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Top universities ramp up lobbying amid Trump higher education crackdown

10 32
28.10.2025

The nation’s top schools have ramped up their spending on lobbying the federal government this year amid President Trump’s crackdown on higher education, disclosures filed last week show.

Twenty-four top universities and one of the nation’s largest college systems have already spent around $24 million lobbying Washington this year, more than double what they spent during the same time period last year, according to federal disclosures.

“Universities have been upping their lobbying game to try to be influential, either try to directly influence the White House or, probably in a lot of cases, trying to lobby members of Congress with perceived influence in the White House,” said Thomas Holyoke, a political science professor at California State University, Fresno who has researched lobbying for over 20 years.

At least 11 universities and the University of California (UC) system shelled out more than $1 million each lobbying the government in the first nine months of the year. The UC system — which includes UC Berkeley and UC Los Angeles — spent more than $3.2 million this year on lobbying alone.

Trailing behind it are Northwestern University, Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University, which collectively spent more than $4.9 million. Harvard University, which has challenged the federal government in court, already spent $1 million this year on lobbying.

Yale University, also under pressure, spent more than $1.2 million. The University of Pennsylvania spent $1.4 million, while Cornell University and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor both spent $1.1 million.

Experts predict colleges will spend even more before the year’s end as the Trump administration continues to shake up higher education. This month, the Department of Education and White House officials asked schools to sign on to a 10-point federal funding compact that sparked concerns from university administrators. As of now, at least seven universities declined to sign it.

Universities lobbied on issues ranging from

© The Hill