Why It Matters

San Diego State University Research Foundation is lobbying Congress with its own staff after years of retaining an outside firm, and it picked a consequential quarter to do it. A February spending package bars federal agencies from capping indirect cost reimbursement at 15 percent and holds their negotiated rates at fiscal 2024 levels, but the protection dies with the fiscal year on Wednesday, Sept. 30. Indirect cost rates sit near the top of what the foundation reported lobbying on.

The Big Picture

The foundation's agenda widened between quarters. Sports and athletics appear for the first time, covering name, image, and likeness legislation for student athletes. The science and technology entry picked up Office of Management and Budget rules on grant administration alongside indirect cost rates and National Science Foundation (NSF) funding. Christine Godinez, the foundation's Director of Federal Government Relations, is its only registered lobbyist and covers all five issue areas. She previously served as a legislative assistant to Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV).

NSF moved in May 2025 to cap reimbursement at 15 percent, far below the 50 percent or higher San Diego State negotiates. A federal judge vacated the policy that June, and courts blocked matching caps at NASA, the Pentagon, and the Energy Department. February's package locked those wins into law temporarily, and the university has flagged fiscal 2027 as the next opening.

The exposure is real. San Diego State identified 50 terminated federal grants worth about $26 million in unspent funds, and reached R1 status in February 2025 as the first California State University campus to do so, a designation that makes any cut to reimbursement more expensive.

The Bottom Line

The foundation moved its federal work in-house at the moment the statutory shield on indirect cost rates entered its final months. Whether that was a durable investment or a one-cycle response will be visible in the fall filings, and in whether the September deadline passes with a replacement in place.

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Correction note: *An earlier version of this story reported quarterly lobbying expenditures for San Diego State University Research Foundation and compared them to the foundation's prior spending through an outside firm. The foundation says the amount in its filing covers a longer period and is amending the disclosure. The spending figures and comparison have been removed pending that amendment.*

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