August 1, 2025
Justice Department Releases Guidance for Recipients of Federal Funding Regarding Unlawful Discrimination
Wednesday, July 30, 2025For Immediate Release
Office of Public Affairs
WASHINGTON – Today, the Department of Justice released Guidance to ensure that recipients of federal funding do not engage in unlawful discrimination. In particular, it clarifies that federal antidiscrimination laws apply to programs or initiatives that involve discriminatory practices, including those labeled as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) programs. Entities that receive federal funds, like all other entities subject to federal antidiscrimination laws, must ensure that their programs and activities comply with federal law and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, or other protected characteristics—no matter the program’s labels, objectives, or intentions.
“This Department of Justice will not stand by while recipients of federal funds engage in illegal discrimination,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “This guidance will ensure we are serving the American people and not ideological agendas.”
“The federal government must ensure that taxpayer money is used lawfully and for the public good,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon. “The very foundation of our anti-discrimination laws rests on the principle that every American deserves equal opportunity, regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, or other protected characteristics.”
This new Guidance emphasizes the significant legal risks of initiatives that involve discrimination based on protected characteristics and offers non-binding best practices to help entities that receive federal funds avoid the risk of violations and the revocation of federal grant funding.
Read the Guidance HERE.
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Last night we told you that the Senate’s Labor – HHS Appropriations bill (for the new federal fiscal year that begins October 1, 2025) included pushback language that departs from the Trump Admin’s executive budget request language (released several months ago but seen as aspirational by many federal lawmakers) that included all kinds of draconian measures including but not limited to the elimination of SAMHSA as a separate federal agency. In the White House’s preferred scenario, SAMHSA would be under a new federal agency, the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) that corresponds with the Make America Health Again (MAHA) initiative coming from the Trump White House. The approps bill also contains $7.6B for SAMHSA overall and a continuation of the CCBHC egrant program plus an additional $500,000 for integrated care technical assistance to egrant participants.
Reminder: CCBHC eGrants are different from the CCBHC Demonstration Program.
Next up, the Labor-HHS approps bill is expected to go to the floor of the Senate for an all member vote however it should be noted that in order to avoid another year of operations under a federal budget that is essentially a continuation of the prior years budget (using a Continuing Budget Resolution), the parties will need to move quickly. You will hear the words ‘federal government shutdown’ come up more often as we hit mid-August, early September unless the legislative process continues to move forward at a good pace. And since the House sent its members home a few weeks ago until September to avoid having to take any votes on the Epstein matter and to quiet the conversation and dissent on this topic, passage of a new federal budget may be an unattainable goal.
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The final provision in the OBBBA Law enacted on 7/4/25 commits $50B in resources for rural hospital providers across the country; however, based on the language in the OBBBA (and the advocacy work of the National Council) additional rural health provider types were added to the list of eligible provider types. Apparently the funds are listed in the OBBA as going to the ‘Rural Health Transition Program’ (as opposed to the Rural Hospital Transition Program’). Based on the provision, additional provider types could benefit from these resources however we can expect there to be MAJOR competition for these resources at the state level along with heavy political lobbying from not only hospitals but also from NYS Republicans who want to mitigate the serious damage and potential extinction of many rural hospitals as the result of various provisions in the OBBBA that these elected leaders voted in favor of.
It is possible NYS will issue an RFI seeking comments and suggestions from stakeholders before there is a competitive application promulgated for these resources. I think there is a long way to go on this one before we see written documents come out from NYS but my eyes are peeled. With this knowledge, this issue goes to the top of our draft State Budget and Legislative Priorities list (discussed Thursday morning during our Weekly Member Support and Public Policy discussion).
Program types that are eligible for rural health dollars are listed below:
- Certified community behavioral health clinics (CCBHCs)
- Opioid treatment programs (OTPs)
- Community mental health centers (CMHCs)
- Critical access hospitals
- Sole community hospitals
- Medicare-dependent hospitals
- Low-volume hospitals
- Rural emergency hospitals
- Rural health clinics
- Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs)