Latest news with #WashingtonMardiGras
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Here are key takeaways from Washington Mardi Gras and how they affect Terrebonne, Lafourche
The Bayou Region scored big wins during Washington Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras in Washington, D.C., is more than a week of celebrations. It's a week of lobbying as representatives from Louisiana — advocates, business officials, elected officials — meet with officials in Washington to add a face to the voices asking for funding for projects. According to attendees, Terrebonne and Lafourche scored three major wins: lock gate funding, a major agreement for Port Fourchon, and the first ever Washington, D.C., event focused solely on the South Louisiana area, known as the Bayou Bash, Jan. 22. 'What most may view as a week-long party is actually a marathon of breakfast meetings, luncheons and visit opportunities, sprinkled in with a few cocktail parties,' South Louisiana Economic Council CEO Christy Zeringue said. 'The majority of those who attend during the week fly out by the weekend, leaving the fun for those more involved in the pageantry.' Formed in 1983, the South Louisiana Economic Council is one of eight economic development offices recognized by the state to help implement its economic policies. SLEC represents Lafourche, Terrebonne, Assumption, and St. Mary parishes. This was the first year one of these gatherings was focused on these regions. The Bayou Bash took place at The City Club of Washington, 555 13th St NW. 'Washington Mardi Gras serves as a premier gathering for business leaders across Louisiana, providing a unique opportunity to engage in high-level discussions about the state's economic future,' Zeringue said. 'The event fosters meaningful dialogue with key decision-makers, allowing regional and statewide priorities to be addressed directly with elected officials.' Three attendees of the event estimated about 200 people shuffled in and out during the two to three hours it took place. During the gathering, S.L.E.C. announced it will be rebranding itself to the name "COLAB... a name that embodies the spirit of collaboration across Louisiana's Bayou Region." Asked what this change of name meant for the economic organization, Zeringue said more information would be given at the local announcement during the last week of February. In January, Biz New Orleans reported that SLEC announced a strategic partnership with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Louisiana. Henri Boulet is the head of both the Morganza Action Coalition and the LA 1 Coalition Inc. He has been attending these D.C. gatherings for nearly two decades to advocate for flood protection for Terrebonne and Lafourche. The Morganza Action Coalition had a luncheon the same day as the Bayou Bash. He said Mardi Gras week gives an opportunity to put a add a human element to the request for funding for projects like floodgates that protect the area. It also grants the ability to get the most current information directly from the sources of these projects, or the place and timeline of the project from the government officials who control them. 'I think the bayou was the buzz of D.C. that day,' Boulet said. 'We had very positive meetings with the Federal delegation… and our stakeholders in D.C.' According to Boulet, residents in Terrebonne and Lafourche will see direct results of lobbying efforts from Mardi Gras week in the bidding out of two floodgates next year between Sept. 30 and Oct. 1: the West Houma Intracoastal Floodgate and the Larose Intracoastal Floodgate. Both 225-foot floodgates are in the design phase with the Army Corps of Engineers. According the Corp's website, they feature concrete sector gates, pile foundations, steel sector gates, concrete T-wall tie-ins, electrical controls and other mechanical equipment. More: Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy makes swing vote on Robert F. Kennedy nomination for DHH More: Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority plan $1.8B for Louisiana's coastal protection The liquid natural gas company Argent LNG signed a 30 year lease agreement with Port Fourchon last year for 144 acres for a liquid natural gas export facility. According to Argent LNG's website, they expect to start commercial operations in 2029-30. The Argent's CEO Jonathan Bass signed a 'Heads of Agreement' with the government of Bangladesh outside of their embassy Jan. 24. The agreement is for Bangladesh to buy the first 5 million metric tons annually from the company. The Houma Courier reached out to Argent LNG but did not get a response in time for this article. The deal is a big win for Port Fourchon, Greater Lafourche Port Commission Executive Director Chet Chaisson said. The first phase of Argent LNG's project is a $10-billion investment. 'In terms of private investment in port property, in the first phase you're looking at $10 billion - 10 with a b - investment, and if there's a second phase, it could be double that,' Chaisson said. 'It puts us into the international game. Right now everything that we do is about domestically producing energy, but this is taking American energy and exporting it to places around the world that desperately need it.' This article originally appeared on The Courier: Three key takeaways from Washington Mardi Gras for Bayou Region
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What were university presidents doing at Washington Mardi Gras?
