - II

• Make your institution available for
  non-political political events such as
  town-hall meetings. This not only gets you
  closer to the Senators and Representative, it
  also gets you closer to the local political
  activists and increases campus traffic letting
  parents and grandparents know about your
  facilities.
• Be sure to stay in with the outs, as
  theirturn will come.

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Keys to thriving in the new political
environment - III

• Establish and maintain good independent liaison
  with the Washington political process. Determine
  the current hot buttons and buzz words.
• Most likely this will require contact through
  both not-for-profit associations and for-profit
  lobbyists channels.
• Remember Non-profit channels are for all
  their members while For-profit channels are for
  their clients.
• When discussing funding with your Washington
  friends, stress the current hot button issues
  and buzz words as these relate to your
  institution.

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Keys to thriving in the new political
environment - IV

• Become proactive Implement and expand
  Environmental Scanning tasking in your
  Institutional Research function and strategic
  planning processes on an on-going basis.
• Identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities
  and Threats SWOT to local all politics is
  local, regional and national economies and
  societies/cultures.
• Identify how your institution can correlate,
  interact and respond to the identified SWOTs
• Make your friends in Washington aware of your
  institutions capabilities and needs to meet
  thesenewly identified SWOTs. 

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Lobby Members- Agencies-Other
Presidents request to Congress
Hearings with Admin, Agencies, public, expert
witnesses Budget resolution prepared and adopted
Hearings with Admin, Agencies, public, expert
witnesses Budget resolution prepared and adopted
Admin and Agency testify in support of budget
request
Next year special initiative and project request
development Submission
Negotiate budget resolution
302(b) allocations
302(b) allocations
Appropriation Bills
Revise House- passed bills
Pass Spending Bills
Passes revised bills
Agenda Building and Development Individual
project lobbying plans developed
Conference committees resolve differences, agree
on final versions of spending bills
President signs or vetoes spending bills
Beginning of Fiscal Year. Admin and Congress
negotiate any unsigned or vetoed bills Congress
passes continuing resolutions to maintain funding
for any agencies not yet covered.
Board Presentation
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Challenges and Opportunities

• CHALLENGES
• Increased national debt
• Shrinking discretionary budgets
• Member philosophy on earmarks
• Committee membership
• OPPORTUNITIES
• Partnerships with congressional delegation
• Partnerships with community
• Partnerships with business/industry and other
  stakeholders
• Partnerships with other institutions

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September 12, 2005 BUDGET ADVISORY
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Herb and Mary
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