Prohibits college accreditors from requiring institutions to support specific political or ideological viewpoints or from judging institutions on their ideology, while letting religious institutions keep faith-based requirements.

Official title: Accreditation for College Excellence Act of 2025

Next stop House floor: awaiting a vote

Timeline each lane is a chamber; dates pull from congress.gov actions

House

Introduced 31-MAR-2025

Referred 31-MAR-2025

Approved by committee 25-JUN-2025

Reported 13-JAN-2026

On the calendar 13-JAN-2026

Key points

Requires accrediting agencies to confirm their standards do not require, encourage, or coerce institutions to support or oppose specific political, ideological, or social viewpoints, or assess institutions on ideology.
Keeps an exception for religious institutions, which may require statements of faith, religious codes of conduct, and oaths to uphold the Constitution.
Limits the Secretary of Education to setting accreditation criteria that Section 496 of the Higher Education Act requires, and ties institutional eligibility to compliance with accreditor standards.
States that nothing in the act prevents religious accreditors from enforcing religious standards on the institutions they accredit.

AI-generated from the Reported in House text of 13-JAN-2026 · verify · report an error

Official CRS summary

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Committee referrals (1)

Policy area

Education

Sponsor Burgess Owens (R-UT) Cosponsors · 12

■ 12 R

12 Republicans

congress.gov page Reported in House (13-JAN-2026) Introduced in House (31-MAR-2025)