[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 20 (Friday, January 31, 2025)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 8633-8636]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-02097]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 20 / Friday, January 31, 2025 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 8633]]
Executive Order 14173 of January 21, 2025
Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring
Merit-Based Opportunity
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose. Longstanding Federal civil-rights
laws protect individual Americans from discrimination
based on race, color, religion, sex, or national
origin. These civil-rights protections serve as a
bedrock supporting equality of opportunity for all
Americans. As President, I have a solemn duty to ensure
that these laws are enforced for the benefit of all
Americans.
Yet today, roughly 60 years after the passage of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, critical and influential
institutions of American society, including the Federal
Government, major corporations, financial institutions,
the medical industry, large commercial airlines, law
enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher
education have adopted and actively use dangerous,
demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences
under the guise of so-called ``diversity, equity, and
inclusion'' (DEI) or ``diversity, equity, inclusion,
and accessibility'' (DEIA) that can violate the civil-
rights laws of this Nation.
Illegal DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the text
and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights
laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they
deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American
values of hard work, excellence, and individual
achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and
pernicious identity-based spoils system. Hardworking
Americans who deserve a shot at the American Dream
should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or shut out of
opportunities because of their race or sex.
These illegal DEI and DEIA policies also threaten the
safety of American men, women, and children across the
Nation by diminishing the importance of individual
merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination when
selecting people for jobs and services in key sectors
of American society, including all levels of
government, and the medical, aviation, and law-
enforcement communities. Yet in case after tragic case,
the American people have witnessed first-hand the
disastrous consequences of illegal, pernicious
discrimination that has prioritized how people were
born instead of what they were capable of doing.
The Federal Government is charged with enforcing our
civil-rights laws. The purpose of this order is to
ensure that it does so by ending illegal preferences
and discrimination.
Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States
to protect the civil rights of all Americans and to
promote individual initiative, excellence, and hard
work. I therefore order all executive departments and
agencies (agencies) to terminate all discriminatory and
illegal preferences, mandates, policies, programs,
activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions,
consent orders, and requirements. I further order all
agencies to enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws
and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences,
mandates, policies, programs, and activities.
Sec. 3. Terminating Illegal Discrimination in the
Federal Government. (a) The following executive actions
are hereby revoked:
[[Page 8634]]
(i) Executive Order 12898 of February 11, 1994 (Federal Actions to Address
Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations);
(ii) Executive Order 13583 of August 18, 2011 (Establishing a Coordinated
Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the
Federal Workforce);
(iii) Executive Order 13672 of July 21, 2014 (Further Amendments to
Executive Order 11478, Equal Employment Opportunity in the Federal
Government, and Executive Order 11246, Equal Employment Opportunity); and
(iv) The Presidential Memorandum of October 5, 2016 (Promoting Diversity
and Inclusion in the National Security Workforce).
(b) The Federal contracting process shall be
streamlined to enhance speed and efficiency, reduce
costs, and require Federal contractors and
subcontractors to comply with our civil-rights laws.
Accordingly:
(i) Executive Order 11246 of September 24, 1965 (Equal Employment
Opportunity), is hereby revoked. For 90 days from the date of this order,
Federal contractors may continue to comply with the regulatory scheme in
effect on January 20, 2025.
(ii) The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs within the
Department of Labor shall immediately cease:
(A) Promoting ``diversity'';
(B) Holding Federal contractors and subcontractors responsible for taking
``affirmative action''; and
(C) Allowing or encouraging Federal contractors and subcontractors to
engage in workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference,
religion, or national origin.
(iii) In accordance with Executive Order 13279 of December 12, 2002 (Equal
Protection of the Laws for Faith-Based and Community Organizations), the
employment, procurement, and contracting practices of Federal contractors
and subcontractors shall not consider race, color, sex, sexual preference,
religion, or national origin in ways that violate the Nation's civil rights
laws.
