Trump Admin Freezes Additional $1 Billion In NIH Grants To Harvard University

The Trump administration is pausing more than 500 grants worth an additional $1 billion from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to Harvard University, senior HHS officials told the Daily Caller.

Senior Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials told the Caller that the decision to pause the funds is because the institution has been “intransigent with respect to obligations to protect students on this campus from the effects of insidious antisemitism.” The grants include those that were funding the institution’s training of its scientists and other non-clinical trial grants, the officials told the Caller. The frozen grants will not effect the care of any children, the officials added.

“Harvard needs to fully come into compliance with Title IV of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” a senior HHS official told the Caller regarding what the university needs to do to have the funds unfrozen. “They need to remedy the violations of Title IV with respect to Jewish students on campus, they need to make sure that the not violating title six with respect to their admissions practices, and they need to provide sufficient guarantees that this conduct is not going to repeat itself.”

The Trump administration previously sent a list of demands to the institution, asking for several audits on their response to anti-Israel protests on campus and their admissions process. The institution released a public letter defying the administration’s requests. From there, the Trump administration moved to freeze $2.2 billion to the university. Monday’s action, shared with the Caller by senior HHS officials, is in addition to the $2.2 billion frozen. (RELATED: ‘It Is Antisemitic At Its Core’: Elise Stefanik Takes On CNBC Host Who Opposes Trump’s Harvard Funding Freeze)

“[Harvard’s public letter] clearly demonstrates that the university can, when motivated, respond quickly, but we’ve seen them go 18 months without apparently being sufficiently motivated to address the rampant antisemitism on this campus,” one senior HHS official told the Caller.

Since the Trump administration’s initial opening demand of the university, officials have not received any formal outreach from the institution, the sources told the Caller.

Harvard University sued the Trump administration on Monday over the frozen funds, the New York Times reported.

As far as if there are additional funding freezes in Harvard University’s future, a senior HHS official told the Caller that “all options are on the table,” but there weren’t specific grants they were currently considering pausing next.

“This is a pause of grant funding, not a termination. So we can assuming Harvard decides to come back into compliance with his federal civil rights laws, be turned back on,” a senior HHS official told the Caller.

The Trump administration has taken a sledgehammer to the Ivy League, pausing billions of dollars to several universities over their response, or lack their of, to alleged anti-semitism on campus.

In March, Trump’s Education Department warned 60 institutions, including all the Ivy league institutions with the exception of Penn and Dartmouth, that it would take action if they “do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus.”

The administration followed up the letter in April, pausing $210 million to Princeton University and $510 to Brown University while federal investigations take place into the institution’s response to anti-semitism on campus are ongoing.