BACKGROUND PRESS CALL
BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS
ON THE EXECUTIVE ORDER TO IMPROVE TRANSPARENCY
AND PROMOTE FREE SPEECH IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Via Teleconference
9:04 A.M. EDT
MR. DEERE: Thank you, operator, and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us for today’s call on the President’s Executive Order to Improve Transparency and Promote Free Speech in Higher Education. I know there’s been a lot of interest in this topic, especially because of the remarks the President gave at CPAC. So I know that we’re all excited for him to sign this executive order today.
A few ground rules: Today’s call is on background, attributable to a senior administration official, and the call is embargoed until its conclusion. With that, I will introduce our senior administration official.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Today, President Trump will sign an executive order to support free inquiry, transparency, and accountability at colleges and universities across the country. The President strongly supports cultivating free speech and open inquiry in higher education. Our nation’s democracy was built on free inquiry and it is essential for learning, scientific discovery, and economic prosperity.
American institutions of higher education should promote open, intellectually engaging debate, which is critical to create the next generation of successful leaders and thinkers. The order directs 12 grant-making agencies to use their authorities over federal grants, in coordination with the Director of OMB, to ensure those institutions that receive federal research or education grants promote free inquiry through compliance with all applicable federal laws, regulations, and policies.
The order does not apply to student aid programs that cover tuition, fees, or stipends. The administration believes public colleges and universities should fulfill their obligation to uphold the First Amendment, and private schools should comply with their stated institutional policies regarding free inquiry.
The President also supports ensuring students have the information they need to make critical decisions about their education. The executive order directs the Department of Education to publish program-level data into the college scorecard, including earnings, debt, default rates, and loan repayment rates. These data will help students better understand their options, the associated outcomes, and choose a school and program that works best for them.
The order also directs the Department of Education to submit a report to the President of policy recommendations that ensure institutions share the financial risk associated with student loans.
This executive order is an important step in advancing the President’s vision of making higher education more transparent and holding institutions more accountable.
And, with that, I’ll take questions.
Q Good morning. It’s Toby Capion, calling from EWTN. What would you say this proposal has as far as the most teeth in order to enact (inaudible)?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I’m sorry. What did you say?
Q I’m just curious what teeth does this have in order to actually effect change on campuses.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Sure. It’s the first time -- while many schools are -- all schools are, frankly, supposed to follow this currently, it will ensure that grant dollars are associated through the grant-making process, and schools will have to certify that they’re following this condition.
Q Yes, hi. This is Chris Sheridan from Al Jazeera English. I had question about Israel. Would this new executive order extend to criticism of Israel on campus, particularly the growing movements to boycott and divest college investments from Israel?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Not going to get into specific areas of free speech, but the goal of the order is to promote free speech more broadly across college campuses.
Q Hello. This is Emily Wilkins with Bloomberg Government. I wanted to see if you guys could elaborate a little bit on how you’re looking for colleges and universities to certify to these federal agencies that they are upholding First Amendment rights. Is this going to play into allowing or not allowing speakers on campus? Is this going to play into “free speech zones” or “First Amendment rights areas”?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Sure. So, it will be applied consistently with how agencies already condition federal grants. And I won’t get into implementation details. I’d defer you to OMB.
But schools are already supposed to be following these rules. And essentially, each agency already conditions grants, and schools are certifying that they’re following these conditions. And they will just add free speech as one of those conditions.
Q Thanks so much. Charlie Spiering from Breitbart News. I’m a little confused. Is it the university that gets to certify whether or not they apply with free speech recommendations or requirements? Or is it the government that certifies this?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The institutions will have to certify or agree to follow these as a condition of receiving the grants.
Q Hi. It’s Fred Lucas with Daily Signal. I had a couple of questions. First, I wanted to see if there are any existing cases, maybe in litigation, or maybe something in the public eye that this would apply to in terms of student censorship.
And the second question is, would there be any differentiation between how this would apply to public universities and colleges versus private universities and colleges that get federal aid?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Not going to comment on any ongoing litigation and how this would apply. And it would -- the executive order will impact public and private universities differently. Currently, private universities will have to certify or -- as a condition of receiving their aid, certify that they are following their intended policy. And public institutions have to follow the First Amendment.
Q Hey. This is Ben Wermund with Politico. Thanks for doing this call. Can you tell us exactly like what is the language that schools will have to be agreeing to here? And are the agencies going to be tasked with producing agreements they have to sign? Like, how is this going to actually play out?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So I won’t get into implementation details, but OMB will work with all -- with each agency on implementation. And it will be no different than how agencies apply conditions to the grant-making process currently.
Q Hi. It’s Dave Boyer from the Washington Times. Thanks for doing the call. First of all, can you say whether this action is prompted by recent incidents of conservative students having their free speech rights suppressed on campus? And does the President think that this issue has grown worse during his presidency?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I don’t want to get ahead of the President’s remarks this afternoon. But, to the first question, the President is fully committed to promoting free speech on college campuses and has been since taking office.
Q Hi, Ella Nilsen with Vox. Can you tell me how much grant money is kind of impacted by this new order?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I can't give you an exact figure, but if you're looking -- let's just take an example -- of research grants, that's $35.8 million, I believe, off the top of my head. However, the executive order is a little broader than that but I can't give you an exact number.
Q Hi, thanks so much for doing this call. This is Emerald Robinson with One America News. I want to get back to what you said about implementation. Now, colleges are already self-certifying that they're in compliance. So could you give me a little more details on exactly what are the enforcement mechanisms that will make this different from how it already is?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Sure. They currently don't certify that they're following this as it relates to federal research grants. They do as part of a program participation agreement with the Department of Education. So this will be broader. And enforcement will -- agencies will enforce the order how they are already enforcing grant conditions.
Q Hi, this is Andrew Kreighbaum with Inside Higher Ed. What are you thinking -- address what happens here next on free speech? Is there guidance coming from OMB or another agency?
And on the transparency front, is this program-level data that the Department already has that they're being directed to publish? Or are we talking about getting new information from data sharing between agencies?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: To the second question, there will be data sharing between the Department of Treasury and the Department of Education to publish the program-level data.
Q Hey, this is Lev Facher at STAT. I'm just wondering -- we're safe to assume that NIH, NSF, the Defense Department, all included, was part of the grant-making agencies that would apply. And I'm just hoping you can give us an idea of what a university is seen as being out of compliance with these free speech requirements. What would have to happen on campus in order for the grant-making agency or OMB to recertify their eligibility for this funding?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Sure. It does include those agencies. And I don't want to get ahead of implementation. I think that will be coming in the next several weeks, months.
Q Hi, guys, this is Blake Burman, Fox Business. Thanks for doing this. Judd, real quick, what's the embargo on this again, as well?
And my question for the senior administration official: You talked about the policy recommendations, I believe you said, as it relates to risk sharing with student loans. At this point, just to be clear, are you just asking for the schools to submit recommendations as to what risk sharing would look like? Or are there any directives coming from the administration down to the universities as it relates to risk sharing?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So, no, it directs the Department of Education to develop policy proposals as it relates to financial risk sharing for institutions, not schools.
MR. DEERE: And, Blake, just to answer that question, the call is embargoed until its conclusion. Operator, do we have one more question or was that it?
OPERATOR: That was the last question in queue. No more questions at this time.
MR. DEERE: Okay. With that, we will conclude today's call. Just a reminder that the call is embargoed until its conclusion. Thanks to [senior administration official]. As a reminder, it is on background, attributable to a senior administration official.
And we look forward to the President signing the executive order this afternoon at 3:15. Thanks everyone.
END 9:20 A.M. EDT
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