WASHINGTON, April 9 -- More than $1 billion in federal funding for Cornell University and around $790 million for Northwestern University has been frozen while the government investigates alleged civil rights violations at the schools, the White House said.

It's part of a broader push to use government funding to get major academic institutions to comply with President Donald Trump's political agenda. The White House confirmed the funding pauses late Tuesday night but offered no further details on what they entail or what grants to the schools are being affected, AP reports.

The moves come as Trump's Republican administration has increasingly begun using governmental grant funding as a spigot to try to influence campus policy, previousl...