PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS

ENDING ILLEGAL
DISCRIMINATION
AND
RESTORING
MERIT-BASED
OPPORTUNITY
January 21, 2025

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:
(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 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
(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.

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