The State University of New York FY 2010 Federal Appropriations Request Process

1. The State University of New York FY 2010Federal Appropriations Request Process SUNY Federal Relations Summit September 16, 2008 Liz Clark, Director of Federal Relations Beth Kempter, Federal Relations Associate John Simmons, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld LLP

2. Federal Relations at SUNY • Michael Trunzo, Vice Chancellor for Government Relations • Liz Clark, Director of Federal Relations • Angie Anderson, Assistant Director of Federal Relations • Beth Kempter, Federal Relations Associate • Mike Spencer, Federal Relations Assistant • & Akin Gump

3. The Federal Budget Process: How it begins • President releases budget request by first Monday in February. • In the FY09 budget request, two-thirds of the $3.1 trillion budget was for mandatory programs (net interest and entitlement programs), leaving just one-third of the budget for discretionary spending (annually appropriated programs). The largest discretionary expenditure is national defense. • For FY 2009, the President Requested: • $730 billion for Defense Discretionary Spending • $482 billion for Non-Defense Discretionary Spending • $1,212 billion for Total Discretionary Spending

4. Note: AAAS is a great resource! http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/

5. The Federal Budget Process (continued) • The House and Senate Appropriations Committees begin hearings after release of the President’s Budget Request. • The House and Senate divides the Federal (Discretionary) Budget up between 12 Appropriations Subcommittees. • By April 15, Congress passes a Budget Resolution which ultimately determines 302(b) allocations. (This deadline hasn’t been met in recent years.) This work is done by the House and Senate Budget Committees. • 302(b) allocations are important because they determine how much money each Appropriations Subcommittee may spend. • NOTE: The Appropriations, Budget and Finance/Ways & Means Committees each do very different types of work. All are critical, but the Appropriations Committees have the most direct influence over individual spending lines in the federal budget.

6. The Federal Budget Process (continued) • Mid-February/Early March, individual members of congress ask for completed appropriations request forms from constituents. • Because of revised ethics rules and the goal of complete transparency, members of congress need to submit their requests to the Appropriations Subcommittees before mark-ups begin. • March-July, and sometimes into September, individual appropriations bills are “marked-up” and moved through subcommittee, full committee, and the House and Senate floors.

7. The Federal Budget Process (continued) • Typically, the House marks-up before the Senate. • Once each chambers passes its version of an appropriations bill on the floor, Conference Committees begin meeting to negotiate differences. • Target passage date is September 30 as October 1 is the start of the new Federal Fiscal Year. • “Continuing Resolutions or CRs” are often necessary. • Congress must often pass “Omnibus Appropriations Acts” to complete appropriations work.

8. Putting this into context… While all of this is going on, this year in particular, we must take into consideration a number of factors: • Congress is most likely to pass 3 (if that) of the 12 appropriations bills before the end of the year: Defense, DHS, Military-Construction/Veterans Affairs. • A reasonable expectation is that a long-term (possibly a year long) CR will be passed to fund government in absence of a finalized budget. (Remember FY2007?, no earmarks were awarded outside of the DoD appropriations bill.) • On the ballot for November: a President, all 435 House members, and 33 of the 50 states will have at least one US Senate election. • Some of our members have announced their retirement, some will not be re-elected and your campus may need to establish new relationships. • It will be important to learn what are the priorities, interests and political positions of the people and parties in charge? Depending on who is elected President, this may even further curtail earmarking.

9. What about our current requests. . . • If there is a long-term CR, it is likely there will be no earmarks included in any bill except DoD. • What if my member doesn’t return and we had been notified about an earmark ? • A: This will definitely be a concern for some and maybe for others, but you should have a conversation with your new local member and make Senators Clinton and Schumer aware of the situation.

10. current requests (continued) . . . • Should I resubmit my current project (whether or not it has been funded) or start with a new request for FY 2010?: • A: Those campuses who were notified about preliminary funding should be prepared to resubmit their FY09 request, but also have any other request(s) ready for submission early in 2009. • If you have a brand new member of congress, you should present your proposal to them before February and feel them out for their level of support (what your previous member supported, may not still be the case) • You should be prepared to fill out new forms, unless your member tells you otherwise. • If you have multiple requests, you MUST be prepared to identify a priority project for your member and our Senators.

