Harvard Spent Nearly $1 Million on Federal Lobbying in 2025, Including $230,000 in Q4

Harvard spent nearly $1 million in federal lobbying in 2025 — its highest total in more than two decades — as the University faced mounting financial and regulatory pressure from the Trump administration.

According to lobbying disclosures released Tuesday, Harvard spent $230,000 in lobbying between October and December, bringing its total lobbying expenditures for the year to $950,000. That figure is more than 50 percent higher than the $620,000 the University spent in 2024 and surpasses the previous record of $890,000 in 2007.

The filing reflects a sharp rise in lobbying expenditures since President Donald Trump’s inauguration and Harvard’s efforts to respond to federal scrutiny affecting research funding, immigration, and higher education finance.

During the fourth quarter, Harvard focused its lobbying efforts on the government shutdown in October, including legislation aimed at preventing the shutdown and continuing agency funding. The shutdown put Harvard in limbo as the National Institutes of Health and other agencies paused data sharing and funding to the University.

Similar to third quarter spending, the University focused much of its fourth quarter lobbying on research funding and immigration policies. On research security, the University specifically cited its involvement in the SAFE Research Act, which would limit eligibility for U.S. scientific research funding for projects involving collaborators affiliated with a “hostile foreign entity,” expanding the requirement of institutions to disclose foreign relationships relevant to their work.

Major research groups such as the Association of American Universities have criticized the bill — which has not yet become law — believing that it will disrupt collaboration between U.S. universities and international researchers.

Harvard also cited its involvement in lobbying around the BIOSECURE Act, which was signed into law in December 2025 and bans federal funding from being used in biomedical research linked to foreign governments. It also requires institutions to certify compliance with restrictions on the use of foreign organizations, vendors, platforms, and research services.

In outlining its concerns on these issues, Harvard wrote that it lobbied around “foreign gifts and contracts reporting, international school graduate students and scholars in STEM fields,” as well as “data privacy, research transparency, including open access, and F&A.”

Harvard’s focus on research funding comes as its federal support has been unstable. Across several multimillion dollar cuts, the Trump administration pulled $2.7 billion in federal grants since April. Although a federal judge blocked the cuts in September — and Harvard said its funding has been restored — the University listed research funding as a continued target of its lobbying.

Harvard also focused much of its lobbying on immigration policies, including “a timely and predictable process” for the assessment and approval of student visas, according to the Tuesday disclosure.

The University wrote that it advocated for other policies related to entry to the U.S. and pathways to “permanent resident status of citizenship, including for graduates of US universities.”

Harvard’s international students have been at the center of federal scrutiny, subject to two separate policies attempting to restrict their ability to attend Harvard. Both actions were blocked by a federal judge, though the Trump administration has appealed the decision.

Harvard also lobbied heavily on tax reform, including university endowments. In July, the federal government raised the endowment tax from 1.4 percent to 8 percent tax on the largest university endowments, including Harvard’s. The increase is expected to cost the University around $200 million each year.

Harvard was not the only Ivy League university to make a significant jump in lobbying this year. Yale, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell all spent well over $1 million in 2025, with the University of Pennsylvania spending $510,000 in the fourth quarter alone.

—Staff writer Megan L. Blonigen can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @MeganBlonigen.

—Staff writer Graham W. Lee can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @grahamwonlee.