Harvard Lobbied on Four-Year Visa Cap as Federal Lobbying Spending Dipped to $200,000

Harvard University lobbied Congress in the third quarter on a resolution that would overturn a federal rule capping student and visiting scholar visas at four years, according to federal lobbying disclosures released Monday and reported by The Harvard Crimson.

The university spent $200,000 on federal lobbying from July through September, down slightly from $210,000 in the second quarter and about 9% less than in the same period last year, the Crimson reported. The filing does not say whether Harvard lobbied for or against the resolution.

It was the first quarter since Harvard ended its long-running retainer with O'Neill Athy and Casey, a Washington lobbying firm that had represented the university since at least 1999, according to the Crimson. Harvard paid $90,000 to Ballard Partners, a firm the Crimson describes as closely tied to the Trump administration, the same amount it paid in previous quarters. Harvard hired Ballard days before President Donald Trump's inauguration in 2025. The disclosure listed Brian Ballard, Daniel McFaul and Michael LaRosa as the lobbyists assigned to Harvard.

The visa rule places a fixed limit of up to four years on F and J visas, shorter than many doctoral programs, the Crimson reported. Under the previous system, international students were generally allowed to remain in the United States for the length of their academic programs. The rule would also require students who want to stay beyond four years to apply for an extension with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services rather than updating their status through their universities.

A federal judge temporarily blocked the rule one day before it was set to take effect in September but denied a request for summary judgment without prejudice, leaving the legal challenge unresolved, according to the Crimson. A coalition of higher education groups and labor unions has sued and is seeking a preliminary injunction, which has not been granted. Harvard is a member of two plaintiff organizations, the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts.

Harvard President Alan M. Garber called the rule "odd" in a July interview at the Economic Club of Washington, noting that "a typical Ph.D. program usually takes at least six years," the Crimson reported. The Harvard International Office told students in July that the cap would have a "significant impact" on international students but no immediate effect on their visa status.

The third-quarter filing also listed two bills introduced in September. One would amend the tax code to clarify due process rights when the Internal Revenue Service moves to revoke an organization's tax-exempt status; the other would add legal hurdles before the IRS could audit universities over their tax-exempt status, according to the Crimson. The Treasury Department and the IRS proposed regulations in September that would revoke tax-exempt status from educational institutions found to be violating discrimination rules in admissions and school programs.

The lobbying report came days after Harvard released its fiscal 2026 annual financial report. Harvard's legal fees climbed to roughly $210 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, a university spokesperson confirmed to the Crimson, up about 70% from $126 million in fiscal 2025. For comparison, Harvard spent $19.5 million on legal fees in fiscal 2023 and $20 million in fiscal 2022, according to its Form 990 filings as reported by the Crimson. Legal fees accounted for about 21% of the university's roughly $1 billion in spending on purchased services in fiscal 2026.

Garber called the legal costs "mind-boggling" at an event this month, saying they reflected "the price of defending yourself against all kinds of investigations, lawsuits, congressional investigations," the Crimson reported.

Harvard reported a $100 million operating surplus, a 1.5% margin on $6.7 billion in revenue, after a $113 million operating loss in fiscal 2025, according to the Crimson. Chief Financial Officer Ritu Kalra and Treasurer Timothy R. Barakett attributed the slim margin to "elevated legal costs along with other pressures that show little sign of abating." The university reported a $78.7 million deficit in unrestricted funds, which support general operations, and the two officials wrote that the overall surplus was "an insufficient measure of Harvard's financial health."

The endowment grew by more than $11 billion to nearly $68 billion after a return of about 27%, its highest since 2021, the Crimson reported. The endowment distribution of $2.6 billion now makes up nearly 40% of operating revenue. Salaries and wages, the university's largest expense, fell by $104 million, which Kalra and Barakett attributed to "a hiring freeze, attrition and restructurings."

Harvard's taxes on investment income more than quadrupled, to roughly $207 million, even at the 1.4% endowment tax rate that applied in fiscal 2026, according to the Crimson. Under the federal tax law enacted in July 2025, that rate is set to rise to 8%, which is expected to cost Harvard roughly $300 million a year.

The university's legal disputes with the federal government began in spring 2025, when the administration froze more than $2.7 billion in research funding after Harvard rejected its demands. A federal judge struck down the cuts in September 2025, and most of the funding has been restored, but the administration has appealed, the Crimson reported. The Department of Justice sued Harvard in February seeking admissions records and again the following month alleging the university failed to protect Jewish students from harassment; those claims are allegations, not findings.