Trump administration announces new additions to hospital price transparency regulations

A federal appeals court heard conflicting arguments on Monday regarding the authority of a judge to restore billions of dollars in funding that the Trump administration had cut from Harvard University. In 2021, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled that the funding cuts were an unlawful response to Harvard's refusal to comply with the administration's requests for changes to the university's governance and policies.

The government attributed the cuts to delays in addressing antisemitism at the institution, but Burroughs argued that Harvard's federally supported research was not connected to discrimination against Jews. The restoration of the funding, exceeding $2.6 billion, has begun again. However, a Justice Department lawyer argued before a three-judge panel of the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Judge Burroughs lacked the legal authority to force the administration to pay the money.

The dispute was, according to the attorney, a contractual disagreement that should have been decided by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, a court that handles lawsuits by citizens seeking money from the federal government. Harvard's attorney Paul Clement countered that the case went beyond a simple contract dispute and raised broader issues of retaliation and discrimination.

The district court's decision to restore the funding was a "perfect remedy" for the violations it found, he argued. The case was ultimately left to the three-judge panel to decide, with no ruling made immediately.