11. Key characteristics of successful earmarks • Project needs to respond to national or regional needs as identified by Congress or the Administration. • Identify the significance of a problem and the need for immediate federal investment. • Specify purpose/objective of the funding being requested. • Detail specific goals of the project and outline measureable outcomes. • Include a detailed budget. If multi-year funding is requested, break out funding year to year. • Include how this project will become self-sufficient after earmark funding has ended. • Don’t ask for bricks & mortar. • Demonstrate institutional commitment by including matching funds and/or in-kind contributions.

12. key characteristics (continued) • Any request submitted through the DoD appropriations bill should have an identified program director/manager who will act as the project’s point person. This relationship must be established before a request is submitted. • Again, appropriations requests must be presented early in the budget cycle—when the Members request them and before the first subcommittee mark-up. Subcommittees establish individual deadlines which congressional offices must meet. • Most members of Congress also now have (somewhat) clearly defined processes and forms for accepting your requests in their offices. We will contact each member, get their forms and forward them to your campus. We will also post them on our Federal Relations web page with each one’s deadline.

13. Helpful hints for proposal development • Proposals should give enough information for a non-scientist to make a solid, positive decision, without including the kind of exhaustive, overly technical detail that will lose the reader’s attention. • Proposals must educate and advocate in a clear and concise manner. • The target audience is congressional Appropriations Committee staff. Personal staff will probably be less familiar with the issues, but committee staff may be very familiar with many issues, although they lack a technical/scientific background. • Proposals must have enough depth to induce the reader to agree that, in spite of current fiscal limitations, this is a sound, defensible, and compelling use of federal funds. • Collaborative requests will often carry additional benefits (you can request from multiple members, keep in mind campus priorities) • Letters of support from funding agencies, partners, beneficiaries, national/state/local officials aren’t required, but they are encouraged.

14. So what happens after they’re submitted? • Individual PI’s, Administrators or corporate partners, if you have one, should visit with members of congress and/or staff to describe the request and its relevance to their district–before the Subcommittee deadlines. • Members and staff must decide what to submit and what to prioritize for their state or district. There are many competing interests. • Individual members of congress then submit their requests to the appropriations subcommittees. Not all requests received by members will in turn be submitted to the Subcommittees. • Note: Neither of our NYS Senators serve on the Appropriations Committee. In the House, we may lose one of our five seats on the Appropriations Committee with the retirement of James Walsh. • Appropriators determine which projects to include, based on the project, the member who has requested it, the budget they have to work with, and the authority they have to allocate funds.

15. You must begin now working on SUNY’s FY 2010 Requests Wednesday, NOVEMBER 26th: Deadline for campus submissions to SUNY • December: SUNY & Akin Gump review applications. • December-January: SUNY Office of Federal Relations provides feedback to campuses on revisions. • February: SUNY prioritizes top requests for Senate Offices • February-March: Appropriations forms submitted to appropriate Congressional offices. We will assist you with these forms, but we will not take sole responsibility for completing and submitting the forms.

16. SUNY Review of Requests • Who will review the requests? • SUNY Federal Relations Staff • Akin Gump • SUNY Office of the Provost • James Weyhenmeyer, Sr. VP for Research

17. What we’ll look for… • Does this project fit within the general mission of the requesting campus? • If there are similar project requests, we may suggest collaborations. • No bricks & mortar. • Is the proposal better supported through a competitive process? • What is the compelling federal interest in supporting this proposal? • How well will this idea resonate—on Capitol Hill, with the general public, etc.? (Remember every Member’s name is now listed next to a request.)

18. More of what we’ll look for… • Does the project fit easily into a earmarked funding account? • Has the project been funded previously? • What contributions is this project making to the economic and social well-being of the community, state and/or country? Will it create jobs? • Is the program or project authorized? • It is sometimes easier to get funding appropriated if a program or project has been authorized in an agency budget. Not all authorized programs will get appropriated.

19. Throughout the year… • We will provide status reports to you on the appropriations process. • We will report to you any feedback we hear regarding your request. • We will work with you to share relevant information about your project and other campus activities and to generally stay connected with your members of congress.

20. Do not hesitate to call with questions? Washington Office Phone:202-220-1315 Albany Office Phone: 518-320-1123 Email: liz.clark@suny.edu beth.kempter@suny.edu