President Donald Trump’s administration moved on Tuesday to end affirmative action in federal contracts and ordered all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) employees to be placed on paid leave and eventually fired.
The moves follow an executive order signed by Trump on his first day that ordered a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs, which could include everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners. Trump called the programs “discrimination” and insisted on restoring strict “meritocratic” hiring.
The Executive Order on Affirmative Action repeals an executive order issued by President Lyndon Johnson and restricts DEI programs of federal contractors and grant recipients.
It is using one of the Biden administration’s key tools to promote DEI programs across the private sector – by pushing their use by federal contractors – to now eliminate it.
In a Tuesday memo, the Office of Personnel Management directed agencies to place DEI office employees on paid leave by 5 p.m. ET Wednesday and to remove all public, DEI-focused websites by the same date. Several federal ministries had already removed the websites before the memorandum.
Agencies must also cancel all DEI-related training and terminate all related contracts, and federal employees are required to report to Trump’s Office of Personnel Management within 10 days if they suspect a DEI-related program has been renamed , to disguise its purpose, or when confronted with it. adverse consequences.”
By Thursday, federal agencies will be directed to compile a list of federal DEI offices and employees as of Election Day. They are expected to develop a plan to carry out a “force reduction action” against these federal employees by next Friday.
The memo was first reported by CBS News.
The move comes after former US President Joe Biden was accused in Monday’s executive order of “discrimination” programs through “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs, known as DEI, in “virtually all areas of the federal government.” to force.
The move is the first salvo in an aggressive campaign to ramp up DEI efforts nationwide, including using the U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies to investigate private companies that engage in training and hiring practices that conservative critics say are discriminatory against non-minority groups like look at white men.
Aggressive campaign
The executive order picks up where Trump’s first administration left off: One of Trump’s final acts during his first term was an executive order that prohibited federal contractors and recipients of federal funds from conducting anti-bias training that addressed concepts such as systemic racism .
Biden immediately revoked that order on his first day in office and issued two executive orders — since rescinded — outlining a plan to advance DEI across the federal government.
While many changes may take months or even years to implement, Trump’s new anti-DEI agenda is more aggressive than his first and takes place in more accessible terrain in the corporate world.
Prominent companies from Walmart to Facebook have already scaled back or stopped some of their diversity practices in response to Trump’s election and the conservative-backed lawsuits against them.
