Two House Republicans are sponsoring legislation to stop federal funding for medical schools with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices.
Reps. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, and Greg Murphy, R-N.C., will host a press conference at 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday on the EDUCATE Act, which looks “to eliminate all Federal funding, including student loans, to medical schools and accrediting institutions with race-based mandates and DEI practices,” according to a press release from Wenstrup’s office Monday.
Also scheduled to speak are Do No Harm President Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, and Tabia Lee, founding member of Free Black Thought and former head of DEI at De Anza College.
“American medical schools are the best in the world and no place for discrimination,” Murphy said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “The EDUCATE Act compels medical schools and accrediting agencies to uphold colorblind admissions processes and prohibits the coercion of students who hold certain political opinions. Diversity strengthens medicine, but not if it’s achieved through exclusionary practices. Medicine is about serving others and doing the best job possible in every circumstance. We cannot afford to sacrifice the excellence and quality of medical education at the hands of prejudice and divisive ideology.”
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Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Both Republican sponsors are doctors, with Murphy having practiced as a podiatrist for 26 years and Wenstrup still seeing patients as a urologist in North Carolina, according to their official bios.
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 incentivize students, faculty, or staff personally state, pledge, recite, affirm, or otherwise adopt” any of the tenets of DEI or mandate classes or programs instructing those DEI principles.
Those tenets include “that any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin makes an individual a member of oppressed or oppressor categories,” “that individuals should be adversely treated on the basis of their sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin,” and “that individuals, by virtue of 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 a “collective guilt.”
The bill states that medical schools would be disqualified from receiving federal dollars if they teach “that America is systemically, structurally, or institutionally racist, or that racism is weaved into the ‘ordinary business of society’, or that America is an oppressive nation.”
Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., leaves during a break in a House Republican caucus meeting on Oct. 13, 2023 in Washington, D.C. He is to introduce a bill on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, to ban federal funding for medical schools with DEI. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The legislative proposal comes after a clip of Elon Musk clashing with Don Lemon about 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 program, “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, if the standards are lowered, then the probability the surgeon will make a mistake is higher … and that may result in people dying,” Musk said.
However, Lemon was adamant that there was no proof this was taking place 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 claimed in response.
CriticalRace.org, which monitors critical race theory curricula and training in higher education, runs 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 to include all 155 accredited U.S. medical schools. Its findings show at least 70% provide mandatory or voluntary CRT-related coursework or training for students.
Lemon claimed any suggestion that DEI policies were causing patients to die was purely “speculative.” He argued that research showed “the exact opposite” in terms of how minorities are treated in the medical system in the United States.
“Most doctors now are White, and there are lots of mistakes in medicine,” he continued.
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In the viral clip, Lemon and Musk continued to bicker over the issue, with Lemon claiming Musk was putting forward 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.