Alabama public universities raise lobbying profile
By Bob Evans
The Associated Press
August 20, 2006
Alabama's public universities shelled out at least $1.3 million to lobby Congress in 2005, more than double what they spent five years earlier, according to financial disclosures.
The University of Alabama System and its three member campuses in Tuscaloosa, Huntsville and Birmingham led the way in spending with a total of $610,000. Most of that went to Van Scoyoc Associates Inc., a Washington firm well-stocked with former aides to Alabama lawmakers like Republican Sen. Richard Shelby and Democratic Rep. Bud Cramer, both members of the powerful appropriations committees that write spending legislation.
University officials said they were proud of their efforts, insisting that lobbying has been critical in winning federal funding to improve the state's higher education system and economy.
"The return on investment would strike me as being an excellent value for the taxpayers," said Kellee Reinhart, spokeswoman for the University of Alabama System. "We're a $2.5 billion enterprise. We are the largest employer in the state. The volume and complexity of projects for which we seek support certainly benefit from having a streamlined channel of communication."
Along with the University of Alabama System, South Alabama, Montevallo, West Alabama, Auburn, Troy, Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Jacksonville State and North Alabama used lobbyists in 2005.
The Alabama schools are hardly alone. Universities, local governments and other public agencies across the country are increasingly spending public money to lobby lawmakers for a larger piece of the federal spending pie.
The practice is raising questions among critics who say it's creating an "arms race" environment in which public agencies feel required to spend more and more public money on lobbying to get the most federal funding they can. The funding, which often comes in the form of "earmarks" that lawmakers tack on to spending bills for projects in their districts, is driving up budget deficits and perpetuating a highly subjective process for deciding what projects get funded, the critics say.
"It's really about how we get to the point where we're going to live within our means," said Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican who has launched a crusade against the lobbying-for-earmark system. "We have to be making priorities."
Coburn recently wrote letters to more than 100 universities across the country including the University of Alabama campuses, Auburn University and the University of South Alabama requesting a list of their congressional appropriations since 2000 and questioning their use of lobbyists to get them. He said he targeted universities because he believes research spending in particular should be based on objective needs, not politics.
The Alabama schools, which have ranked highly in federal funding in the past, said they have not yet had time to respond to Coburn's request. But an Associated Press review of federal lobbying disclosures shows that Alabama's public universities spent at least $1,342,800 in 2005, versus $560,000 in 2000. The totals are likely higher because organizations are not required to list amounts less than $10,000.
Officials from Auburn and South Alabama universities did not return phone calls from The Associated Press. But Reinhart said the rapid increase in spending reflects the expansion in the state's universities and economy.
"I think it's looking for opportunity," she said. "The increase runs parallel to the growth and increased complexity of our system, as more and more federal issues affect us and as each of our campuses has gotten more involved in federal projects and federal regulation."
Reinhart pointed to the university's recently opened biomedical research center in Birmingham. Federal funding spearheaded the $100 million project, which is named after Sen. Shelby and his wife, Annette. The center, scheduled to be completed next year, is expected to provide 1,000 jobs for the area, Reinhart said.
Alabama has three lawmakers on appropriations committees: Shelby, of Tuscaloosa; Cramer, of Huntsville; and Rep. Robert Aderholt, a Republican from Haleyville. Their offices either did not respond to questions or declined to comment on university lobbying and Coburn's inquiry.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, said he respected Coburn's goal of trying to contain spending. But given the size and complexity of the state university system, he said, lobbying can be a helpful tool.
"I think he's raising the concern that it's a vicious cycle of using taxpayer money to lobby for more taxpayer money, and I think there's some truth to it," Sessions said. "But in many ways it's very helpful to me and my staff to have a first-rate presentation from an institution like a state university about what they'd like to accomplish.
"A lobbyist is not a dirty thing," he added. "A good lobbyist knows what's possible, knows what his client would like to do and tries to help the congressional delegation figure out ways to achieve that goal."
Van Scoyoc Associates, which handles most of the University of Alabama's lobbying as well as the University of West Alabama's, employs several people with strong ties to Alabama's appropriations members. Those include Shelby's former state director, Ray Cole, and his former Intelligence Committee counsel, Mary Pat Lawrence, as well as former Cramer chief of staff Michael Adcock.
