As the Trump administration last spring cut research grants and foreign aid funding, the Johns Hopkins University escalated its spending on federal lobbyists.

The university, which has seen losses of around $1 billion since President Donald Trump took office in January, has nearly doubled its lobbying budget. In the first nine months of this year, Johns Hopkins spent $1.3 million on lobbyists, compared to $750,000 during the same period last year, according to federal disclosure forms.

The elite Baltimore university’s lobbying push is one of the subtle ways it’s coping with scrutiny from the Trump administration. Hopkins is under federal investigation over antisemitism claims but has been relatively quiet in response to these blows, aside from joining a few lawsuits and making public statements.

Now it has hired well-connected firms, including one with deep ties to Trump, to advocate for policies that would benefit the institution.

“It’s protection,” said Beth Leech, a Rutgers University professor who researches lobbying. “They’re paying lobbyists to help protect their reputation, to help stay informed about what’s going on, to give them the best advice possible in terms of what arguments might have sway and what sorts of responses might help the university.”

Hopkins spent $550,000 on lobbying from July 1-Sept. 30 this year, according to federal disclosure forms that the university is required by law to release. Over the same period last year, the university spent $280,000.

It joins other research universities who’ve upped their lobbying efforts.

The University of California System has nearly doubled its lobbying efforts in the first three quarters of this year, spending $3.24 million compared to $1.75 million over the same period last year. The system includes the University of California, Los Angeles, which is under federal investigation,

Northwestern University, also under investigation, has bumped its spending from $1.1 million to $1.8 million. The same goes for the University of Pennsylvania, which has increased spending from $740,000 to $1.4 million.

Doug Donovan, a spokesperson for the university, declined to answer questions about why Hopkins has increased lobbying. In a statement, he said the university “continues to strongly advocate for our mission of research, education, and patient care.”

Leech said she isn’t surprised that Hopkins has beefed up its lobbying budget. The university has, after all, been one of the largest recipients of federal funding for research in the country.

“They’re trying to have their words land in a place where it will make a difference,” she said.

Johns Hopkins has spent its upgraded lobbying budget on six outside firms, employing a total of 29 lobbyists, compared to 14 last year, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in U.S. politics. (The website totals Hopkins’ lobbying spending at $1.32 million, counting $20,000 toward lobbying for a university center twice.)

Leech said each firm is likely to have lobbyists with different skill sets and relationships, which helps Hopkins lobby multiple issues.

“Some firms may have access in one congressional subcommittee; others have access to another,” she said. “You want people that have different expertise and access to different members in Trump’s cabinet or inner circle.”

While most of the firms the university hired are lobbying the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives or federal departments, Miller Strategies, which Hopkins hired in April, is lobbying the White House.

That’s unusual, Leech said, but likely because of how much power is currently concentrated in the executive branch.

“Because of how much policy is being made through executive orders and how many challenges to universities have come from the Office of the President, that’s where these lobbyists have to go,” she said. “You’ve got to go where the action is.”

The university has paid Miller Strategies $180,000 this year to lobby “general issues related to oversight of institutions of higher education” in the executive office of the president, according to federal disclosure forms. The lobbying firm has extensive connections to the White House.

The firm was founded by Jeff Miller, a longtime Republican strategist who served as finance chair of Trump’s inauguration in January and the 2020 Republican National Convention. Miller, whose client list includes Apple and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is listed personally as one of the lobbyists working for Hopkins at the firm.

The timing makes sense — Hopkins was first impacted by cuts to the National Institutes of Health and USAID in February and March.

Part of the university’s lobbying push is specific to the Applied Physics Lab, which is facing steep cuts to its research funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. Hopkins hired Actum and Icebreaker Strategies last quarter to lobby on the lab’s behalf, spending $360,000 on the two firms this year.

Actum’s clients include Morgan State University, which has spent $90,000 this year on lobbying, and the city of Baltimore.

Hopkins this year has also employed Cornerstone Government Affairs, FGS Global, HB Strategies and Cavarocchi Ruscio Dennis Associates. None of the firms responded to requests for comment.

Other agencies that Hopkins is lobbying include the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice and NASA.

Hopkins has historically paid Cavarocchi Ruscio Dennis Associates $20,000 per quarter to lobby for the university’s Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, but it stopped lobbying for that center in April.

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