Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB1225 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	II
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. 1225
5	5	To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for certain freedom
6	6	of association protections, and for other purposes.
7	7	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
8	8	APRIL1 (legislative day, MARCH31), 2025
9	9	Mr. B
10	10	ANKS(for himself and Mr. GALLEGO) introduced the following bill;
11	11	which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Edu-
12	12	cation, Labor, and Pensions
13	13	A BILL
14	14	To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide
15	15	for certain freedom of association protections, and for
16	16	other purposes.
17	17	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
18	18	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
19	19	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
20	20	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Freedom of Associa-4
21	21	tion in Higher Education Act of 2025’’. 5
22	22	SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 6
23	23	(a) P
24	24	URPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are as fol-7
25	25	lows: 8
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29	29	(1) Protect any student in a single-sex social 1
30	30	organization or any single-sex social organization 2
31	31	from any adverse action by an institution of higher 3
32	32	education based solely on the membership practice of 4
33	33	such organization of limiting membership only to in-5
34	34	dividuals of one sex. 6
35	35	(2) Ensure any student in a single-sex social or-7
36	36	ganization or any single-sex social organization is 8
37	37	treated without bias in comparison to students at an 9
38	38	institution of higher education who do not partici-10
39	39	pate in single-sex social organizations, or other so-11
40	40	cial organizations at an institution of higher edu-12
41	41	cation that are not single-sex. 13
42	42	(3) Protect the rights of students to freely asso-14
43	43	ciate with and participate in social organizations, in-15
44	44	cluding single-sex social organizations. 16
45	45	SEC. 3. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION PROTECTIONS FOR 17
46	46	STUDENTS IN SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS. 18
47	47	Part B of title I of the Higher Education Act of 1965 19
48	48	(20 U.S.C. 1011 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 20
49	49	the following: 21
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53	53	‘‘SEC. 124. FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION PROTECTIONS FOR 1
54	54	STUDENTS IN SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS. 2
55	55	‘‘(a) U
56	56	PHOLDINGFREEDOM OFASSOCIATIONPRO-3
57	57	TECTIONS.—Any student (or group of students) enrolled 4
58	58	in an institution of higher education shall— 5
59	59	‘‘(1) be able to form or apply to join any recog-6
60	60	nized or unrecognized social organization, including 7
61	61	any single-sex social organization; and 8
62	62	‘‘(2) if selected for membership by any social 9
63	63	organization, be able to join such social organization 10
64	64	and participate in such social organization. 11
65	65	‘‘(b) N
66	66	ON-RETALIATIONAGAINSTSTUDENTS OFSIN-12
67	67	GLE-SEXSOCIALORGANIZATIONS.—An institution of 13
68	68	higher education that receives funds under this Act, in-14
69	69	cluding through an institution’s participation in any pro-15
70	70	gram under title IV, shall not— 16
71	71	‘‘(1) take any action to require or coerce a stu-17
72	72	dent or prospective student who is a member or pro-18
73	73	spective member of a single-sex social organization 19
74	74	to waive the protections provided under subsection 20
75	75	(a), including as a condition of enrolling in the insti-21
76	76	tution; 22
77	77	‘‘(2) take any adverse action against a single- 23
78	78	sex social organization, or a student who is a mem-24
79	79	ber or a prospective member of a single-sex social 25
80	80	organization, based solely on the membership prac-26
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83	83	•S 1225 IS
84	84	tice of such organization limiting membership only 1
85	85	to individuals of one sex; or 2
86	86	‘‘(3) impose a recruitment restriction (including 3
87	87	a recruitment restriction relating to the schedule for 4
88	88	membership recruitment) on a single-sex social orga-5
89	89	nization recognized by the institution, which is not 6
90	90	imposed upon other student organizations by the in-7
91	91	stitution, unless the organization (or a council of 8
92	92	similar organizations) and the institution have en-9
93	93	tered into a mutually agreed-upon written agreement 10
94	94	that allows the institution to impose such restriction. 11
95	95	‘‘(c) R
96	96	ULES OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this 12
97	97	section shall— 13
98	98	‘‘(1) require an institution of higher education 14
99	99	to officially recognize a social organization, including 15
100	100	a single-sex social organization; 16
101	101	‘‘(2) prohibit an institution of higher education 17
102	102	from taking an adverse action against a student who 18
