Pomona and Claremont McKenna Began Unprecedented Lobbying Efforts in 2025

U.S. Capitol Building. Photo credit: David Maiolo.

In 2025, Pomona and Claremont McKenna Colleges spent $190,000 and $100,000, respectively, to lobby the federal government. Pomona hired lobbying firm theGROUP DC while CMC hired law firm Holland & Knight. According to OpenSecrets, neither college, since 1998, has recorded lobbying activity until this past year. Harvey Mudd, Scripps, and Pitzer Colleges have yet to record any lobbying activity. 

CMC worked with Holland & Knight’s Public Policy & Regulation Group member Christopher Armstrong, who previously served as general counsel and chief oversight counsel to the Senate Committee on Finance under Chair Orrin Hatch (R-UT). Armstrong’s 2025 client list numbered nine firms, including Case Western Reserve University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Southern California, and Washington & Lee University. 

CMC spent $20,000 in Q1 and $40,000 in both Q2 and Q3 to lobby the Senate and the House on “Federal endowment tax issues.” In the Q3 report, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBA) is included as another lobbying issue. This likely refers to OBBA’s modification of the federal endowment tax structure, which previously set a 1.4% flat rate for any university that enrolls at least 500 students. The bill raised this threshold from 500 to 3,000 students, exempting schools like CMC and Pomona from paying the endowment tax. 

Pomona worked with theGROUP’s David Cleary, who previously served as the Republican Staff Director of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and, simultaneously, as Chief of Staff to Lamar Alexander (R-TN). In 2025, Cleary was not hired by any other universities, but did lobby for AARP, UnitedHealth Group, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), among others. 

According to a lobbying report filed on April 21, Pomona spent $10,000 in Q1 to lobby the House on “Issues related to higher education policy and oversight.” A month earlier, on March 27, Pomona received a letter from the House Committee on Education and Workforce concerning allegations of mishandled campus antisemitism. In Q2, Pomona lobbied both Congress and the Department of Education regarding OBBA “provisions related to endowment tax.” $60,000 was spent in Q3 to lobby the same parties regarding “One Big Beautiful Bill implementation.” A final $60,000 was spent in Q4 regarding OBBA implementation as well as “reforms to endowment tax.”

OBBA was passed on July 7, 2025. On July 16, Pomona President Gabi Starr summarized OBBA’s provisions in an email to the student body, describing the change to the endowment tax structure as “positive news,” specifically because it “no longer undermines [Pomona’s] investment in financial aid.” However, Starr also included the American Council on Education’s warning that OBBA’s provisions could “limit access to higher education for low-income students and create financial instability.” 

Many comparable liberal arts colleges have also recently begun such lobbying efforts. Amherst College began lobbying in 2024 with a fund of $48,000. This increased to $90,000 in 2025. Bowdoin College began lobbying in 2025 with a fund of $130,000 (Bowdoin and Pomona were two of five institutions to receive a letter from the House on March 27). Swarthmore College, which spent $10,000 for one quarter in 2011, revived its lobbying with $50,000 spent in 2025. Williams College has not spent any funds on lobbying since 1998.