II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1253
To establish the Office of the Special Inspector General for Unlawful
Discrimination in Higher Education within the Department of Education.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL2, 2025
Mr. B
ANKS(for himself and Mr. BUDD) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To establish the Office of the Special Inspector General
for Unlawful Discrimination in Higher Education within
the Department of Education.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘College Admissions Ac-4
countability Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress makes the following findings: 7
(1) 21st century elite college admissions func-8
tions as the Nation’s sorting machine for prestige 9
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•S 1253 IS
and opportunity, allocating a limited number of valu-1
able credentials. 2
(2) For decades United States colleges and uni-3
versities adopted admissions and policies practices 4
that rendered special preferences to applicants on 5
the basis of race. 6
(3) In Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. 7
President and Fellows of Harvard College, 143 S. 8
Ct. 2141 (2023), the Supreme Court of the United 9
States found race-based admissions policies to be in 10
violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th 11
Amendment to the Constitution of the United 12
States. The Court further held that ‘‘universities 13
may not simply establish through application essays 14
or other means the regime we hold unlawful today’’. 15
(4) Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 16
U.S.C. 2000d et seq.) prohibits entities that receive 17
Federal funding from discriminating based on race. 18
(5) Following the Court’s ruling in Students for 19
Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of 20
Harvard College, several United States colleges and 21
universities issued statements or unveiled new poli-22
cies at odds with the letter and spirit of that ruling. 23
(6) Institutions of higher education, including 24
their offices of admission, must comply with the 25
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Constitution and laws of the United States, as inter-1
preted by the judiciary. 2
(7) It is the duty of the United States Govern-3
ment to protect the civil rights of its citizens and to 4
enforce the Constitution and laws of the United 5
States, as interpreted by the judiciary. 6
SEC. 3. SPECIAL INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR UNLAWFUL 7
DISCRIMINATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Title II of the Department of 9
Education Organization Act (20 U.S.C. 3411 et seq.) is 10
amended by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘SEC. 221. SPECIAL INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR UNLAWFUL 12
DISCRIMINATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION. 13
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 14
‘‘(1) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -15
GRESS.—The term ‘appropriate committees of Con-16
gress’ means— 17
‘‘(A) the Committee on Health, Education, 18
Labor, and Pensions of the Senate; 19
‘‘(B) the Subcommittee on Labor, Health 20
and Human Services, Education, and Related 21
Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations of 22
the Senate; 23
‘‘(C) the Committee on Education and 24
Workforce of the House of Representatives; and 25
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‘‘(D) the Subcommittee on Labor, Health 1
and Human Services, Education, and Related 2
Agencies of the Committee on Appropriations of 3
the House of Representatives. 4
‘‘(2) C
OVERED INDIVIDUAL .—The term ‘cov-5
ered individual’ means any individual who— 6
‘‘(A) files an application for admission as 7
a student at a covered institution; or 8
‘‘(B) is enrolled as a student at a covered 9
institution. 10
‘‘(3) C
OVERED INSTITUTION .—The term ‘cov-11
ered institution’ means an institution of higher edu-12
cation that receives funds from Federal student as-13
sistance or Federal institutional aid under the High-14
er Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.). 15
‘‘(b) O
FFICE OFINSPECTORGENERAL.—There is 16
hereby established within the Department the Office of the 17
Special Inspector General for Unlawful Discrimination in 18
Higher Education. 19
‘‘(c) A
PPOINTMENT OF INSPECTORGENERAL; RE-20
MOVAL; BASICPAY.— 21
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The head of the Office of 22
the Special Inspector General for Unlawful Discrimi-23
nation in Higher Education shall be the Special In-24
spector General for Unlawful Discrimination in 25
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Higher Education (referred to in this section as the 1
‘Special Inspector General’), who shall be appointed 2
by the President, by and with the advice and consent 3
of the Senate. 4
‘‘(2) N
OMINATION.—The nomination of the 5
Special Inspector General shall be made on the basis 6
of integrity and demonstrated familiarity with higher 7
education and admissions, in addition to expertise in 8
auditing, civil rights, law, academic administration, 9
education regulation, or investigations. 10
‘‘(3) R
EMOVAL.—The Special Inspector General 11
shall be removable from office in accordance with 12
the provisions of section 403(b) of title 5, United 13
States Code. 14
‘‘(4) B
ASIC PAY.—The annual rate of basic pay 15
of the Special Inspector General shall be the annual 16
rate of basic pay for an Inspector General under sec-17
tion 403(e) of title 5, United States Code. 18
