The Trump administration has frozen more than $ 1 billion in federal funds for Cornell and $ 790 million to Northwestern, while the government investigates alleged civil rights violations in schools, according to two White House officials.
“On Monday, several Trump administration agencies froze approximately $ 790 million of federal funds and approximately $ 1.05b of federal funds of Northwestern and Cornell, respectively,” said a senior administration official to ABC News. “Money froze in relation to several continuous, credible and related investigations related to Title VI.”
The financing pause mainly implies subsidies and contracts with the Department of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Health and Human Services, according to the White House officials.
Northwestern said in a statement to ABC that “media members” reported that the federal government plans “to freeze a significant part of our federal funds. The university said that” it has not received any official notification. “
“Federal funds that Northwestern receives innovative investigation and that save lives,” said the university. “This type of research is now in Jeopardy. The university has fully cooperated with the investigations of the Department of Education and Congress.”
Cornell wrote in a statement They have received “more than 75 work orders from the Department of Defense related to research that is deeply significant for American national defense, cybersecurity and health.”
“We are actively looking for federal officials to learn more on the basis of these decisions,” said Cornell.
In this file without date, the Campus of the University of Cornell is shown.
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“Affected subsidies include research on new materials for reaction engines, propulsion systems, large -scale information networks, robotics, spatial and satellite communications and communications, as well as cancer research,” the school continued.
The New York Times First reported In frozen funds.
Legal experts question the authority of the Trump administration to stop federal funds.
“This is completely without law, so I can say, to the extent that we do not even know in what legal provision the government is confident,” said Genevieve Lakier, a law professor at the University of Chicago.
If the arrest of the financing is justified by virtue of the Civil Rights Law, as the White House officials have told ABC News, Lakier said that the law requires that there be a set of procedures followed and notified.
“There must be an audience. You must give the members of Congress 30 days before doing so. You must give school 30 days. You have to allow the right to appeal. None of this is followed,” Lakier said.
Michael Dorf, professor at Cornell Law Faculty, echoed the evaluation of Lakier.
“There is a Federal Statute that explains whether the agencies and the government believe that a financing recipient does not meet their civil rights obligations, there is a complete set of procedures that have to continue before cutting them,” said Dorf. “The government has not followed any of those procedures.”
In this archive photo of February 15, 2017, the Northwestern University Campus is shown in Evanston, Ill.
Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune through TNS through Getty Images, Archive
The measure occurs when the administration doubles into the accusations of anti -Semitic behavior and harassment of elite universities.
The Department of Education and other agencies are reviewing Harvard University for allegedly promoting anti -Semitism on their campus. The Administration stripped the Columbia University of $ 400 million in subsidies earlier this month after an investigation of the working group, he says he found the school inaction to protect Jewish students.
In response to the review, the president of Harvard, Alan Garber, issued a statement saying: “We completely adopted the important objective of combating anti -Semitism, one of the most insidious ways of intolerance.”
