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The Trump administration launched proceedings on Monday that could bar Harvard from doing business with the federal government, opening a new front in its escalating fight with the University just weeks after a federal judge ordered $2.7 billion in frozen research funding restored.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights referred Harvard to the federal suspension and debarment process, a mechanism that allows the government to designate institutions as not responsible enough to receive federal grants or contracts, according to an HHS press release.

If carried out, the move could cut Harvard off from billions of dollars in federal funding across all agencies — a consequence that would sidestep the recent court order forcing the reinstatement of grants that were first frozen or terminated in May.

In the press release, the HHS cited its June finding that the school had acted with “deliberate indifference” toward combatting antisemitism on campus — and emphasized that the agency retained the authority to terminate or suspend funding through “formal enforcement mechanisms” under Title VI.

“OCR’s referral of Harvard for formal administrative proceedings reflects OCR’s commitment to safeguard both taxpayer investments and the broader public interest,” wrote Paula M. Stannard, the director of the OCR.

HHS referred its investigation to the Department of Justice in late July, teeing up legal action in the case. Harvard has denounced the Trump administration’s accusations of antisemitism as a pretext to assert control over the University’s operations.

Debarment is a rarely used but powerful tool. The process typically begins with a suspension lasting up to one year, during which an institution is barred from federal funding while the government considers permanent exclusion. A full debarment, imposed after review, prevents an entity from reviewing federal contracts and grants across the government for a set number of years.

Because debarment applies government-wide, it would affect not only grants and contracts from HHS — Harvard’s largest source of federal funding — but also agencies like the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation, both of which likewise direct significant research support to Harvard.

HHS gave Harvard 20 days to decide whether it would request a formal hearing before an HHS administrative law judge to review if it had violated Title VI in its response to campus antisemitism.

The agency noted that the Monday move did not affect a separate ongoing investigation announced in April into accusations of race-based discrimination at the Harvard Law Review, an independent organization at Harvard Law School.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

​​—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.

—Staff writer Saketh Sundar can be reached at saketh.sundar@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @saketh_sundar.