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S 2859
Introduced Re-checks Congress.gov for new actions and updates the bill's status, and fills in any sponsors, committees, or related bills that are missing. It does not re-pull sponsors/cosponsors/committees/related — those rarely change — and it skips all work if nothing has changed upstream, so it's cheap to click.

Equal Campus Access Act of 2025

To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to ensure campus access at public institutions of higher education for religious groups.

Introduced Sep 18, 2025

Latest action (Mar 19, 2026) Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Hearings held.

Referred to
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
Policy area
Education
Issues
Education

Summary

This bill amends the Higher Education Act to prohibit public institutions of higher education from denying religious student organizations the same rights, benefits, and privileges afforded to other student organizations, including full facility access and official recognition. The prohibition applies regardless of the religious organization's beliefs, practices, speech, leadership standards, or conduct standards. Public institutions that violate this provision risk losing federal funding under the Higher Education Act.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)
30 cosponsors

Actions (3)
  1. Mar 19, 2026 Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Hearings held. · senate
  2. Sep 18, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S6732-6734) · senate
  3. Sep 18, 2025 Introduced in Senate

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • HR 5505 — Equal Campus Access Act of 2025 · Introduced Jun 25, 2026 · Cong. 119 92%
  • HR 2555 — Freedom of Association in Higher Education Act of 2025 · Introduced Jun 25, 2026 · Cong. 119 73%
  • S 163 — Protecting Students on Campus Act of 2025 · Introduced Apr 30, 2025 · Cong. 119 73%
  • S 880 — Fair College Admissions for Students Act · Introduced Mar 19, 2026 · Cong. 119 71%
  • HR 6663 — Campus Free Speech Restoration Act · Introduced Dec 11, 2025 · Cong. 119 70%
  • HR 2634 — Free Speech On Campus Act · Introduced Apr 3, 2025 · Cong. 119 70%

Committee action

What happened to this bill in committee — the meetings where it was considered and every recorded vote taken on it.

Meetings where this bill was on the agenda

Full text

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

September 18 (legislative day, September 16), 2025

Mr. Lankford (for himself, Mr. Scott of South Carolina, Mr. Cassidy, Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr. Cramer, Mr. Hawley, Mr. Grassley, Ms. Lummis, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Cotton, Mr. Budd, Mr. Young, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Banks, Mrs. Britt, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Tillis, Mr. Daines, Mr. Risch, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Graham, Mr. Rounds, Mr. Ricketts, Mr. Kennedy, and Mr. Cornyn) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

A BILL

To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to ensure campus access at public institutions of higher education for religious groups.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Equal Campus Access Act of 2025”.

SEC. 2. CAMPUS ACCESS FOR RELIGIOUS GROUPS.

Part B of title I of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1011 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

“SEC. 124. CAMPUS ACCESS FOR RELIGIOUS GROUPS.

“None of the funds made available under this Act may be provided to any public institution of higher education that denies to a religious student organization any right, benefit, or privilege that is otherwise afforded to other student organizations at the institution (including full access to the facilities of the institution and official recognition of the organization by the institution) because of the religious beliefs, practices, speech, leadership standards, or standards of conduct of the religious student organization.”. <all>

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