(Dispatch from Washington DC, the day after Pres. Trump delivered his address to Congress.) I understand why "lobbying" and "lobbyists" are bad words for many people but as I often say, it depends on what you are lobbying for. I spent yesterday on Capitol Hill lobbying for UNH. Each year, around this time, Jan Nisbet (my great colleague and UNH's Sr Vice Provost for Research) and I meet with our Congressional Delegation and talk about our priorities and requests in the upcoming appropriations process.
We covered a wide-range of topics (and you can learn more by checking out some short videos UNH has created on these topics): multi-trophic aquaculture, static pile aerobic composting, heliophysics and solar weather, mapping the ocean floors, flow physics and boundary layers, internet crimes against children, helmetless tackling to reduce concussions, adaptive sports programs for disabled veterans. .
One of the joys of my job is learning about a wide-range of topics and understanding the research our talented faculty and students conduct to make our communities, state, nation and world a better place. This is what public research universities do across the nation and this is what I lobby and advocate for.
And in the coming days and weeks when we see a national discussion about the federal budget, keep in mind that all the topics I just mentioned come out of the "non-defense discretionary" part of the budget which makes up about 15% of the federal budget. It is this part of the budget that drives innovation and makes America great and it is this part of the budget that should not only NOT be cut, it should be invested in.
I am grateful to my talented UNH colleagues and to the hard working staff of our Congressional delegation, the delegation members, and the staff of the various committees.