USC President Steven B. Sample on March 11 led a delegation of trustees and senior administrators to talk to key members of Congress and the administration about the university’s science and education priorities.

The group urged legislators to fully fund the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy Office of Science increases called for in President George W. Bush’s budget and to reverse the flat funding of the National Institutes of Health.

The delegation updated members of Congress about the university’s commitment to making a USC education affordable, informing legislators that USC administers one of the largest student aid pools in the country.

Sample was joined by trustees Stanley Gold, Bruce Ramer, Gale Bensussen, Michele Dedeaux Engemann, Daniel J. Epstein, Suzanne Nora Johnson, John Kusmiersky, John Mork, Barbara Rossier, William J. Schoen, Jeffrey H. Smulyan and Glenn Sonnenberg; senior vice presidents C. L. Max Nikias, Martha Harris and Todd Dickey; vice presidents Carolyn Webb de Macias and Elizabeth Garrett; associate senior vice president Scott Mory and alumni Dick DeBeikes and Elliott Broidy.

Members of the USC delegation met individually with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Reps. Xavier Becerra, Mary Bono Mack, John Campbell, David Dreier, Michael Honda, Laura Richardson and Adam Schiff, Reps. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.), and Under Secretary for Education Sara Martinez Tucker.

Meanwhile, deans Karen Symms Gallagher, Howard Gillman and Jack H. Knott met with representatives from the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Education Writers Association.

In the evening, USC hosted a Capitol Hill reception that drew nearly 200 attendees, including Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and California Reps. Howard Berman, John Campbell, Elton Gallegly, Jane Harman, Brad Sherman and Diane E. Watson.

The Capitol Hill visits and reception followed two successful events held on March 10. First, President Sample delivered the keynote address for the California State Society’s Golden State Roundtable luncheon.

Sample told the 100 people in attendance that, “Today, Los Angeles is the de facto capital of the Pacific Rim.”

That evening, USC’s Alumni Association and the USC Club of the Nation’s Capital co-hosted “An Evening With USC’s Provost” at the National Press Club. The event drew more than 150 alumni and friends of the university who gathered to hear Provost Nikias discuss the future of the university.