Federal Relations
We are Texas A&M's liaison to Congressional Members, staff, and high-level association and federal agency personnel. Our goal is to elevate the national profile of Texas A&M University, our faculty, researchers and students, working with the A&M System Office of Federal Relations in Washington D.C.
The office fosters relationships with the Texas Congressional delegation to raise awareness of Texas A&M's vast expertise, while also facilitating visits of Members and staff to campus, and arranging Texas A&M faculty and administrator visits to DC.
The office maintains a current understanding of federal research priorities and works to ensure that Texas A&M's capabilities, in these priority areas, are a part of the strategy to solve national problems. Monitoring legislation regarding national higher education and research issues relevant to Texas A&M, the office works to identify emerging issues impacting the university community and assists in mitigating future issues.
Working closely with colleagues at higher education associations, such as the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), the office addresses broad issues affecting the higher education community, while also serving as a resource to the campus community on federal relations matters affecting the broader Texas A&M community.
The Texas A&M Maritime Academy (TAMMA), is just one of six state maritime academies in the U.S. and provides critical services for the state of Texas by educating and training mariners that go on to serve in both our armed forces and the maritime industry. TAMMA has lacked an adequate training ship for the last 15 years, and will receive a new purpose-built National Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV) in 2025, which is a state-of-the-art at-sea classroom that can accommodate training up to 600 cadets eight classrooms, a full training bridge, lab space and an auditorium, with 12 times the capabilities as their current training vessel.
