Page:M-21-17 Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies.pdf/1

 EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET March 2, 2021 M-21-17

MEMORANDUM FOR HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

FROM: Robert FairweatherActing Director

SUBJECT: Revocation of Executive Order 13950, M-20-37, and M-20-34

On January 20, 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order (E.O.) 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, to affirm equal opportunity as the bedrock of American democracy and lay the foundation for a whole-of-government approach to advancing equity for all. As an immediate first step, E.O. 13985 revoked E.O. 13950, Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping, which restricted the availability of workplace diversity training and programs for federal employees and government contractors, or use of federal grants for these purposes.

This Memorandum provides detailed instructions for agencies to ensure the complete rollback of agency actions that were taken pursuant to E.O. 13950. Effective immediately, this Memorandum rescinds OMB Memorandum M-20-37, Ending Employee Trainings that Use Divisive Propaganda to Undermine the Principle of Fair and Equal Treatment for All (Sept. 28, 2020) and Memorandum M-20-34, Training in the Federal Government (Sept. 4, 2020), which provided implementation guidance of E.O. 13950. Agencies must take appropriate actions to ensure the complete reversal of agency action implementing the now-rescinded OMB policy memoranda.

E.O. 13950 prohibited certain content in diversity and inclusion training and established sanctions for noncompliance. In particular, E.O. 13950: (1) prohibited federal contractors from engaging in specified diversity and inclusion training and directed the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) in the Department of Labor to take actions to enforce the prohibition, (2) required federal agencies to review their respective grant programs and identify programs for which the agency may, as a condition of receiving such a grant, require the recipient to certify that they will not use federal funds to promote these activities, and (3) instructed agencies to identify and prevent prohibited trainings for federal employees.

Section 10(b) of E.O. 13985 requires agencies to review and identify proposed and existing agency actions related to or arising from E.O. 13950 and further requires the