Lobbyists reap money for colleges

For the price of about $200,000, Utah State University recently received around $11 million in return.

The lesser figure is what USU spent over the past fiscal year on a lobbyist to do some of the school's bidding in Washington, D.C.

The returns came in the form of congressionally directed funding — federal money the state-funded school uses to help build buildings and do research.

"This is the way that research universities complement the talents and efforts of their faculty," who frequently write proposals for competitive federal grants, said Brent Miller, USU vice president for research and director of federal relations. "It's our judgment that we're making a very good investment for the amount of return we get."

Washington-based The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported that the number of institutions using lobbyists in the nation's capital has more than doubled since 1998. The reason is that in the late 1990s, Congress raised spending on directed, noncompetitive grants from $495 million to $2 billion, according to The Chronicle.

Utah institutions have wasted no time going after their share of the federal pie.

The University of Utah, for example, used the nephew of Sen. Bob Bennett to lobby for funds through the D.C.-based government affairs firm Timmons and Company, which the U. retained in 2000 for $275,000 a year. Lobbyist/nephew Doug Bennett has moved on and is no longer the "main point person" for the U. in D.C., but the school still uses the same firm.

"I think it's essential for an institution like the University of Utah to have a lobbyist back in Washington," said Nancy Lyon, U. assistant vice president for government affairs.

With an entire firm at hand, Lyon said it's beneficial to have multiple lobbyists working both sides of the political aisle. Though institutions don't directly compete with other schools for the funds, unlike the more than $300 million in grants the U. received last fiscal year, lobbying is still a "delicate and competitive process," according to Lyon.

Officials with the U. and USU say strong Utah ties play an important role when lobbying the likes of Sens. Bennett and Orrin Hatch. Doug Bennett was once the student-body president at the U. Lobbyist David Lee had strong political connections before becoming USU's go-to guy in Washington, a post he's held for the past decade.

Hatch and Bennett, along with other Utah political leaders in Washington, are often invited to college campuses here for first-hand glimpses of how grants and earmarks are being — or would be — spent.