Harvard Spends Record-High $270,000 on Lobbying in Second Quarter of 2025

Harvard spent $270,000 lobbying the federal government between April and June as it ramped up efforts to counter mounting political and financial pressures from Washington, according to disclosures filed last month.

The total marks Harvard’s highest quarterly lobbying expenditure on record and brings its year-to-date federal lobbying outlay to at least $500,000 — already nearing the $620,000 it spent in all of 2024, which was itself the most in more than a decade.

During the most recent reporting period, the Trump administration and its allies in Congress launched a historic volley of attacks against the University, stripping it of nearly $3 billion in federal funding, threatening its tax-exempt status, scrutinizing foreign donations, and hiking the tax rate on its endowment income.

Harvard’s in-house lobbying team, a trio of attorneys based in its Washington, D.C., office, reported roughly $160,000 in lobbying expenses over the quarter, while the longtime external firm O’Neill, Athy, & Casey was paid $20,000. Ballard Partners — the lobbying shop with deep ties to President Donald Trump’s administration that Harvard hired just days before his return to office — reported receiving $90,000 for its work during the same period in a mid-July disclosure.

Per the Monday filings, Harvard’s in-house lobbying team and O’Neill, Athy, & Casey worked to oppose a proposed increase to the federal endowment tax included in the omnibus spending package dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” by Trump and his allies. The two have disclosed lobbying against a hike — a long-standing threat Republicans have levied against Harvard and other Ivy League institutions with large endowment — since at least 2017.

That threat came to fruition in July, when unified Republican control of the White House and Congress allowed Trump to sign the bill into law, enacting a tiered tax on endowment investment income — with Harvard falling into the highest bracket at 8 percent.

While Harvard’s lobbying ultimately failed to block the measure entirely, it may have helped shape the final outcome. The House initially approved a 21 percent tax, before the rate was reduced to 8 percent in the Senate. Even at that lower level, the tax is expected to cost the University more than $200 million annually.

The group also mobilized around immigration, as international students became a direct target of federal action during the quarter. In late May, the Department of Homeland Security moved to strip Harvard of its certification to host students from abroad; less than two weeks later, Trump signed an executive order restricting students from entering the U.S. to study at Harvard. A federal judge granted preliminary relief for both efforts in June.

In the Monday filings, Harvard’s lobbyists listed immigration as one of several focus areas, advocating for a “timely and predictable process for student and scholar visas” and policies supporting “status in the U.S.” The disclosures did not explicitly reference the moves from the DHS or the White House.

The group pushed for dual intent policies and expedited pathways to citizenship for graduates of U.S. universities and Dreamers — undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as children, many of whom were granted temporary protections under a program created by former U.S. President Barack Obama. Harvard backed the Keep STEM Talent Act, a bipartisan bill that would streamline immigration for international students in science and engineering fields.

Harvard has long been a vocal advocate for more predictable and inclusive immigration policies from Washington in relation to its international students. Immigration has been listed as a lobbying focus for Harvard since at least 2017, but the recent actions by the Trump administration appear to have intensified Harvard’s efforts, both in court and on Capitol Hill.

The University also continued to lobby for federal research funding — a long-standing priority that took new urgency after the Trump administration suspended billions of dollars in research grants and contracts earlier this year. O’Neill, Athy, & Casey reported lobbying on funding for federally sponsored research, congressional oversight, and indirect cost reimbursement.

Harvard’s in-house team separately cited a wide range of issues tied to federal science policy, including agency reorganization, foreign gift reporting, faculty disclosure rules, and investment in major research agencies such as the National Science Foundation. Trump has proposed steep cuts to science agencies’ budgets that could have major downstream effects on Harvard’s future access to funding — even if the University cuts a deal to reclaim what it’s lost so far.

The filings also noted concerns around research integrity, open access, climate and sustainability, and the commercialization of university discoveries.

Many of the issues for which Harvard mobilized align with pressure points in its ongoing battles with Congress. The University listed financial aid programs and student loans as priority issues as House and Senate Republicans probe Ivy League tuition practices and subpoena Harvard for documents related to its financial aid process. It also lobbied around financial disclosure regulations, admissions, and foreign donations — all areas under scrutiny in congressional investigations.

Harvard’s in-house team and O’Neill, Athy, & Casey lobbied only members of Congress, per the disclosures. Ballard, however, expanded its list of targets this past quarter to include the White House as the University faced intensifying federal scrutiny from Trump and his inner circle.

While Harvard has been the focal point of the Trump administration’s crusade against higher education, other elite universities have also ramped up their defenses to prevent the volley of attacks from turning their way. Cornell University spent $444,000, Yale University spent $320,000, Princeton University spent $290,000, and Columbia University spent $280,000 on lobbying expenses in the second quarter.

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.

—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.