EO 14151

Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing

Signed: January 20, 2025

Published: January 29, 2025

Document Number: 2025-01953

📋Summary

This executive order directs the Federal Government to end DEI/DEIA and “environmental justice” programs, offices, positions, policies, and related requirements, and to stop using DEI-related factors in hiring, training, and employee performance reviews. It affects federal agencies and employees, as well as federal contractors and grantees connected to DEI training or DEI-related programs funded since January 20, 2021. OMB, OPM, and the Attorney General are tasked with coordinating the shutdown and revising federal employment practices, union contracts, and training policies to align with the order’s approach. Within 60 days, agencies must eliminate these programs as much as the law allows, report detailed inventories and spending to OMB (including any relabeling), assess costs and operational impacts, and participate in monthly progress meetings led by the White House domestic policy office.

💼Business Impact

This order most directly affects **federal contractors, grantees, and professional services firms** that sell DEI/DEIA or “environmental justice” programs (training vendors, consultants, HR providers, universities/nonprofits administering grants), because agencies must identify and terminate DEI-related contracts/grants and remove DEI-related performance requirements within **60 days**. Businesses that rely on **federal set-asides or DEI-linked scoring factors** in procurements may see solicitations rewritten and evaluation criteria change, creating both risk (loss of preference points/eligibility) and opportunity (more “race/DEI-neutral” competition). Compliance-wise, expect agencies to **scrutinize contract deliverables, training content, and internal policies tied to federal work**; companies should immediately (1) inventory federal contracts/grants for DEI/DEIA/EJ language, (2) prepare alternative, non-DEI-framed training/workforce programs focused on job-related skills and equal employment compliance, and (3) monitor upcoming recompetes/modifications and engage contracting officers early to clarify revised requirements.

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Full Text

( printed page 8339)

Executive Order 14151 of January 20, 2025

Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing

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 and Policy. The Biden Administration forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI), into virtually all aspects of the Federal Government, in areas ranging from airline safety to the military. This was a concerted effort stemming from President Biden's first day in office, when he issued Executive Order 13985, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.”

Pursuant to Executive Order 13985 and follow-on orders, nearly every Federal agency and entity submitted “Equity Action Plans” to detail the ways that they have furthered DEIs infiltration of the Federal Government. The public release of these plans demonstrated immense public waste and shameful discrimination. That ends today. Americans deserve a government committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect, and to expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great.

Sec. 2 . Implementation. (a) The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), assisted by the Attorney General and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), shall coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear. To carry out this directive, the Director of OPM, with the assistance of the Attorney General as requested, shall review and revise, as appropriate, all existing Federal employment practices, union contracts, and training policies or programs to comply with this order. Federal employment practices, including Federal employee performance reviews, shall reward individual initiative, skills, performance, and hard work and shall not under any circumstances consider DEI or DEIA factors, goals, policies, mandates, or requirements.

(b) Each agency, department, or commission head, in consultation with the Attorney General, the Director of OMB, and the Director of OPM, as appropriate, shall take the following actions within sixty days of this order:

(i) terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, all DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” offices and positions (including but not limited to “Chief Diversity Officer” positions); all “equity action plans,” “equity” actions, initiatives, or programs, “equity-related” grants or contracts; and all DEI or DEIA performance requirements for employees, contractors, or grantees.

(ii) provide the Director of the OMB with a list of all:

(A) agency or department DEI, DEIA, or “environmental justice” positions, committees, programs, services, activities, budgets, and expenditures in existence on November 4, 2024, and an assessment of whether these positions, committees, programs, services, activities, budgets, and expenditures have been misleadingly relabeled in an attempt to preserve their pre-November 4, 2024 function; ( printed page 8340)

(B) Federal contractors who have provided DEI training or DEI training materials to agency or department employees; and

(C) Federal grantees who received Federal funding to provide or advance DEI, DEIA, or “environmental justice” programs, services, or activities since January 20, 2021.

(iii) direct the deputy agency or department head to:

(A) assess the operational impact (e.g., the number of new DEI hires) and cost of the prior administration's DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” programs and policies; and

(B) recommend actions, such as Congressional notifications under 28 U.S.C. 530D, to align agency or department programs, activities, policies, regulations, guidance, employment practices, enforcement activities, contracts (including set-asides), grants, consent orders, and litigating positions with the policy of equal dignity and respect identified in section 1 of this order. The agency or department head and the Director of OMB shall jointly ensure that the deputy agency or department head has the authority and resources needed to carry out this directive.

(c) To inform and advise the President, so that he may formulate appropriate and effective civil-rights policies for the Executive Branch, the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy shall convene a monthly meeting attended by the Director of OMB, the Director of OPM, and each deputy agency or department head to:

(i) hear reports on the prevalence and the economic and social costs of DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” in agency or department programs, activities, policies, regulations, guidance, employment practices, enforcement activities, contracts (including set-asides), grants, consent orders, and litigating positions;

(ii) discuss any barriers to measures to comply with this order; and

(iii) monitor and track agency and department progress and identify potential areas for additional Presidential or legislative action to advance the policy of equal dignity and respect.

Sec. 3 . 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.

Sec. 4 . 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 or 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.

( printed page 8341)

(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 20, 2025.

[FR Doc. 2025-01953

Filed 1-28-25; 8:45 am]

Billing code 3395-F4-P

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