Northeastern reported $270,000 in federal lobbying in the first quarter of 2025, outspending most U.S. universities.
The numbers were disclosed in a report filed April 21, which outlines the university’s lobbying activity from Jan. 1 to March 31 — a time marked by the Trump administration’s mounting pressure on higher education institutions to conform to its political agenda. Despite federal demands, Northeastern’s lobbying spending has remained at $270,000 per quarter since the third quarter of 2022.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, several institutions have ramped up federal lobbying as they work to remain out of the administration’s crosshairs. Notably, Harvard University — which has been a prime target of the administration — spent $170,000 on lobbying in quarter four of 2024; in the most recent quarter, it reported $230,000, a 35% increase and its highest quarterly total since George W. Bush’s presidency. Harvard is one of several high-profile institutions that have had millions in federal funding frozen by the Trump administration as it attempts to address alleged antisemitism on college campuses.
Though Northeastern has not been publicly targeted by the Trump administration, it has endured a rapidly evolving political climate: The university scrubbed diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, language from its websites and had nearly $14 million in research grants deemed “propaganda.” Moreover, more than 40 of its international students and recent graduates also had their visas terminated.
It is unclear whether Northeastern will increase its lobbying spending as a result of the Trump administration’s actions.
“Like all major research universities, Northeastern engages with the federal government at many levels,” Northeastern’s Vice President for Communications Renata Nyul wrote in a statement to The Huntington News. “We work to increase funding for our expanding research enterprise, shape federal policy that affects higher education, and maximize support for student financial aid.”
An April 28 New York Times analysis found that the 10 universities publicly targeted by the Trump administration’s antisemitism task force spent a combined $2.8 million lobbying the federal government this quarter — more than each of the schools spent since at least 2008. Columbia saw the most drastic increase as it more than tripled its spending in the first quarter of 2025 and was the only Ivy League institution to match Northeastern’s sum of $270,000. The analysis found that the amount universities spent on contracted lobbying firms increased nearly 150% from the first quarter of 2024 to this year, allocating far more to lobbyists with Republican ties.
Meanwhile, Northeastern’s lobbying issues remained largely unchanged from 2024. According to the quarter one disclosure, its lobbying activity concerned research funding and “policy issues of higher education, including financial aid programs, work study, cooperative education, international students and lifelong learning.”
Vice President for Federal Relations Jack Cline, Northeastern’s top lobbyist, redirected The News to Northeastern’s media relations team for comment on Northeastern’s lobbying expenditures.
Lobbying is a powerful mechanism for universities to establish relationships with lawmakers and influence policies that directly affect their communities, operations and finances. Universities benefit substantially from federal funding and often lobby agencies that award them grants and contracts. In fiscal year 2023, U.S. universities collectively spent over $60 billion in federal research funding.
As a R1 institution, Northeastern ranks in the “highest research activity” category of the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education and largely relies on federal funding to sustain its research output. In the 2021-22 academic year, $157 million of the more than $230 million Northeastern secured in research funding came from the federal government, and its top 15 research awards were all federally funded. Northeastern ranks in the top 100 universities nationwide in federal research dollars received, totaling $186 million in fiscal year 2023.
The only new lobbying activity Northeastern disclosed this quarter was related to Research Development Test & Evaluation, or RDT&E — one of the five major appropriations used by the Department of Defense. The university reported requests for increased RDT&E funding appropriations as well as language requests for the National Defense Authorization Act, which could entail adding or altering provisions relevant to Northeastern’s programs. But RDT&E lobbying is not new for the university; Congressional Solutions, Inc., a lobbying firm Northeastern employed last year, disclosed RDT&E-related lobbying on behalf of the university every quarter of 2024.
Last quarter, Northeastern used $160,000 of the $270,000 it spent to hire four external lobbying firms. This quarter, Northeastern hired only two of the firms, Lewis-Burke Associates and Holland & Knight, and paid each $50,000. The firms’ lobbying issues remained consistent with the previous quarter. Holland & Knight has reported lobbying for Northeastern on “higher education regulation matters” every quarter since quarter two of 2024, when it began working with the university.
In addition to Cline, Northeastern listed three administrators as in-house lobbyists in its quarter one report: Assistant Director of Legislative Affairs Abigail Robbins, Director of Federal Relations Jesse Poon and Associate Vice President for External Affairs Michael Ferrari. According to Northeastern’s Office of External Affairs, the government relations team works to advance the university’s research agenda, advocate for federal funding and shape policies that impact the Northeastern community.
In a January interview with Northeastern Global News, or NGN, Cline discussed Northeastern’s lobbying efforts amid the second Trump administration. When asked about Trump’s freeze on National Institutes of Health funding and pause on the National Science Foundation’s grant reviews, Cline said, “We’re operating with an understanding that these freezes are temporary. The Northeastern team has strong relationships on Capitol Hill and within the funding agencies.”
Northeastern reported that about 14 research grants from a pool of about 900 had been terminated as of early April, according to an April 30 update to the university’s “Navigating a New Political Landscape” FAQ page.
“Our values aren’t going to change,” Cline told NGN of the government’s DEI rollback. “We’re an institution that embraces a culture of belonging, because we know that having a diversity of backgrounds and experiences make us better at teaching, at research, at solving the world’s problems. The methods we use to achieve those goals may need to be adjusted, though — partly because we’re always looking for the best way to meet our goals, and partly because we need to continue to comply with the law.”
