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[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
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