‘‘(d) D
UTIES.— 19
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—It shall be the duty of the 20
Special Inspector General to, in accordance with sec-21
tion 404(b)(1) of title 5, United States Code— 22
‘‘(A) receive, review, and investigate allega-23
tions from covered individuals or employees of 24
covered institutions of admissions decisions, 25
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policies, or practices, or financial aid determina-1
tions or academic programs, that are in viola-2
tion of— 3
‘‘(i) the Equal Protection Clause of 4
the 14th Amendment to the Constitution 5
of the United States, pursuant to the hold-6
ing in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. 7
v. President and Fellows of Harvard Col-8
lege, 143 S. Ct. 2141 (2023) (referred to 9
in this subsection as the ‘Equal Protection 10
Clause’); or 11
‘‘(ii) title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 12
1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.) (referred 13
to in this subsection as ‘title VI’); 14
‘‘(B) review any Federal policies and pro-15
grams that have the effect of incentivizing cov-16
ered institutions to violate the Equal Protection 17
Clause or title VI; and 18
‘‘(C) make recommendations to the appli-19
cable covered institution, the Secretary, the At-20
torney General of the United States, and the 21
appropriate committees of Congress regard-22
ing— 23
‘‘(i) measures that the covered institu-24
tion should take to remedy any violation 25
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described in subparagraph (A) through re-1
medial or corrective action; 2
‘‘(ii) any employee of the covered in-3
stitution that the Special Inspector Gen-4
eral determines, after a review or inves-5
tigation described in subparagraph (A), 6
should face disciplinary action (including 7
removal) as a result of a violation de-8
scribed in such subparagraph; 9
‘‘(iii) eligibility of the covered institu-10
tion to receive funds from Federal student 11
assistance or Federal institutional aid; 12
‘‘(iv) further investigation into the 13
covered institution’s compliance with the 14
Constitution of the United States, title VI, 15
and other laws of the United States; and 16
‘‘(v) reforms to any Federal policies 17
and programs that have the effect of 18
incentivizing covered institutions to violate 19
the Equal Protection Clause or title VI. 20
‘‘(2) M
AINTENANCE OF SYSTEMS .—The Special 21
Inspector General shall establish, maintain, and 22
oversee such systems, procedures, and controls as 23
the Special Inspector General considers appropriate 24
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to discharge the duties of the Special Inspector Gen-1
eral under paragraph (1). 2
‘‘(3) A
DDITIONAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBIL -3
ITIES.—In addition to the duties described in para-4
graphs (1) and (2), the Special Inspector General 5
shall also have the duties and responsibilities of in-6
spectors general under chapter 4 of title 5, United 7
States Code. 8
‘‘(4) C
ONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION .— 9
The Special Inspector General shall maintain the 10
confidentiality of the identity of any person submit-11
ting information to the Special Inspector General for 12
the purposes of carrying out the duties of the Spe-13
cial Inspector General under this section, including 14
in any report submitted under subsection (g). 15
‘‘(e) P
OWERS ANDAUTHORITIES.— 16
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In carrying out the duties 17
of the Special Inspector General under subsection 18
(d), the Special Inspector General shall have the au-19
thorities provided in section 406 of title 5, United 20
States Code. 21
‘‘(2) T
REATMENT OF OFFICE .—The Office of 22
the Special Inspector General shall be considered to 23
be an office described in section 406(f)(3) of title 5, 24
United States Code. 25
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‘‘(f) PERSONNEL, FACILITIES, ANDOTHERRE-1
SOURCES.— 2
‘‘(1) A
PPOINTMENT OF OFFICERS AND EMPLOY -3
EES.— 4
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Special Inspector 5
General may select, appoint, and employ such 6
officers and employees as may be necessary for 7
carrying out the duties of the Special Inspector 8
General. 9
‘‘(B) S
TATUS.—The positions to which of-10
ficers and employees are appointed under sub-11
paragraph (A) shall be positions in schedule C 12
of subpart C of part 213 of title 5, Code of 13
Federal Regulations, or any successor regula-14
tions. 15
‘‘(2) E
XPERTS AND CONSULTANTS .—The Spe-16
cial Inspector General may obtain services as au-17
thorized under section 3109 of title 5, United States 18
Code, at daily rates not to exceed the equivalent rate 19
prescribed for grade GS–15 of the General Schedule 20
by section 5332 of that title. 21
‘‘(3) C
ONTRACTS.—The Special Inspector Gen-22
eral may enter into contracts and other arrange-23
ments for audits, studies, analyses, and other serv-24
ices with public agencies and with private persons, 25
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and make such payments as may be necessary to 1
carry out the duties of the Special Inspector Gen-2
eral. 3
‘‘(g) R
EPORTS.— 4
‘‘(1) Q
UARTERLY REPORTS .— 5
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 60 6
days after the date on which the Special Inspec-7
tor General is confirmed, and once every cal-8
endar quarter thereafter, the Special Inspector 9
General shall submit to the appropriate commit-10
tees of Congress a report summarizing the ac-11
