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Science Depoliticization Act

The National Association of Scholars upholds the standards of a liberal arts education that fosters intellectual freedom, searches for the truth, and promotes virtuous citizenship.

Introduction

All American institutions should evaluate individuals on the basis of their academic merit, with no regard to their political beliefs or to their race, ethnicity, sex, or membership in any other identity group, to provide equality of opportunity for all individual American citizens. The radical establishment, unfortunately, has imposed discriminatory requirements throughout American academia and beyond, under the name of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI), Critical Race Theory, and other labels that enforce similar discrimination. Federal agencies, equally unfortunately, have contributed to these illiberal policies by adding discriminatory conditions to their grant awards. Since federal research money provides so large a part of universities’ income, federal agencies play a major role in enforcing illiberal regulations on our colleges and universities. These requirements also suppress all scientific research whose conclusions provide evidence against DEI ideology. The federal government should remove all federal agency support for DEI policies.

Our model bill 1) forbids federal agencies from imposing DEI policies or identity-group discrimination on their own operations; 2) forbids them from funding researchers affiliated with institutions that impose DEI policies or identity-group discrimination; 3) establishes an Office of Equal Opportunity to enforce these requirements; and 4) requires regular reports to the Executive and Legislative branches on how the agencies have fulfilled these requirements.

Federal agencies regularly discriminate unofficially. Policymakers should consider adding language that encourages and protects whistleblowers against unofficial discrimination by federal agencies.

Our model bill refers to the {National Science Foundation}. The bill should be adjusted by policymakers to refer to some or all individual federal agencies funding science grants. Similar references to the {Director of the National Science Foundation}, the {Executive Branch Office}, the {Senate Committee}, and the {House Committee} also should be adjusted appropriately by policymakers.


Model Legislative Text

  1. Agency Depoliticization. The {National Science Foundation} may not:
    1. use ideological litmus tests in any administrative policy;
    2. use discriminatory concepts in any training for staff, partner institutions and individuals, or grant recipients;
    3. encourage, discourage, require, or forbid staff, partner institutions and individuals, or grant recipients to endorse, assent to, or publicly express a given ideology, political stance, or view of social policy in any administrative policy; or
    4. fund, facilitate, or provide any support to any position, material benefit, policy, program, or activity that encourages, discourages, requires, or forbids staff, partner institutions and individuals, or grant recipients to endorse, assent to, or publicly express a given ideology, political stance, or view of social policy in any administrative policy.
  2. Agency Nondiscrimination. The {National Science Foundation} shall affirm and guarantee that in all administrative policies it will:
    1. treat all staff, partner institutions and individuals, and grant recipients as individuals, hold every individual to equal standards, and provide every individual with equality of opportunity;
    2. not treat, classify, advantage, disadvantage, or segregate any staff, partner institutions and individuals, or grant recipients by membership in groups defined by characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression; and
    3. not fund, facilitate, or provide any support to any position, material benefit, policy, program, or activity that treats, classifies, advantages, disadvantages, or segregates any staff, partner institutions and individuals, or grant recipients by membership in groups defined by characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
  3. Research Grants Depoliticization. The {National Science Foundation} may not fund any grant awards awarded after {Month Day, Year}, including categorical grants, discretionary grants, formula grants, and research grants, to researchers affiliated with institutions that:
    1. use ideological litmus tests in any administrative policy;
    2. use discriminatory concepts in any training for staff, partner institutions and individuals, or grant recipients;
    3. encourage, discourage, require, or forbid staff, partner institutions and individuals, or grant recipients to endorse, assent to, or publicly express a given ideology, political stance, or view of social policy in any administrative policy; or
    4. fund, facilitate, or provide any support to any position, material benefit, policy, program, or activity that encourages, discourages, requires, or forbids staff, partner institutions and individuals, or grant recipients to endorse, assent to, or publicly express a given ideology, political stance, or view of social policy in any administrative policy.
  4. Research Grants Nondiscrimination. The {National Science Foundation} may only fund grant awards awarded after {Month Day, Year}, including categorical grants, discretionary grants, formula grants, and research grants, to researchers affiliated with institutions that:
    1. treat all staff, faculty, and students as individuals, hold every individual to equal standards, and provide every individual with equality of opportunity;
    2. do not treat, classify, advantage, disadvantage, or segregate any staff, faculty, or students by membership in groups defined by characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression; and
    3. do not fund, facilitate, or provide any support to any position, material benefit, policy, program, or activity that treats, classifies, advantages, disadvantages, or segregates any staff, faculty, or students by membership in groups defined by characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
  5. National Advantage. The prohibitions described in subsections (2) and (4) permit the {National Science Foundation} to advantage citizens of the United States.
  6. Office of Equal Opportunity. There is established within the Office of the {Director of the National Science Foundation} an office to be known as the Office of Equal Opportunity. The Office shall be headed by a director, who shall be appointed by the {Director of the National Science Foundation}. The Office of Equal Opportunity shall be responsible to the {Director of the National Science Foundation} for executing all responsibilities in this section.
  7. Reports. On an annual basis, starting no later than {Month Day, Year}, the {Director of the National Science Foundation} shall submit to the {Executive Branch Office}, the {Senate Committee}, and the {House Committee} a report cataloguing and describing all violations of the requirements described in subsections (1-5) and all actions taken by the Office of Equal Opportunity to ensure compliance with the requirements described in subsections (1-5).
  8. Severability. If any provision of this chapter, or the application of any provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this chapter and the application of its provisions to any other person or circumstance shall not be affected thereby.
  9. Definitions.
    1. “Ideological litmus tests” shall be defined as “diversity statements” or any other requirement that applicants describe their commitments to concepts such as allyship, diversity, social justice, sustainability, systemic racism, gender identity, equity, or inclusion, or to any ideology that classifies individuals within identity groups, divides identity groups into oppressed and oppressors, and prescribes advantages, disadvantages, or segregation based upon identity group membership, or to any other ideology, principle, concept, or formulation that requires commitment to any belief or policy that is the subject of political controversy.
    2. “Administrative policy” shall be defined as mission statements, policies, hiring decisions, promotion decisions, funding decisions, processes or decisions regulating conditions of work or research, programs, trainings, and events.
    3. “Discriminatory concepts” shall be defined as any of the following concepts: one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex; an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously; an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of the individual’s race; members of one race cannot or should not attempt to treat others without respect to race; an individual’s moral standing or worth is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex; an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex; an individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex; meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist, or were created by members of a particular race to oppress members of another race; or fault, blame, or bias should be assigned to a race or sex, or to members of a race or sex because of their race or sex.