Yale looks to bolster D.C. lobbying efforts with new Trump administration

Yale University intends to increase its lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C. as the new Trump administration is set to take power.

On Dec. 13, the Yale Daily News shared remarks from an interview with university President Maurie McInnis in which she shared her concerns about the distrust of American colleges and universities among legislators.

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“There is a new urgency because of the rise in rhetoric and the rise in distrust,” McInnis told the student newspaper. “It is possible that higher education will very much be part of the work of the next [U.S. presidential] administration, and therefore will obviously be part of the work that I need to do.”

“There is a reason why post-World War II, in the Cold War era, the federal government made decisions that universities were going to be their partners in research and development,” McInnis also told the outlet. “That has led to American competitiveness, economic development and American security, and that partnership is still very strong even if the political rhetoric is sometimes attacking that.”

In October, the Yale Daily News noted how the institution was hiring a director of federal relations to lobby on behalf of the university in the capital.

The outlet points to various efforts by lawmakers that could drastically impact the university, including limiting federal funding for research, as well as and J.D. Vance’s push for taxes on university endowments.

In December 2023, then Senator Vance introduced legislation that would increase an excise tax from 1.4 percent to 35 percent on “net investment income of private educational institutions whose assets had a aggregate fair market value of at least $10 billion in the preceding taxable year,” according to the Congressional Research Service.

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“Even when people disagree with you it’s important to sit down with them, listen to their critiques, find the common ground and advocate for the mission and the purpose of American higher education, and that is work that I know I will spend a lot of time next semester doing,” McInnis reportedly said during the interview.

”For an educational institution to be able to do its work, you need to be able to have an environment where students can grapple with hard ideas with each other and not be shouted down or feel like they would be ostracized if they didn’t agree with others,” she added.