Ohio State University boosted its federal lobbying efforts as it and other colleges faced increasing governmental interference, including cuts to research spending and changes to the financial aid system.
The state’s flagship university spent nearly $230,000 in its attempts to influence Congressional leaders during the first two quarters of 2025, according to recent federal lobbying disclosure forms.The amount is close to the $258,170 the university spent on lobbying expenses in all of 2024.
Ohio State’s not alone. The country’s most selective colleges and universities are spending more this year to lobby lawmakers, according to a recent analysis by Inside Higher Ed.
Colleges belonging to the Association of American Universities, which include Ohio State and Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University, collectively spent at least $9 million on federal lobbying during the first quarter of the year and $9.7 million in the second, which “dramatically outpaced” the same time period last year, the publication reported.
Case Western Reserve, however, didn’t keep pace with other universities’ spending. Records show the university spent $80,000 in each of the first two quarters of 2025, down from the $264,000 spent during the first six months of last year. Case Western Reserve declined to comment on its lobbying efforts.
Each of these Ohio-based universities spent far less than the schools topping Inside Higher Ed’s findings for the second quarter of the year, including Atlanta’s Emory University ($500,000), Cornell University ($444,000) and the University of Washington ($440,000).
What lobbying disclosure forms show about Ohio State, Case Western Reserve’s priorities
These forms must be filed quarterly and include how much money is spent as well as what issues lobbyists are discussing with lawmakers. Lobbying expenses can include a variety of things, including travel costs, outside consultants, and/or covering the costs of on-staff employees spending time on lobbying work.
While disclosure documents don’t specifically note where an institution stands on an issue or what parts of legislation lobbyists may have asked lawmakers to change, the forms can highlight an institution’s priorities at that moment in time.
Ohio State doesn’t use any outside lobbying firms, spokesperson Ben Johnson told Signal via email. Instead, university leaders “meet directly with legislative and executive branch partners to discuss funding and regulatory opportunities and challenges,” Johnson said.
An online directory shows the university has a 16-member government relations team for both the university and its hospital system.
This spring, records show that some of those Ohio State leaders talked with lawmakers about President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging “One Big Beautiful Bill,” including about how the now-law impacts the federal student aid system.
School officials also discussed “general issues” related to the Trump administration’s rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion (or DEI) work at colleges and K-12 schools nationwide, according to federal data. Leaders at the university, which has deep ties to the state’s agriculture ecosystem, also discussed the reauthorization of the Farm Bill with lawmakers.
Some of Case Western Reserve’s interests, meanwhile, included legislation tied to medical research.
That work is a big part of Case Western Reserve’s mission – as well as the university’s budget. When the Trump administration made sweeping changes to how universities conduct research projects earlier this year, Case Western Reserve leaders told Signal they projected the university could lose up to $40 million in research funding.
Disclosure forms note the university’s lobbyists pushed lawmakers this spring on issues related to COVID-19 research, opioid abuse prevention, and a long-term study on the health of residents of East Palestine, Ohio, after a 2023 train derailment.