Trump administration directs all federal DEI staff be put on leave
Trump orders layoff of federal DEI staff after paid leave
President Trump has directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on paid leave and eventually laid off. This comes after promising to dismantle these programs which could touch on everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners. FOX 5 NY’s Sharon Crowley has the details.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. It also moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting.
It follows an executive order signed on his first day in office that mandates 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 has called the programs "discrimination" and insisted on restoring strictly "merit-based" hiring.
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"Americans deserve a government committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect, and to expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great," the executive order states.
All federal DEI staff put on leave
Timeline:
In a Tuesday memo, the Office of Personnel Management directed agencies to place DEI office staffers on paid leave by 5 p.m. ET Wednesday and take down all public DEI-focused websites by the same deadline. Several federal departments had removed the online pages even before the memorandum.
Agencies must also cancel any DEI-related training and end any related contracts, and federal workers are being asked to report to Trump's Office of Personnel Management if they suspect any DEI-related program has been renamed to obfuscate its purpose within 10 days or face "adverse consequences."
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By Thursday, federal agencies are directed to compile a list of federal DEI offices and workers as of Election Day.
By next Friday, they are expected to develop a plan to execute a "reduction-in-force action" against those federal workers.
The backstory:
The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by President Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It’s using one of the key tools utilized by the Biden administration to promote DEI programs across the private sector — pushing their use by federal contractors — to now eradicate them.
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 banning federal agency contractors and recipients of federal funding from conducting anti-bias training that addressed concepts like systemic racism. Biden promptly rescinded that order on his first day in office and issued a pair of executive orders — now rescinded — outlining a plan to promote DEI throughout the federal government.
Trump’s anti-DEI agenda comes as prominent companies like Walmart and Facebook have already scaled back or ended some of their diversity practices in response to conservative-backed lawsuits against them, as well as Trump’s election.