Harvard Continues Record Spending on Lobbying in Third Quarter of 2025

Harvard spent $220,000 lobbying the federal government between July and September, continuing a year-long surge in federal advocacy spending as the University faces sustained financial threats from Washington, according to disclosures filed last week.

The new filings bring the University’s year-to-date lobbying spending to $720,000 — surpassing every full year total since the George W. Bush presidency, even without fourth quarter spending.

While the third-quarter total marks a modest decline from the record-high $270,000 recorded in the second quarter, Harvard’s year-to-date lobbying has already exceeded the University’s 2024 total of $620,000 and is on pace to surpass 2007’s current historical high of $890,000.

According to last week’s filings, Harvard’s lobbying during the third quarter focused on federal research funding and immigration policies affecting international students — both issues that Washington has used as levers against the University in recent months.

But during the summer session, Harvard’s lobbying team was also working to reduce the endowment tax making its way through Congress as part of Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill.

The initial bill passed by the House proposed taxing the largest university endowments, including Harvard’s, at 21 percent — a 1400 percent increase from the previous 1.4 percent rate. The tax was moderated substantially by the Senate, which reduced it to 8 percent, though the penalty is still expected to cost the University around $300 million each year according to Harvard’s estimates.

The filings show that Harvard retained its two external lobbying firms during the third quarter — O’Neill, Athy, & Casey and Ballard Partners – while continuing to rely on its in-house lobbying team based in Washington, D.C. The University paid O’Neill, Athy & Casey $40,000 and Ballard Partners, a firm with close ties to President Trump, $90,000.

Through September, Harvard’s lobbyists were still responding to the administration’s $2.7 billion in cuts to federal grants.

The University secured a major legal victory on Sept. 3, when a federal judge blocked the cuts, but Trump has vowed to appeal and the White House continues to open new investigations to attack Harvard’s finances. Harvard has also been in and out of settlement talks since June, though it is unclear how close the two parties are to reaching one.

The filing cited lobbying on grant-making processes, research administration, and the “federal-university partnership in biomedical education, training, and research.” Harvard officials have consistently described those partnerships as essential to sustaining its research enterprise, which relies heavily on federal funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

O’Neill, Athy, & Casey and Harvard’s in-house lobbying team also continued their efforts to address a swath of immigration-related issues affecting its students and graduates. The disclosures listed efforts to create a standardized process for the “adjudication of student and scholar visas” and students’ ability to retain status in the U.S. and “engage in education, research, and training programs.”

The team also focused on issues for graduates, concerning their “U.S. entry, fees, and pathways to permanent resident status or citizenship.”

The University’s immigration lobbying in the third quarter came after repeated attempts by the Trump administration to bar international student enrollment at Harvard, including by revoking the University’s certification to host them and imposing blanket travel restrictions on international students and researchers. Both attempts were blocked by a federal judge.

Despite Harvard’s prominent fight with the Trump administration, Harvard’s lobbying expenditures in the third quarter ranked near the middle of the Ivy League. Yale spent $370,000 on federal lobbying between July and September, Penn spent $360,000, Columbia spent $290,000, and Princeton spent $160,000, according to federal filings.

—Staff writer Avani B. Rai can be reached at avani.rai@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @avaniiiirai.

—Staff writer Saketh Sundar can be reached at saketh.sundar@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @saketh_sundar.