A newly passed U.S. House bill seeks to block accrediting organizations from mandating diversity, equity, and inclusion policies at colleges and universities, but it's unlikely to advance in the Senate.
"This is a moment of reckoning for American higher education," U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., said on the House floor in support of the measure, dubbed the End-Woke Higher Education Act, emphasizing the importance of restoring free speech on campus.
"Several of these universities are reversing misguided policies like forced faculty diversity statements and are renewing their commitment to institutional neutrality, even the entire California public university system," he added.
The Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act, introduced in May 2023 by U.S. Rep. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y., and the Accreditation for College Excellence Act, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, are included in the legislation.
"Throughout history, we have watched dangerous extremists weaponize educational institutions to promote their ideology and to suppress dissent. ... This legislation speaks to universities directly: if you do not protect the lawful and Supreme Court-tested First Amendment rights of your students, you will lose your funding," Williams said during the debate on the House floor.
In the past year, Republicans in particular have criticized university administrators over the establishment of pro-Palestinian encampments on various campuses. In several instances, school administrators' responses to inquiries about antisemitism during congressional hearings helped set the stage for their highly visible resignations.
"The presidents of several universities have resigned, including the presidents of Harvard, Penn, Columbia, and Rutgers," Kiley said, noting that colleges are now implementing bans on tent encampments.
U.S. Reps. Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, Mary Peltola of Alaska, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington were the four House Democrats who voted in favor of the GOP bill.
However, there is almost little chance that the legislation will clear the Democratic-controlled Senate.
In a statement released this week, the Biden administration expressed its strong opposition to the bill, claiming that it would "micromanage both public and private institutions, undermining their ability to recognize and promote diversity."
The legislation "would go beyond Congress's traditional role in higher education with a wide range of confusing and unprecedented new mandates," the administration added.
"This misguided legislation would dangerously undermine public universities' ability to implement crucial time, place, and manner policies for campus expression, jeopardizing their ability to protect student safety," the head of the Association of American Universities wrote in a letter to House leaders.
