Trump’s war on DEI freezes diversity work across federal government

Webpages have been removed, diversity officers placed on paid leave, training seminars axed and a probe set up into public companies as the President moves on a key campaign promise.

President Trump’s plan to unravel diversity, equity and inclusion efforts began taking shape on Wednesday (Thursday, AEDT), with an order closing such programs within federal agencies and placing all staff working on those programs on paid leave.

The Agriculture Department, the Treasury Department and the Labor Department had removed some webpages on diversity by Wednesday morning. The Federal Communications Commission rescinded an action plan promoting DEI and shut down the agency’s advisory group, among other steps. Elsewhere, meetings on those issues were cancelled quietly, and federal employees were uncertain about whether internal affinity groups would continue. Paid leave for employees who work on DEI programs was to take effect by 5pm Wednesday.

The Biden administration had required federal agencies to recruit a more diverse workforce and reduce racial and gender pay gaps as part of an executive order signed in 2021.

The Office of Personnel Management on Tuesday required department and agency heads to cancel any diversity-related training sessions and terminate contractors by Wednesday afternoon.

Conservative activists have pressured companies, agencies and schools to pull back on diversity programs after the Supreme Court in 2023 struck down affirmative action in college admissions. Such efforts had proliferated after the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

Mr Trump’s executive order on Monday required agencies to eliminate all chief diversity officer positions.

The OPM memo asked agencies for their plans to do so by Friday. A separate executive action published Tuesday required agencies to investigate diversity programs at publicly traded corporations, non-profits, colleges and foundations in an attempt to discourage this work outside the government. The action asked agencies to find up to nine potential “civil compliance investigations” into those entities within 120 days.

Recipients of federal contracts must certify that they don’t run “programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable federal anti-discrimination laws.”

In an email sent by agency heads to federal employees, the DEI programs were described as dividing “Americans by race,” and having led to “wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.”

The email said federal agencies were “aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.” It encouraged employees to report any attempt by contractors to “obscure the connection between the contract and DEIA or similar ideologies” within 10 days.

DEIA is an expanded term that includes “accessibility.” “There will be no adverse consequences for timely reporting this information. However, failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences,” the email said.

In the wake of the orders, Food and Drug Administration employees attempted to identify who among them worked on DEI. Employees were confused about how to categorise some initiatives, such as encouraging drug companies to use diverse clinical trial participants so that scientists can know more about how medicines may affect minorities differently, a person familiar with the matter said.

Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, a labour union representing federal employees, said inclusivity programs help ensure diverse representation in the federal government. Cutting them, he said, could “turn federal hiring and firing decisions into loyalty tests.” The union couldn’t estimate how many employees would be affected by the cuts.

– Liz Essley Whyte contributed to this article.

– Dow Jones