Presidential Documents

Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 20 / Friday, January 31, 2025 / Presidential Documents 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: 


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(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 


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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 privatesector 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 


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8636 Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 20 / Friday, January 31, 2025 / Presidential Documents 

(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. 

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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