Columbia spent $200,000 on federal lobbying between July and September 2026, listing H-1B fees and student loan caps among its interests. The filing also shows continued lobbying for federal research funding.
The third-quarter amount matched spending in each of the previous two quarters. The university’s 2026 total reached $610,000, or $230,000 below its spending at the same point last year, according to its lobbying disclosure.
A federal judge blocked the H-1B fee rule for a second time in September 2026. The loan changes took effect in July, with an exemption for students who received federal funds before July 1.
- A bipartisan bill introduced March 17 proposed a healthcare-worker exemption from the fee.
- The federal research-grant proposal is set to take effect in December.
- The year-to-date lobbying total is $230,000 below the comparable point last year.
The fee proposal faces another court block
President Donald Trump proposed a rule in September 2025 that would require employers, including universities, to pay $100,000 for each sponsored H-1B visa. He later signed an executive order requiring the payment with new petitions after Sept. 21, 2025.
The university’s 2025 sponsorship figures show the potential scale. It filed 112 new H-1B petitions and had 217 active H-1B visas that year. The additional cost could reach $10 to $20 million.
| India | China | ROW | |
|---|---|---|---|
| EB-1 | Feb 01, 2023 | Aug 01, 2023 ▲31d | Current |
| EB-2 | Nov 01, 2013 | Oct 01, 2021 | Apr 01, 2025 ▲90d |
| EB-3 | Jan 22, 2014 ▲21d | Jan 22, 2022 ▲14d | Jun 15, 2024 ▲31d |
| F-1 | Jan 22, 2021 ▲366d | Jan 22, 2021 ▲366d | Jan 22, 2021 ▲366d |
| F-2A | Oct 22, 2026 ▲30d | Oct 22, 2026 ▲30d | Oct 22, 2026 ▲30d |
The university’s lobbying focus shifted during 2026. Its first-quarter disclosure listed efforts to secure a healthcare exemption from the fee. In the second quarter, it dropped that issue, then listed visa fees again in the third-quarter filing.
Congress introduced a bipartisan bill on March 17 to exempt physicians and other healthcare workers from the $100,000 charge. Supporters cited the risk of staffing shortages at hospitals and health systems.
The court block marks another development in the fee’s path. The research disclosure records that the rule was blocked twice, most recently in September 2026.
New federal limits end GRAD PLUS borrowing
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act took effect in July with new limits on federal student borrowing. It also eliminated GRAD PLUS, which had allowed graduate students to borrow up to their full cost of attendance.
Some students are outside the changes. They do not apply to students who received federal funds before July 1.
The university had lobbied on graduate borrowing limits in the fourth quarter of 2025. It did not list the issue in the first two quarters of 2026, before adding it back to the latest disclosure.
Grant rules could shift control over federal research
The university is also lobbying against an Office of Management and Budget proposal to revise the Uniform Guidance, the rules for awarding federal grants. The proposal was introduced in May and is scheduled to take effect in December.
The proposed criteria include whether grants promote “American interests” and “the President's policy priorities.” The changes would give senior Trump appointees a role in approving grants and allow agencies to end work already underway as priorities shift.
Michael Kratsios, Trump’s science and technology adviser, outlined the administration’s research priorities in the July report “Science: A New Golden Age.” The 123-page document emphasizes investment in areas where private companies dominate, such as AI, rather than basic science research, which universities conduct and which may not have an immediate application.
Jeannette Wing, executive vice president for research, sent a nine-page letter in July to OMB Director Russell Vought warning about effects on the university’s research. At an Oct. 22 panel, Wing said federal research grants might end “at any time, for any reason.”
The National Institutes of Health is the only federal health agency listed on the latest disclosure. The previous quarter’s filing also named the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute.
The funding dispute follows a $400 million cut to federal grants in March 2025. The Trump administration cited the university’s alleged failure to address antisemitism on campus.
Earlier lobbying covered international students and endowment taxes
The university spent $200,000 on federal lobbying from January through March 2026, a $70,000 decrease from its first-quarter 2025 peak. Its first-quarter priorities included scientific research funding, a healthcare exemption from the H-1B fee and international-student issues.
It retained three outside firms: BGR Group, Van Scoyoc Associates and Federal Sciences Partners LLC. The university has paid BGR Group $140,000 each quarter since hiring it in 2025, allocating 3.5 times more to the firm than to Van Scoyoc Associates and seven times more than to Federal Science Partners LLC that quarter.
Several former BGR lobbyists now work in the Trump administration, including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Dan Murphy, the university’s BGR lobbyist, previously directed Trump’s first-term transition team and served as chief of staff to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez. A group of Republicans founded BGR in the 1990s.
Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University and Brown University also reduced federal lobbying spending in the first quarter. The university’s spending remains below its previous year-end pace.
Fall 2025 enrollment data counted approximately 14,000 international students, nearly 39 percent of the student body and the highest share among Ivy League schools. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s February arrest of Ellie Aghayeva, GS '26, renewed concerns about enforcement against international students and students involved in pro-Palestinian speech and protest.
A July 2025 settlement with the federal government, which restored funding cut several months earlier, requires the university to “examine its business model and take steps to decrease financial dependence on international student enrollment.” After its increased lobbying the prior year, the university avoided the proposed endowment tax increase in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed in July 2025.
An earlier first-quarter report put the university on track to spend less than the $1.07 million it spent in 2025. The Uniform Guidance proposal remains scheduled to take effect in December.
