U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration moved Tuesday to end affirmative action in federal contracting and ordered that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) personnel be put on trial. paid leave and possibly laid off.
The measures follow a decree Trump signed on his first day order a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs that could touch on everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners. Trump called the programs “discrimination” and insisted on reinstating strictly “merit-based” hiring.
The Affirmative Action Executive Order repeals an executive order issued by U.S. President Lyndon Johnson and restricts DEI programs for federal contractors and grant recipients.
It uses one of the key tools the Biden administration used to promote DEI programs in the private sector – by encouraging their use by federal contractors – to now stamp them out.
The Office of Personnel Management in a Tuesday memo ordered agencies to place DEI office staff on paid leave by 5 p.m. ET Wednesday and to remove all public DEI-focused web pages by the same deadline. Several federal ministries had removed the web pages even before the memorandum.
Agencies must also cancel any DEI-related training and terminate any associated contracts, and federal employees are urged to report to Trump’s Office of Personnel Management if they suspect that a DEI-related program has been renamed to obscure your goal within 10 days or face “adverse consequences.”
By Thursday, federal agencies must compile a list of DEI offices and federal employees as of Election Day. By next Friday, they are expected to develop a plan to execute a “reduction in force action” against these federal workers.
The memo was first reported by CBS News.
The move comes after Monday’s decree accused former US President Joe Biden of imposing programs of “discrimination” in “virtually every aspect of the federal government” through “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs, known as DEI.
The step is the first salvo in an aggressive campaign to thwart DEI efforts nationwide, including relying on the U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies to investigate private companies engaging in practices training and hiring that conservative critics view as discriminatory against non-minority groups such as white men.
Aggressive campaign
The executive order picks up where the first Trump administration left off: One of Trump’s final acts during his first term was an executive order prohibiting federal agency contractors and recipients of federal funds from issuing a anti-bias training addressing concepts such as systemic racism.
Biden quickly reversed that order on his first day in office and issued two executive orders — now rescinded — outlining a plan to promote DEI across the federal government.
Although many changes may take months or even years to implement, Trump’s new anti-DEI agenda is more aggressive than the first and comes on more favorable ground in the business world.
Prominent companies from Walmart to Facebook have already scaled back or ended some of their diversity practices in response to Trump’s election and conservative-backed lawsuits against them.