103	103	joins a social organization, including a single-sex so-19
104	104	cial organization, for a reason including academic 20
105	105	misconduct or nonacademic misconduct, or because 21
106	106	the organization’s purpose poses a clear harm to 22
107	107	students or employees of the institution, so long as 23
108	108	that adverse action is not based solely on the mem-24
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112	112	bership practice of the organization of limiting mem-1
113	113	bership only to individuals of one sex; 2
114	114	‘‘(3) prevent a social organization from regu-3
115	115	lating its own membership; 4
116	116	‘‘(4) inhibit the ability of the faculty of an insti-5
117	117	tution of higher education to express an opinion (ei-6
118	118	ther individually or collectively) about membership in 7
119	119	a single-sex social organization, or otherwise inhibit 8
120	120	the academic freedom of such faculty to research, 9
121	121	write, or publish material about membership in such 10
122	122	an organization; or 11
123	123	‘‘(5) create enforceable rights against a social 12
124	124	organization or against an institution of higher edu-13
125	125	cation due to the decision of such social organization 14
126	126	to deny membership to an individual student. 15
127	127	‘‘(d) D
128	128	EFINITIONS.—In this section: 16
129	129	‘‘(1) A
130	130	DVERSE ACTION.—The term ‘adverse ac-17
131	131	tion’ includes the following actions taken by an insti-18
132	132	tution of higher education with respect to a single- 19
133	133	sex social organization or a member or prospective 20
134	134	member of a single-sex social organization: 21
135	135	‘‘(A) Expulsion, suspension, probation, 22
136	136	censure, condemnation, formal reprimand, or 23
137	137	any other disciplinary action, coercive action, or 24
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141	141	sanction taken by an institution of higher edu-1
142	142	cation or administrative unit of such institution. 2
143	143	‘‘(B) An oral or written warning with re-3
144	144	spect to an action described in subparagraph 4
145	145	(A) made by an official of an institution of 5
146	146	higher education acting in their official capac-6
147	147	ity. 7
148	148	‘‘(C) An action to deny participation in 8
149	149	any education program or activity, including the 9
150	150	withholding of any rights, privileges, or oppor-10
151	151	tunities afforded other students on campus. 11
152	152	‘‘(D) An action to withhold, in whole or in 12
153	153	part, any financial assistance (including schol-13
154	154	arships and on-campus employment), or deny-14
155	155	ing the opportunity to apply for financial assist-15
156	156	ance, a scholarship, a graduate fellowship, or 16
157	157	on-campus employment. 17
158	158	‘‘(E) An action to deny or restrict access 18
159	159	to on-campus housing. 19
160	160	‘‘(F) An act to deny any certification, en-20
161	161	dorsement, or letter of recommendation that 21
162	162	may be required by a student’s current or fu-22
163	163	ture employer, a government agency, a licensing 23
164	164	board, an institution of higher education, a 24
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168	168	scholarship program, or a graduate fellowship 1
169	169	to which the student applies or seeks to apply. 2
170	170	‘‘(G) An action to deny participation in 3
171	171	any sports team, club, or other student organi-4
172	172	zation, including a denial of any leadership po-5
173	173	sition in any sports team, club, or other student 6
174	174	organization. 7
175	175	‘‘(H) An action to withdraw the institu-8
176	176	tion’s official recognition of such organization. 9
177	177	‘‘(I) An action to require any student to 10
178	178	certify that such student is not a member of a 11
179	179	single-sex social organization or to disclose the 12
180	180	student’s membership in a single-sex social or-13
181	181	ganization. 14
182	182	‘‘(J) An action to interject an institution’s 15
183	183	own criteria into the membership practices of 16
184	184	the organization in any manner that conflicts 17
185	185	with the rights of such organization under title 18
186	186	IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 19
187	187	U.S.C. 1681 et seq.) or this section. 20
188	188	‘‘(2) S
189	189	INGLE-SEX SOCIAL ORGANIZATION .—The 21
190	190	term ‘single-sex social organization’ means— 22
191	191	‘‘(A) a social fraternity or sorority de-23
192	192	scribed in section 501(c) of the Internal Rev-24
193	193	enue Code of 1986 which is exempt from tax-25
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197	197	ation under section 501(a) of such Code, or an 1
198	198	organization that has been historically single- 2
199	199	sex, the active membership of which consists 3
200	200	primarily of students or alumni of an institu-4
201	201	tion of higher education; or 5
202	202	‘‘(B) a single-sex private social club (in-6
203	203	cluding an independent organization located off- 7
204	204	campus) that consists primarily of students or 8
205	205	alumni of an institution of higher education.’’. 9
206	206	Æ
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