Sponsors (21)
Official title: Ensure equal protection of the law, to prevent racism in the Federal Government, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 4, 2025 by Eric Stephen Schmitt · Last progress February 4, 2025
The bill sharply restricts federal and federally funded DEI programs and trainings to protect employees from compelled ideological instruction and reduce related federal spending, but does so at the cost of dismantling institutional capacity to identify and remedy discrimination, creating legal uncertainty, administrative disruption, job losses, and potentially large litigation exposure for agencies and recipients.
Federal employees cannot be compelled to take DEI, critical theory, intersectionality, or sexual orientation/gender-identity trainings, and are protected from personnel penalties for refusing such trainings or related statements.
The bill stops agencies from maintaining many dedicated DEI offices and prohibits federal spending on certain DEI trainings/programs, reducing federal programmatic spending and compliance obligations tied to those activities.
Recipients of federal funds (including contractors and grant recipients) may continue to operate EEO and ADA functions as historically organized, preserving established disability accommodations and nondiscrimination processes.
Employees and contractors who worked in eliminated DEI offices or provided DEI services face job losses, reassignment bans, or reduced funding for their positions.
Removing DEI offices, banning many DEI trainings, and restricting data/equity tools will reduce agencies' and institutions' capacity to identify and address workplace discrimination and inclusion problems, likely harming marginalized employees and students' access to remedies and supports.
Broad prohibitions and vague definitions of 'prohibited DEI practices' create legal uncertainty, spur litigation over what is banned, and could chill discussion, training, or programmatic activity on systemic bias and inclusion.
Based on analysis of 19 sections of legislative text.
Eliminates many federal DEI offices, bans certain DEI trainings and practices for agencies, contractors, grantees, advisory committees, and education programs, and enables private lawsuits with daily statutory damages.
Prohibits and dismantles a broad set of federal diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEI/DEIA) programs, offices, trainings, and related requirements across executive branch agencies, federal contracting, federal grants, advisory committees, higher education accreditation, and K–12 programs. It rescinds specified executive orders and national security memoranda, requires agencies to terminate or wind down DEI offices and programs within set deadlines, blocks federal funding and contract/grant participation for many DEI practices, and creates private rights of action with statutory monetary penalties for violations. The bill changes personnel and procurement rules (including prohibitions on certain trainings and on maintaining DEI offices), amends multiple statutes to repeal or remove DEI authorities at financial regulators, defense, HHS, DHS, and other agencies, and adds enforcement tools (agency enforcement parallels to Title VI, grant/contract terms, and private lawsuits with minimum daily damages). Many deadlines (90 days for program wind‑down, 180 days for regulatory revisions) are specified but the bill does not itself appropriate new funds.