A federal judge agreed on Monday to expedite Harvard University's lawsuit seeking to block U.S. President Donald Trump's administration from freezing $2.2 billion in federal grant funding that the Ivy League school has warned will threaten vital medical and scientific research.

More than $2 billion in federal funds committed to Harvard University are likely to stay frozen by the Trump administration well into the summer after the sides met for the first time in a Boston courtroom in their high-stakes sparring match over political ideology in American higher education.

The funding freeze from the USDA is sending shockwaves throughout the nation’s agriculture sector, but their effect on tribal food initiatives raises even larger questions about what the federal government’s commitments are to Indigenous nations.