by CUPA-HR | January 22, 2025
On January 22, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” The EO directs all federal agencies to “terminate all discriminatory and illegal preferences, mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions, consent orders, and requirements,” to enforce “longstanding civil rights laws,” and to “combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.” The White House also published a fact sheet to supplement the order.
The EO lists several other executive orders that the Trump administration is revoking. Notably, the Trump EO revokes executive order 11246, titled “Equal Employment Opportunity,” which has required federal contractors to have affirmative action plans since 1965. Additionally, the EO orders the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) at the Department of Labor (DOL) to immediately cease “promoting diversity,” “holding federal contractors and subcontractors responsible for taking ‘affirmative action,’” and “allowing or encouraging federal contractors or subcontractors to engage in workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin.” Both of these actions are explained by the EO to streamline the federal contracting process “to enhance speed and efficiency, reduce costs, and require federal contractors and subcontractors to comply with our civil rights laws.”
The EO also directs each federal agency to include in every federal contract or grant award a term requiring a contractual counterparty or grant recipient to agree that it is in compliance with all applicable federal anti-discrimination laws and a term requiring the counterparty or recipient to certify that it does not operate “any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable federal antidiscrimination laws.”
The EO also includes orders to encourage the private sector to cease DEI programs and initiatives. Specifically, the EO directs the attorney general, in consultation with other relevant agencies, to promulgate a report with recommendations to enforce civil rights laws and encourage the private sector to end DEI practices. The report is required to identify “the most egregious and discriminatory DEI practitioners in each sector of concern.” It also requires each agency to identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations as a way to deter DEI programs or principles. The EO lists institutions of higher education with endowments over $1 billion as potential targets for the civil compliance investigations.
Finally, the EO directs the attorney general and secretary of education to issue guidance to state and local educational agencies and institutions of higher education that receive federal dollars or participate in the Title IV federal student loan assistance program regarding “the measures and practices required to comply with Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.”
The EO will have widespread implications for federal contractors in the higher education community. CUPA-HR will share further developments on this EO as they are released.