Senate green lights DEI bill following heavy debate

Senate green lights DEI bill following heavy debate March 12, 2025

Sen. Stephen West, R-Paris, speaks about House Bill 4 on the Senate floor Wednesday. The bill relates to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public colleges and universities. A high-res version is available here.

FRANKFORT — After impassioned debate Wednesday afternoon, the Kentucky Senate adopted a bill that seeks to ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public postsecondary intuitions in Kentucky.

House Bill 4, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy, advanced off the Senate floor with a 36-6 vote. It was presented on the chamber floor by Sen. Stephen West, R-Paris.

West said the legislation seeks to ensure that Kentucky’s public universities are focused on providing opportunity for everyone – not advancing policies that divide students into competing groups. The legislation would remove mandates that focus on identity politics rather than meri-based academic success, he said.

“Every student regardless of background deserves a fair shot, and that’s what this body should be committed to. There’s a strong legal precedent in the constitution and in recent court cases for the passage and implementation of House Bill 4,” he said.

The measure would prohibit differential treatment at public colleges and universities based on religion, race, sex, color or national origin in hiring, admissions, scholarships and contracts. It would also halt the use of institutional resources to create or maintain a DEI office, training or initiative.

Among other provisions, HB 4 would prevent institutions from requiring students to complete courses that indoctrinate participants in discriminatory concepts. Campuses could not require or incentivize students, faculty or staff to attend a DEI training, and any investigations of a bias incident would require authorization by the general counsel and meet certain criteria.

West said the DEI prohibitions do not include the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act, sex-based dormitory restrictions and athletic eligibility, accommodations for religion, the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX and others.

Lawmakers debated the bill for nearly two hours, recounting personal stories and, at times, discussing the history of race and slavery in America.

Senate Democratic Floor Leader Gerald A. Neal, D-Louisville, was among several who spoke in opposition to the bill, and recalled how he marched with civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. He said he wanted to put the past and present in context.

“What I’m saying is, even today you hear the language, there’s nothing systemic. There’s nothing structural. Everything we do is systemic. Every time we do a policy we’re setting up some type of system, a framework, guidelines, context,” he said. “And we enforce it. And guess what, what we don’t do, enhances or allows for those unofficial behaviors to take shape, which are manifest today. We all know it. Racism is wide and deep.”

Senate Minority Whip David Yates, D-Louisville, also spoke against the measure. He read from an e-mailed letter from four Roman Catholic bishops of Kentucky. It stated that “those who are in positions of power or who have benefitted from a system of inequalities have a moral responsibility to address injustice.”

Speaking in favor of the measure was Sen. Donald Douglas, R-Nicholasville, who argued that the legislation is about establishing “a fair playing field for all.” He said the goals of DEI begin in the home with parental support.

“Let us consider strengthening our homes first. Let us consider teaching our children the self-respect, the self-motivation and the self-accomplishment and monitoring their independent thought, their personal responsibility and their accountability for their own personal decisions,” he said.

The bill now heads back to the House. If lawmakers concur with the final version of the bill, it will next head to the governor’s desk.

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https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/publicservices/pio/release.html#HB4-031325