Missouri Gov. Kehoe signed HB3 budget rider conditioning college funding on eliminating DEI programs

On June 30, 2025, Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed the state's roughly $50.8 billion fiscal year 2026 budget in Jefferson City, including House Bill 3, the Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development appropriations bill. House Budget Chair Rep. Dirk Deaton had inserted budget language conditioning state funding for Missouri's public colleges and universities on eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Deaton said the provision meant colleges and universities will have to comport with this language in order to receive the state tax dollars.

The rider extended, through the appropriations process, the funding-conditioned approach Kehoe had already applied to state executive-branch agencies via a February 2025 executive order banning DEI initiatives there. Unlike a standalone bill subject to its own floor vote and public debate on the policy itself, HB3's DEI-funding language rode through as part of the broader budget bill the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed and Kehoe signed, with line-item vetoes applied elsewhere in the spending package but not to this provision.