tivities of the Special Inspector General during 12
the 3-month period ending on the date on which 13
the Special Inspector General submits the re-14
port. 15
‘‘(B) C
ONTENTS.—Each report submitted 16
under subparagraph (A) shall include, for the 17
period covered by the report, the following: 18
‘‘(i) A general description of the alle-19
gations received and reviewed by the Spe-20
cial Inspector General under subsection 21
(d)(1)(A). 22
‘‘(ii) Recommendations of the Special 23
Inspector General regarding reforms that 24
the Special Inspector General believes 25
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should be undertaken with respect to the 1
authority of the Special Inspector General 2
and matters within the authority of the 3
Special Inspector General to review and in-4
vestigate, including the authority described 5
in subsection (d)(1)(B). 6
‘‘(iii) For a covered institution with 7
respect to which an allegation submitted 8
under this section applies, the steps that 9
the covered institution has taken, and has 10
yet to take, to remedy the issues outlined 11
in the allegation. 12
‘‘(iv) Data regarding the number of 13
allegations received and reviewed by the 14
Special Inspector General under this sec-15
tion that document any legitimate viola-16
tion, as determined by the Special Inspec-17
tor General, which shall— 18
‘‘(I) be disaggregated by the 19
number of violations committed by 20
each covered institution; and 21
‘‘(II) contain a separate provision 22
listing the number of those acts that 23
relate to racial bias, which shall be 24
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disaggregated as described in sub-1
clause (I). 2
‘‘(v) Commentary by the Special In-3
spector General regarding the level of co-4
operation by each covered institution with 5
respect to reviews and investigations per-6
formed by the Special Inspector General, 7
including, with respect to each covered in-8
stitution, whether the covered institution 9
has implemented recommendations made 10
by the Special Inspector General and 11
whether the covered institution has pro-12
vided information or access requested by 13
the Special Inspector General. 14
‘‘(2) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in 15
this subsection may be construed to authorize the 16
public disclosure of information that is— 17
‘‘(A) specifically prohibited from disclosure 18
by any other provision of law; 19
‘‘(B) specifically required by Executive 20
order to be protected from disclosure in the in-21
terest of national defense or national security or 22
in the conduct of foreign affairs; or 23
‘‘(C) a part of an ongoing criminal inves-24
tigation. 25
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‘‘(h) FUNDING.—There are authorized to be appro-1
priated $25,000,000 to carry out this section, which shall 2
remain available until expended. 3
‘‘(i) C
OUNCIL OF THEINSPECTORSGENERAL ONIN-4
TEGRITY ANDEFFICIENCY.—The Special Inspector Gen-5
eral shall be a member of the Council of the Inspectors 6
General on Integrity and Efficiency established under sec-7
tion 424 of title 5, United States Code. 8
‘‘(j) C
ORRECTIVERESPONSES TO AUDITPROB-9
LEMS.—A covered institution shall— 10
‘‘(1) take action to address deficiencies identi-11
fied by a report or investigation of the Special In-12
spector General; or 13
‘‘(2) with respect to a deficiency identified 14
under paragraph (1), certify to the Special Inspector 15
General and the appropriate committees of Congress 16
that no action is necessary or appropriate. 17
‘‘(k) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-18
tion may be construed as limiting the authority of the In-19
spector General of the Department. 20
‘‘(l) S
UNSET.—The Office of the Special Inspector 21
General for Unlawful Discrimination in Higher Education, 22
established under this section, shall terminate on the date 23
that is 12 years after the date of enactment of the College 24
Admissions Accountability Act of 2025.’’. 25
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(b) TABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents in 1
section 1 of the Department of Education Organization 2
Act (20 U.S.C. 3401 note) is amended by inserting after 3
the item relating to section 220 the following new item: 4
‘‘Sec. 221. Special Inspector General for Unlawful Discrimination in Higher
Education.’’.
(c) HIGHEREDUCATIONACT OF1965.—Part B of 5
title I of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6
1011 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the fol-7
lowing: 8
‘‘SEC. 124. INELIGIBILITY DUE TO DISCRIMINATION ON THE 9
BASIS OF RACE IN VIOLATION OF EQUAL 10
PROTECTION CLAUSE OR TITLE VI. 11
‘‘Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no in-12
stitution of higher education shall be eligible to receive 13
funds from Federal student assistance or Federal institu-14
tional aid under this Act if the Secretary determines that 15
the institution had an admissions decision, policy, or prac-16
tice, or financial aid determination or academic program, 17
that discriminated on the basis of race in violation of— 18
‘‘(1) the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th 19
Amendment to the Constitution of the United 20
States, pursuant to the holding in Students for Fair 21
Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Har-22
vard College, 143 S. Ct. 2141 (2023); or 23
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‘‘(2) title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 1
U.S.C. 2000d et seq.).’’. 2
Æ
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