Engaging Congress on key issues

Reconciliation: Congressional leaders used the reconciliation process to enact much of the President’s domestic agenda. At stake for Vanderbilt were changes to tax policy and federal student aid programs. The OFR team led targeted advocacy to oppose the most harmful of these provisions, particularly those related to the endowment tax and federal student loans, to ensure that Vanderbilt’s voice was part of the national policy conversation. These efforts include:  

• Endowment tax: Associate Vice Chancellor Christina West, Vice Chancellor Nathan Green and senior campus leaders, including Chancellor Diermeier met with strategic congressional offices throughout winter and spring to mitigate the impact of potential changes to the endowment tax and to emphasize the critical role the endowment plays in supporting mission-driven activities such as institutional student aid and research. Ultimately, we avoided a more severe increase in the tax rate, as proposed by numerous policymakers.
• Federal student aid: OFR opposed provisions that would have had the effect of limiting access to federal aid for low- and moderate-income students, highlighting the impact of such proposals on Vanderbilt students and alumni who serve their communities as nurses, teachers, lawyers, doctors, scientists and clergy. Through our collective efforts, we blocked several measures originally included in the House bill that would have had a particularly negative impact on our students. More details on provisions included in the final legislation are available from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. 

Facilities & Administrative costs: 

The National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and Departments of Defense and Energy announced new caps on Facilities & Administrative costs reimbursements that would result in a significant cut in research funding at Vanderbilt.

Following agency announcements, OFR worked closely with the Office of the Chancellor, Office of the General Counsel, Division of Finance, the Office of the Provost, including Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation, and Marketing and Communications, as well as colleagues at the Association of American Universities, American Council on Education, COGR and others, to understand the full impact of the policy and develop a rapid-response legislative strategy to oppose this approach to cutting research funding. This included: 

• Chancellor Diermeier, with his counterparts at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the University of Tennessee, Meharry Medical College and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital sent a letter to the Tennessee congressional delegation expressing the negative impact this new policy would have on the state. 
• Chancellor Diermeier met with Members of Congress, including strategic appropriations leaders, to communicate the negative impacts of the policy at Vanderbilt University and discuss possible paths forward. 
• OFR met continually with staff in key congressional offices in the Tennessee delegation to educate them on these essential research costs and explain the harmful effects of capping research reimbursements.  
  
• In particular, OFR’s efforts with staff from the office of Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., BA'81, JD'84, paid off when Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee and Sen. Hagerty spoke about the importance of indirect costs to conducting “safe and high-quality research that gives America a competitive advantage.” Director Vought pointed to the community effort to improve the research funding model. 

As these issues continue to evolve, OFR remains actively engaged with key policymakers and partner organizations to monitor developments and advocate for policies that support Vanderbilt’s mission.