Washington The U.S. Office of Personnel Management issued a memo directing all government employees in diversity, equity, and inclusion roles to be placed on paid administrative leave by Wednesday at the latest.
The action was taken during the first few days of President Donald Trump’s second term, when he issued executive orders ending affirmative action in federal contracts and gutting DEI programs and activities throughout the federal government.
Trump’s extensive actions are part of a larger Republican movement to eliminate hiring policies and initiatives that support inclusive and equitable workplaces.
A Tuesday Reminiscence from Acting Office of Personnel Management Director Charles Ezell directs federal agency leaders to inform DEI office staff that they will be placed on paid administrative leave by Wednesday at 5 p.m. Eastern. The government organization responsible for employee management and human resources is OPM.
The heads of agencies are also required to remove all outward-facing media from DEI buildings by Wednesday evening, cancel any training linked to DEI, and fire contractors related to DEI.
The leaders of the agencies must also submit any plans they have to properly comply with the executive orders and Ezell’s memo to OPM by Thursday at noon Eastern.
By January 31, they must also provide a detailed plan for carrying out layoffs or a reduction-in-force action involving DEI office staff.
Trump ordered the termination of all DEI mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities throughout the federal government as part of a flurry of broad executive orders this week.
These DEI initiatives were deemed radical and wasteful by the White House.
Additionally, Trump abolished all federal offices and jobs related to environmental justice. Improving the health and well-being of underprivileged populations, who bear a disproportionate burden of environmental hazards, is at the heart of environmental justice.
He also rescinded a number of diversity and inclusion programs, including a 1965 executive order on affirmative action in federal procurement that had been in place for decades and had been issued by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Additionally, he is supporting a drive to terminate DEI initiatives in the private sector. In recent months, a few American companies have already rolled back their projects.
In a statement earlier this week, U.S. Rep. James Comer, the chair of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, praised Trump’s executive orders pertaining to DEI and a separate, federal return-to-office mandate, stating: The unelected federal bureaucracy has wasted hard-earned taxpayer dollars and abused its power over Americans’ lives for too long.
According to these executive directives, the federal government must cease squandering money on woke DEI initiatives, the censorship industrial complex cannot be funded with tax cash, and the federal workforce is supposed to work directly for the American people, the Kentucky Republican continued.
Pete Aguilar, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus from California, said during a press conference on Wednesday that it is regrettable that many of Donald Trump’s actions, including this one from Day 1, do little to address the actual problems that Americans face.
According to Aguilar, none of these have an impact on the grocery price cuts that Donald Trump promised to implement on Day 1 and they limit our capacity to consider many viewpoints and ideas when making judgments.
Aguilar said that the House Democratic Caucus is the most diverse caucus ever to be constituted in the history of Congress, representing people from all backgrounds and from all parts of the nation.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke and group members said that Trump’s executive order to terminate all DEI programs in the federal government is not only a breach of economic promise but also contradicts data that indicates diversity initiatives enhance the government’s capacity to better serve our communities.
The New York Democrat and caucus members also noted that Democrats prioritized racial justice under the Biden Administration using a whole of government strategy. That progress is undermined by President Trump’s executive measures, which will only reduce our nation’s prosperity.
