Ayanna Pressley's Amendment to Protect HBCUs Passes with Bipartisan Support

Dismantling DEI Programs in Federal Government

• 🎯 Republicans are pushing a bill to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs within the federal government.
• ⚠️ This bill, co-sponsored by J.D. Vance, aims to revoke executive orders, amend the Civil Rights Act, and create lists of federal employees and contractors ineligible for future employment, a practice likened to blacklisting.
• 🔍 The effort is framed as a return to McCarthyism and the House Committee on Un-American Affairs, targeting federal employees who promote DEI.

Project 2025 and Federal Purge

• 🚀 The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 is identified as providing the blueprint for a planned purge of federal agencies.
• 🚩 This purge is seen as an effort to replace federal employees who are people of color, women, or LGBTQ+ with unqualified loyalists.
• 🚫 Republicans are criticized for bringing this bill to markup without a hearing, accelerating their agenda before the holiday adjournment.

Amendment to Protect HBCUs

• 💡 Ayanna Pressley introduced an amendment to exempt Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) from the bill's ban on funding for institutions that acknowledge racial oppression.
• 📚 The amendment highlights that HBCUs were founded to provide education to Black Americans denied access due to systemic racism and that banning them from federal grants would be detrimental.
• 🗣️ The amendment sparked debate, with some arguing it was poorly written and others, like Jamie Raskin, defending it as well-worded and necessary to acknowledge how federal policies have perpetuated systemic racism.

Vote and Outcome

• ✅ The amendment, specifically addressing HBCUs, passed with a vote of 40 yeas to 0 nays.
• 👏 This bipartisan support for Pressley's amendment is seen as a small victory, suggesting that Republicans can occasionally be influenced to support the right actions, even if through shame.