A Krewe de LSU sign hanging in the LSU-sponsored hospitality suite at Washington Mardi Gras (Piper Hutchinson/Louisiana Illuminator) WASHINGTON, D.C. — Washington Mardi Gras is known as a boozy political party for lobbyists, donors and politicians. But for higher education leaders, it's also an opportunity to take advantage of having Louisiana's most rich and powerful in the same building — and in a good mood. While higher education leaders do engage in the party — LSU President William Tate was spotted on his way into Saturday night's ball, the main event of the week — they also use the trip to D.C. as an opportunity to meet with Louisiana's congressional delegation to discuss funding for state colleges and universities. Several universities, including LSU, Tulane and Southern, hosted their own hospitality suites, with a buffet and open bar for revelers. Campus leaders were seen milling about, meeting with D.C.-based alumni, donors and elected officials. McNeese State and the University of Louisiana Lafayette did not host their own suite but helped sponsor one for their regions. LSU, the University of New Orleans and the Louisiana Community and Technical College System also hosted their own events during the four-day long event. Complicating plans was the freak snow storm in Louisiana the day before Washington Mardi Gras was supposed to kick off, meaning several university presidents were unable to attend and others had to cancel meetings. The Illuminator caught up with some of these higher education leaders to ask what business the officials engaged in on their trip. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Southern University System President Dennis Shields was spotted next to a dancing jaguar mascot outside of the university's hospitality suite. Shields reported meeting with members of the congressional delegation and prospective donors. Shields said money is needed to close the $1 billion historical funding disparity between Southern, a historically Black university, and LSU, the state's primarily white land-grant institution. He also said he is seeking funding for the university's capital campaign, adding that he was 'feeling optimistic' about securing funds for both. LSU President William Tate arrived late to the party, having traveled with the LSU women's basketball team to Columbia for their matchup against South Carolina. The Lady Tigers lost the game, 66-55. Tate said his main priority was meeting with state legislators, several of whom made appearances at LSU's purple and gold-lit suite at the Washington Hilton. Commissioner of Higher Education Kim Hunter Reed had her hands full chaperoning student body presidents from Louisiana colleges and universities who are taken to Washington Mardi Gras-related events every year. She said she was also meeting with members of the congressional delegation. Louisiana Tech President Jim Henderson met with members of Louisiana's congressional delegation to seek federal research funding for asphalt research, which he intends to try out at the Ruston campus' parking lots. 'Most of our work is just telling our story,' Henderson said of the meetings. 'They can't be the sole funder for these kinds of things. We have to go out there and find the resources to do these things. But they can say, 'Hey, this is part of an initiative that somebody else is doing.'' Henderson said he also took meetings on research funding for cybersecurity, traumatic brain injuries and a potential swine research facility. UNO President Kathy Johnson was representing her fiscally challenged university amid a relaunching of the school's D.C. presence. UNO recently hired a federal lobbying firm to help seek research funding from federal agencies. The university also held a brunch event, which U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, D.C.-based alumni and prospective donors attended. McNeese State University President Wade Rousse was spotted at UNO's brunch. Rousse, who was hired as president of McNeese last spring, said his mission was to meet with funders and impart the importance of funding higher education. 'We all know economic growth is driven by two things, labor and capital, and what drives labor is education,' Rousse said. South Louisiana Community College Chancellor Vincent June said he met with delegation members to discuss the importance of passing a bill seeking to expand Pell grants, a federal program that gives funding to low-income students seeking college degrees, short-term credentials and other job training. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
26-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Budget-crunched University of New Orleans makes its case at Washington Mardi Gras
