As the U.S. government continues to terminate research grants and funds for higher education, Emory University has spent over $500,000 on lobbying the federal government from April to June, according to a July 21 disclosure report. Among other causes, Emory lobbyists advocated to U.S. Congress members for “sustained NIH, [National Science Foundation], and CDC funding,” “funding for pandemic and infectious disease research,” and “advocated against capping the NIH indirect cost rate.”
Nearly doubling the previous record lobbying expenditure of $260,000 in the first quarter of 2022, this spending in the second quarter of 2025 comes as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its subordinate agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have canceled over $92,593,434.01 in grants for research at Emory since March.
Organizations that directly lobby the federal government are legally required to disclose their expenditures in quarterly filings to Congress. The Emory Wheel obtained this disclosure report from the secretary of the U.S. Senate’s office. The report notes that Emory advocated for other causes such as student aid funding and exemption from the endowment tax, in addition.
Emory lobbyists also petitioned the White House and Congress for healthcare policy changes and public health investment, according to the filing.
Since March, HHS has terminated 21 federal grants to the University, including a $52 million NIH grant for the Emory/Georgia State University Antiviral Countermeasures Development Center, according to HHS records. According to its website, the Center focuses on antiviral drug development.
This now-terminated grant encompassed all of the Center’s funding. The NIH issued the grant in 2022 to support a project to build an antiviral drug pipeline targeting COVID-19 and other viruses. As of the grant’s termination, nearly $18 million had not been disbursed.
Of the 21 grants HHS terminated, 19 are marked as terminated by “departmental authority,” while two are marked “bilateral termination.” HHS terminated those grants bilaterally on May 27 and July 2, for $65,564 and $151,961, respectively.
Since January, Emory Interim Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost Lanny Liebeskind has intermittently updated the Emory community about changes to federal funding. Liebeskind has not issued an announcement about these recent grant cancellations since March 5 as of press time.
“Emory continues to monitor and respond to federal directives and actions that affect our work,” said Assistant Vice President of University Communications Laura Diamond in an email to The Emory Wheel.
Other grants terminated include $8 million for a plasma study, $5 million for an HIV-related study, $4 million for a study aimed at reducing healthcare infection and $2 million for an anal cancer study. Many of the canceled grants were studying or linked to research about vaccines, infectious diseases and COVID-19.
The $92 million in grant terminations come as Emory, already on an interim provost as the search for a permanent replacement to Ravi V. Bellamkonda continues, recently announced it would begin looking for its sixth president in 25 years as Gregory Fenves will leave the role on Sept. 1.
Jack Rutherford (he/him) (27C) is a managing editor at The Emory Wheel. He is from Louisville, Ky., majoring in economics on the pre-law track. When not working for the Wheel, he can normally be found rowing with Emory Crew, where he serves as president, or at an Atlanta Opera performance. In his free time, Rutherford enjoys listening to music and walking in Lullwater.
