Exclusive: House Conservatives Target Critical Race Theory in Budget Proposal

The largest bloc of conservatives in the House is targeting critical race theory (CRT) throughout the federal government in their new budget proposal.

Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Kevin Hern (R-OK) and RSC Budget and Spending Task Force Chairman Ben Cline (R-VA) are releasing the RSC’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget proposal on Wednesday called “Fiscal Sanity to Save America.” The budget from the almost 200-member group includes a large package of bills crafted to fight back against the promotion of and indoctrination with CRT throughout the federal government, the armed forces and military academies, and classrooms.

CRT began as a Marxist academic concept but is now being taught as an unquestionable collection of values rather than an abstract theory. The group of conservatives oppose CRT as a racist and divisive ideology, and their budget makes clear their belief that eradicating its principles, which have infiltrated the federal government and taken precedence over good stewardship of taxpayer dollars, is key to restoring “sanity” to the federal government’s budget.

“Decades of Washington’s reckless spending habits have left the American People to foot the bill through high inflation and rising costs, and we cannot continue down this irresponsible path,” Cline told Breitbart News. “The RSC budget proposes responsible, common-sense policy that bolsters the American economy, lowers inflation, slashes wasteful spending, and reverses the harmful, regressive, wasteful, and unnecessary policies that are crushing hardworking families. It’s far past time that Washington restores fiscal responsibility, reduces spending, and balances the federal budget to get our country back on the right track.”

To combat CRT, the budget targets diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and similar race-based initiatives that devalue skills and competency in the hiring process and divide the American people along lines of race, ethnicity, or socio-economic status.

The budget also includes Rep. Julia Letlow’s (R-LA) Parents Bill of Rights to provide more curriculum transparency to parents. The House passed that bill last year but the Senate has not brought it to the floor. The legislation “aims to bring more transparency and accountability to education, allowing parents to be informed and when they have questions and concerns to lawfully bring them to their local school boards,” Letlow said when her bill was passed.

Legislation tackling CRT the RSC packaged in its budget includes:

• RSC Chairman Hern’s Work Not Woke Act, which would defund existing divisive diversity training in the federal government, specifically training being implemented through several executive orders on equity. 
• Rep. Andy Ogles’ (R-TN) Go Woke, Go Broke Act, which would eliminate the Advisory Committee on Racial Equity at the Department of Treasury, which will be used to force businesses to make hiring and investment decisions based on radical CRT ideology. 
• Rep. Burgess Owens’ (R-UT) legislation to prohibit federal agencies from refusing to follow President Trump’s executive order prohibiting agencies from teaching, advocating, acting upon, or promoting CRT in agency trainings. 
• Owens’ resolution to express the sense of the House of Representatives that CRT should not be taught in K-12 classrooms. 
• Rep. Dan Bishop’s (R-NC) Combatting Racist Training in the Military Act, which would prohibit the Armed Forces and Military Academies from promoting CRT. 
• Rep. Chip Roy’s (R-TX) Combatting Racist Teaching (CRT) in Schools Act, which would prohibit federal funds from going to any elementary or secondary school or institution of higher education that promotes racist ideology like CRT. 
• Bishop’s Stop CRT Act, which prohibits any federal funding being awarded to entities that advance CRT.
• Rep. Mark Green’s (R-TN) H.R. 3046, which would prohibit the federal service academies from providing training and education based on CRT. 
• Rep. Vicky Hartzler’s (R-MO) No CRT for our Military Kids Act, which would prohibit the teaching of CRT in any school operated by the Department of Defense. 
• Letlow’s Parents Bill of Rights, which, among other things, would require school districts to publicly post curriculum, including all books and reading material available in the library, so that parents can better stand up against CRT and other harmful topics being taught to their children.
• Former RSC Chairman Jim Banks’ (R-IN) DEI Pay Cap Act of 2023, which would restrict the Department of Defense from appointing any employee to any DEI position with a rank or grade more than E-5 or GS-5.

The RSC’s budget release comes as Congress is set to finalize FY2024 spending – almost six months after the fiscal year began. The President released his FY2025 budget just days before, and Congress is set to begin debating FY25 budget and appropriations measures in the coming weeks.

WATCH — Dr. James Lindsay: Bill Gates, Soros Using CRT Advocates as “Useful Idiots” to Co-opt America for Their Own Purposes

Matt Perdie / Breitbart News

Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.