The University of New Orleans sign sits on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022, at the lakefront campus entrance on Lakeshore Drive in New Orleans. (Photo by Matthew Perschall) WASHINGTON, D.C. — Facing a $10 million budget shortfall, the University of New Orleans is out in full force at Washington Mardi Gras, hoping to secure private donations and more federal research dollars. It had been approximately 15 years since UNO, a research university nestled on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain, had held an event at Washington Mardi Gras, an annual gathering of Louisiana political figures in the nation's capital. That changed this week when UNO President Kathy Johnson hosted alumni, potential donors and public officials for a Saturday morning brunch. 'I'm just systematically working the plan to get from where we are right now,' Johnson said, noting private money funded the school's presence at Washington Mardi Gras. A key part of that plan: hiring a federal lobbyist. The firm the university settled on is Washington Navigators, which specializes in higher education lobbying. Johnson said the private University of New Orleans Foundation is paying for the firm. While UNO has employed a federal lobbyist in the past, it hadn't had one for several years, Johnson said. Having one can help the university secure more research funding, she added. The university has to spend at least $5 million on research annually and award at least 20 doctoral degrees to maintain its status as an R2 university, which the Carnegie Classification of Institutions gives to universities with 'high research activity.' While UNO is not at risk of dipping below this line — it spent around $20 million on research in 2023 — more grant funding could help keep faculty in place at a university currently mired in instability. 'It starts with raising your profile,' Scott Sudduth, a partner with Washington Navigators, said in an interview at the UNO brunch. Sudduth said it was still early in the firm's partnership with UNO, but said he anticipated visiting its campus to get a sense for existing research programs and to find model researchers among the school's faculty to show off to the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies. Louisiana's powerful Republican congressional delegation puts the university at an advantage, Sudduth said. Not only is U.S. House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson from Louisiana, so is the House Majority Leader, Rep. Steve Scalise, and Sen. Bill Cassidy, who now chairs the powerful Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Cassidy was among those attending the UNO brunch. When asked to give remarks, the senator said he will work to get jobs for UNO students, which was met with cheers. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX UNO's budget problems aren't anything new. Johnson's predecessor, John Nicklow, struggled with the budget during his tenure from 2016-23. The fiscal problems truly began after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when the university's enrollment dropped from around 17,000 to around 6,000. For the fall 2024 semester, UNO's total student body was 6,488. Complicating matters were significant cuts to the entire state higher education system during Gov. Bobby Jindal's two terms in office, from 2008-16. Those reductions switched the burden of funding colleges and universities from the state to the students, leading to significant tuition hikes across Louisiana. UNO was slow to adjust its expenses to match its shrinking student body, a task that has forced Johnson to make drastic moves, including consolidating administrators and furloughing most employees earlier this month. The university is also likely to lay off staff later this year. While faculty cannot be furloughed, even tenured professors can be terminated in the face of a budget crisis. 'I so appreciate what UNO has been in the past, and I can see what it can be in the future,' Johnson said. Attendees at the event reminisced about what the university had been to them. Founded in 1958 as a branch of LSU, UNO was the first racially integrated public university in the South and the first public university in the city. Leo Surla, who was part of the first first graduating class in 1962, said he wouldn't have had the opportunity for a postsecondary education if UNO hadn't been founded. 'People in New Orleans who couldn't afford Tulane and couldn't afford to go to Baton Rouge could go to school,' Surla said. 'Just think of the thousands and thousands of students who had an opportunity to do that, and I was one of the first.' After graduating from UNO, where he also served as student body president, Surla participated in a prestigious fellowship at Vanderbilt University and subsequently became an economist, eventually establishing his own consulting business with projects in 70 different countries. 'That's all because they set up that university in New Orleans,' Surla said. Despite a strong start to the school — Surla doesn't recall any lack of money in those early days — the university has hit repeated rough patches, including numerous hurricanes and hard budget times in a poor state. Attendees at the brunch agreed Johnson is well equipped to bring back the good times. It'll be on Johnson and her team to cut and lobby UNO's way out of the crisis as increased funding for higher education is unlikely to come from the state. Gov. Jeff Landry has indicated he wants spending to remain at existing levels. 'To hell with those guys,' Surla said about the Louisiana Legislature. 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