An undergraduate student government office announced Tuesday a total budget of $80,000 allocated to student lobbying programs for this academic year.
The program will focus on lobbying for national student issues such as the tuition increase, Pell Grant funding and financial aid at the federal level, said Zach Helder, Undergraduate Students Association Council external vice president, who presented the program in a special presentation to the council Tuesday.
Helder announced the office will be advocating for student lobbying through two main programs, Bruin Defenders and the lobby corps. Helder added he changed the EVP office’s lobbying structure in response to USAC’s decision to withdraw from the United States Students Association in August.
“Our inaugural trip to (Washington, D.C.) earlier this month was to test the feasibility of our direct federal lobbying program,” Helder said. “We were able to establish connections with several important contacts on (Capitol Hill) and saw we could make concrete changes.”
Nathan Skadsen, chief of staff for the EVP office, said he estimates the office will be able to send six teams of four members each to Washington, D.C., under the direct federal lobbying program according to research done during the inaugural trip.
Helder added the direct federal lobbying program will be available to senior staff members of his office. He has allocated $18,400 for advocacy-related travel to Washington, D.C.
Earlier this month, Helder announced a new student lobbying program called Bruin Defenders, an initiative geared toward student groups that want to receive funding for lobbying purposes.
The Bruin Defenders program will have about $50,000 in funds, which will be used to send student groups to advocate for issues they are passionate about, Helder said.
Funds previously used for USSA membership and other funds will now be redirected to student advocacy, with $30,000 in funding going to the lobby corps, and $50,000 going to Bruin Defenders.
Helder said he will ask the council next week to support three pieces of bipartisan legislation that will secure students from loan risks, incentivize employers to hire more college-age students and help students with private loan debt.
Helder added his federal lobbying team will focus on those three bills during their first advocacy visit to Capitol Hill.
Complied by Shreya Maskara and Laurel Scott, Bruin senior staff.