(iv) The head of each agency shall include in every contract or grant
award:
(A) A term requiring the contractual counterparty or grant recipient to
agree that its compliance in all respects with all applicable Federal anti-
discrimination laws is material to the government's payment decisions for
purposes of section 3729(b)(4) of title 31, United States Code; and
(B) A term requiring such counterparty or recipient to certify that it
does not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable
Federal anti-discrimination laws.
(c) The Director of the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB), with the assistance of the Attorney
General as requested, shall:
(i) Review and revise, as appropriate, all Government-wide processes,
directives, and guidance;
(ii) Excise references to DEI and DEIA principles, under whatever name they
may appear, from Federal acquisition, contracting, grants, and financial
assistance procedures to streamline those procedures, improve speed and
efficiency, lower costs, and comply with civil-rights laws; and
(iii) Terminate all ``diversity,'' ``equity,'' ``equitable decision-
making,'' ``equitable deployment of financial and technical assistance,''
``advancing equity,'' and like mandates, requirements, programs, or
activities, as appropriate.
Sec. 4. Encouraging the Private Sector to End Illegal
DEI Discrimination and Preferences. (a) The heads of
all agencies, with the assistance of the
[[Page 8635]]
Attorney General, shall take all appropriate action
with respect to the operations of their agencies to
advance in the private sector the policy of individual
initiative, excellence, and hard work identified in
section 2 of this order.
(b) To further inform and advise me so that my
Administration may formulate appropriate and effective
civil-rights policy, the Attorney General, within 120
days of this order, in consultation with the heads of
relevant agencies and in coordination with the Director
of OMB, shall submit a report to the Assistant to the
President for Domestic Policy containing
recommendations for enforcing Federal civil-rights laws
and taking other appropriate measures to encourage the
private sector to end illegal discrimination and
preferences, including DEI. The report shall contain a
proposed strategic enforcement plan identifying:
(i) Key sectors of concern within each agency's jurisdiction;
(ii) The most egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners in each sector
of concern;
(iii) A plan of specific steps or measures to deter DEI programs or
principles (whether specifically denominated ``DEI'' or otherwise) that
constitute illegal discrimination or preferences. As a part of this plan,
each agency shall identify up to nine potential civil compliance
investigations of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit
corporations or associations, foundations with assets of 500 million
dollars or more, State and local bar and medical associations, and
institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars;
(iv) Other strategies to encourage the private sector to end illegal DEI
discrimination and preferences and comply with all Federal civil-rights
laws;
(v) Litigation that would be potentially appropriate for Federal lawsuits,
intervention, or statements of interest; and
(vi) Potential regulatory action and sub-regulatory guidance.
Sec. 5. Other Actions. Within 120 days of this order,
the Attorney General and the Secretary of Education
shall jointly issue guidance to all State and local
educational agencies that receive Federal funds, as
well as all institutions of higher education that
receive Federal grants or participate in the Federal
student loan assistance program under Title IV of the
Higher Education Act, 20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq., regarding
the measures and practices required to comply with
Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and
Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023).
Sec. 6. Severability. If any provision of this order,
or the application of any provision to any person or
circumstance, is held to be invalid, the remainder of
this order and the application of its provisions to any
other persons or circumstances shall not be affected
thereby.
Sec. 7. Scope. (a) This order does not apply to lawful
Federal or private-sector employment and contracting
preferences for veterans of the U.S. armed forces or
persons protected by the Randolph-Sheppard Act, 20
U.S.C. 107 et seq.
(b) This order does not prevent State or local
governments, Federal contractors, or Federally-funded
State and local educational agencies or institutions of
higher education from engaging in First Amendment-
protected speech.
(c) This order does not prohibit persons teaching
at a Federally funded institution of higher education
as part of a larger course of academic instruction from
advocating for, endorsing, or promoting the unlawful
employment or contracting practices prohibited by this
order.
Sec. 8. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the
head thereof; or
[[Page 8636]]
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to and does not
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
January 21, 2025.
[FR Doc. 2025-02097
Filed 1-30-25; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P