• Higher Education Act reauthorization issues, including teacher preparation, financial aid simplification, student loan reform and Pell Grants, alternative accreditation, and college ratings; grant opportunities related to workforce development, economic development, manufacturing workforce, and other education interests; budget and appropriations funding and impact on higher education programs; emerging Hispanic Serving Institutions; student data privacy issues; immigration reform for students, treatment of student-athletes, community college proposal, veterans education and sexual violence on campus; education tax proposals.

Duration: October 1, 2011 to November 30, 2016

General Issues: Education, Aviation/Aircraft/Airlines

Spending: about $440,000 (But it's complicated. Here's why.)

It can be tricky to figure out how much an organization spent on a particular lobbying engagement. The law only requires lobbyists to report the amount they were paid for federal lobbying each quarter rounded to the nearest $10,000—and if it's less than $3,000 in a given quarter (or less than $13,000 for organizations with in-house lobbyists), they don't have to disclose it at all. Plus, some organizations include spending that doesn’t belong in the report—for instance, money spent lobbying state governments or other legal work.

Agencies lobbied since 2011: U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, White House Office, Education - Dept of, Labor - Dept of (DOL), Natl Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), Veterans Employment & Training Service, Economic Development Administration, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Natl Science Foundation (NSF), State - Dept of (DOS)