House Republicans to Introduce Bill Ending Federal Funding for Medical Schools with DEI and 'Race-Based Mandates'

Two House Republicans are sponsoring legislation to stop federal funding of medical schools with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices.

Reps. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, and Greg Murphy, R.N.C., will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday about the EDUCATE Act, which seeks to “eliminate all federal funding, including student loans, for medical schools. and accredit institutions with race-based mandates and DEI practices,” according to a news release from Wenstrup's office on Monday.

Also scheduled to speak are Do No Harm President Dr. Stanley Goldfarb and Tabia Lee, a founding member of Free Black Thought and former director of DEI at De Anza College.

“American medical schools are the best in the world and are no place for discrimination,” Murphy said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “The EDUCATE Act requires medical schools and accrediting agencies to maintain color-blind admissions processes and prohibits coercion of students who hold certain political opinions. Diversity strengthens medicine, but not if it is achieved through exclusionary practices Medicine is about serving others and doing the best work “It is possible in all circumstances. “We cannot afford to sacrifice the excellence and quality of medical education at the hands of prejudice and divisive ideologies.”

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Both Republican sponsors are doctors: Murphy has practiced as a podiatrist for 26 years and Wenstrup still sees patients as a urologist in North Carolina, according to their official biographies.

The bill would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to prohibit graduate medical schools from receiving federal financial assistance if they “direct, compel or encourage students, faculty or staff, declare, promise, recite, assert or otherwise adopt way” any of the DEI principles or teach classes or programs that instruct those DEI principles.

Those principles include “that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin makes an individual a member of oppressed or oppressive categories,” “that individuals should be treated adversely based on their sex, race, ethnicity, religion , color or national origin” and “that individuals, by virtue of their sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color or national origin, are inherently responsible for actions committed in the past by other members of the same sex, race, ethnicity, religion , color or national origin” or should bear “collective guilt.

The bill states that medical schools would be disqualified from receiving federal dollars if they teach “that the United States is systemically, structurally, or institutionally racist, or that racism is woven into the 'ordinary affairs of society,' or that the United States It is an oppressive nation.” ”

Rep. Greg Murphy, R.N.C., leaves during a break in a House Republican caucus meeting on October 13, 2023 in Washington, D.C., will introduce a bill on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 to prohibit federal funding for medical services. schools with DEI. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The legislative proposal comes after a clip of Elon Musk clashing with Don Lemon over the risks of DEI practices lowering medical standards went viral on Monday. The former CNN host interviewed the Tesla CEO and X owner for the premiere episode of his new show, “The Don Lemon Show.”

In the episode, Lemon pressed Musk to defend his claim that DEI policies would eventually lead to patients being harmed.

“If the standards for passing medical exams and becoming a doctor, especially for something like a surgeon, are lowered, then the likelihood of the surgeon making a mistake is higher… and that can result in people dying,” he said. Musk.

However, Lemon insisted that there was no evidence that this was happening or that DEI policies were putting patients in danger.

“There's no evidence of that, Elon,” he argued.

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“They have literally lowered the standards at Duke University,” Musk said in response.

CriticalRace.org, which monitors critical race theory curricula and training in higher education, manages an online database listing medical schools with DEI practices. (Fox News Digital)

The watchdog group CriticalRace.org, which monitors critical race theory (CRT) curricula and training in higher education, operates an online medical school database that includes all 155 medical schools Their findings show that at least 70% provide mandatory or voluntary CRT-related courses or training for students.

Lemon said any suggestion that DEI policies were causing patient deaths was purely “speculative.” She maintained that the investigation showed “exactly the opposite” in terms of how minorities are treated in the US medical system.

“Most doctors now are white and there are a lot of mistakes in medicine,” he continued.

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In the viral clip, Lemon and Musk continued to argue about the topic, with Lemon claiming that Musk was posing an unlikely “hypothetical.”

“If we lower standards, people will die,” Musk insisted.

Fox News' Gabriel Hays, Kristine Parks and Brian Flood contributed to this report.