Owens Advances Bill Codifying Trump’s Agenda, Targeting Woke Accreditors

WASHINGTON – The Education and Workforce Committee advanced the Accreditation for College Excellence (ACE) Act, legislation introduced by Higher Education and Workforce Development Chairman Burgess Owens (R-UT), to stop accrediting agencies, the gatekeepers of federal higher education funding, from imposing political litmus tests on colleges and universities.

Owens’ bill codifies, in part, President Trump’s April 23 executive order to overhaul the accreditation system, ensuring higher education focuses on delivering high-quality, high-value learning, free from unlawful discrimination and ideological overreach.

“For too long, left-wing accreditors have acted as the speech police of higher education, pressuring colleges to adopt radical DEI mandates and CRT programs that divide students and undermine academic excellence,” said Rep. Owens. “The ACE Act puts an end to this abuse by codifying President Trump’s executive order and making clear that federal accreditation must never be used as a tool to enforce ideological conformity.”

The Accreditation for College Excellence (ACE) Act: 

• Requires accreditors to confirm their standards do not require, encourage, or coerce an institution to support or oppose specific partisan or political beliefs, viewpoints on social or political issues, or support the disparate treatment of any individual or group;
• Prohibits accreditors from assessing an institution’s commitment to any ideology, belief, or viewpoint for the purposes of receiving accreditation for HEA funding;
• Protects a college’s religious mission and ability to require adherence with religious practices or codes of conduct; 
• Ensures that an accreditor cannot require, encourage, or coerce an institution to violate any right protected by the Constitution;
• Limits accreditors from adopting any additional standards for accreditation.

The full text of the legislation is available here.

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