NSPE Senior Manager of Government Relations Sarah Ogden attended a congressional briefing sponsored by the American Society for Engineering Education Engineering Deans' Council on "Engineering Education and Research: How Engineering Colleges Help the U.S. Compete." Congressmen Dan Lipinski (D-IL-3) and Paul Tonko (D-NY-21), both engineers, advocated an increase in STEM education funding despite cuts to domestic spending. A panel of deans from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Mississippi State University, the University of Illinois, the University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University discussed the need for engineering to be formalized at the K–12 level, taught interactively, and connected to math and science teaching.