EDU — Education
On January 28 and 29, 2026 Our faculty member Professor Loretta Mason-Williams attended the Higher Education Consortium for Special Education event on January 28 & 29 in DC. While there, I coordinated meetings and she met with Thomas Johnson in Rep. Josh Riley's office and Alex Hsi in Sen. Schumer's office. ------------- On March 11 I coordinated a meeting so our Director of Student Support Services, Stephen Rebello, could visit with a staff member Thomas Johnson with Congressman Riley's staff to discuss the importance of the TRIO program to Binghamton University students and TRIO students nationwide. On the same day, Stephen met with Grace Hart with Senator Gillibrand's office to discuss the same TRIO issue. Below is the list of topics that were discussed: Primary Ask The TRIO community is requesting a $104 million increase for the Federal TRIO Programs in Fiscal Year 2027 (Program Year 2027-2028), bringing the total appropriation to $1.3 billion. $66 million to restore student access. TRIO now serves 64,000 students than it did in FY 2022, which was the high watermark when TRIO served 881,000 students. This reduction is both because of cancelled grants and reduced purchasing power of TRIO grant funds. A $66 million investment has the potential to restore services to 53,000 students if distributed equally across all programs. This would bring us to a total of 870,000 students served. $38 million to provide cost-of-living adjustments. A 3% increase of $38 million aligns with the Consumer Price Index (2.4%) and the Higher Education Price Index (3.6%). This adjustment would allow existing TRIO grantees to maintain high-quality student services without further reductions. Every dollar translates directly into college advising, FAFA completion assistance, tutoring, mentoring, and college and career readiness services. Secondary Ask Ensure timely administration of all TRIO grant awards. Immediate release of FY26 Talent Search (TS) and Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) final grant applications Distribution of all FY26 TRIO grant awards (competing and continuation) by June 30, 2026 in accordance with the report language to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026. Timely execution of FY27 grant competitions for Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math-Science, Veterans Upward Bound, and McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement. Distribution of all FY27 TRIO grant awards (competing and continuation) by May 1, 2027. --------------- Between February 5 and February 19, in support of our NSF sponsored Energy Storage Engine in Upstate NY, I and the NSF Energy Storage Engine in Upstate NY CEO did outreach with staff members from the Congressional offices listed below: We reached out to simply provide updates on the status of the Engine as well as how the Engine was impacting specific entities within the Congressional members districts. Tailored one-pagers with each district's respective information were shared with each Congressional office. The outreach efforts were on the following days. Congressman Riley--received the one pager. A Zoom meeting was determined to be not necessary at this time. Congressman Mannion rep-- conducted on Thursday, February 5 Congressman Kennedy rep-scheduled for Friday, February 6 Congressman Morelle rep--scheduled for Friday, February 13 Congressman Langworthy rep--scheduled for Thursday, February 19 ---- On March 6 we did reach out to Senator Schumer's regional office to discuss the status of one of our current students who is stuck in her home country and cannot return to campus because her country was named as one of the countries of concern by President Trump's travel ban. The student had traveled home to Nigeria for her winter break and a day later, the expanded ban was announced. We were simply asking if the Senator's office could look into this student's situation. Student's name is Candace Nma Chijioke-Mba. We have not received any information on the student's status at this time.
Lobbyists: DARCY M FAUCI (covered position: Director of Government Relations)
Government entities lobbied: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; SENATE