Trump administration says US hospitals linked to Harvard won’t face funding cuts

The Trump administration has clarified that the hospitals affiliated with Harvard College won’t be impacted by the $2.2 billion federal funding freeze imposed on the college. This announcement got here after confusion arose concerning the potential for funding cuts to Harvard’s medical associates, which embody Mass Common Brigham and different main hospitals. The clarification was made public on October 15, 2025, by a spokesperson from the Division of Schooling.
The freeze is a part of a broader assessment of federal funding to Harvard, initiated by the Trump administration following political and social considerations surrounding the college. Whereas the college’s major analysis packages are dealing with a major halt in federal funding, the affiliated hospitals had been confirmed to be exempt from the cuts. This choice comes after tensions escalated between the college and the administration, significantly after Harvard rejected the federal government’s calls for for institutional adjustments. The Trump administration had beforehand hinted that hospital funding may be affected, however that was later clarified by the Schooling Division.
Funding pause applies solely to Harvard College
As reported by The Harvard Crimson, Madison Biedermann, a spokesperson for the Division of Schooling, acknowledged that the funding pause would apply solely to Harvard College itself and to not the impartial hospitals affiliated with it. Harvard’s instructing hospitals, which embody famend establishments like Mass Common Brigham, are individually included and function independently from the college. “The funding pause is proscribed to Harvard College. It won’t have an effect on the hospitals,” Biedermann confirmed.
In response, Anne Klibanski, CEO of Mass Common Brigham, assured researchers that the funding threats posed by the Trump administration wouldn’t impression the hospitals’ operations. In a letter to researchers on October 15, Klibanski emphasised that the hospitals, that are impartial entities, wouldn’t face the identical challenges. “These cuts are usually not relevant to our individually included and independently operated medical and analysis hospitals,” Klibanski wrote, as quoted by The Harvard Crimson.
A distinction between the college and its hospitals
The excellence between Harvard College and its affiliated hospitals has been vital within the present funding standoff. Though most instructing hospitals are owned by the colleges they’re related to, Harvard’s hospital system operates independently, with an settlement that the hospitals will help medical college students from Harvard Medical College. The hospitals additionally supply college appointments to physicians on the college.
Regardless of the exclusion from the funding freeze, the way forward for analysis at Harvard College stays unsure, with many initiatives now in danger because of the lack of crucial authorities funding. Nevertheless, for now, Harvard’s hospitals proceed to be unaffected by the continued political conflict between the college and the Trump administration.