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EO Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing

President Trump issued two Executive Orders, titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” and along with a list of “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions.” Following these actions, the Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued initial implementing guidance to agencies for these EOs. 

The OPM guidance directs agencies to place all employees of DEIA offices – offices and agency sub-units focusing exclusively on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives and programs – on administrative leave by 5 pm on January 22, while the agency takes steps to end all DEIA offices and programs. Agencies have also been directed to send an agency-wide notice to all employees informing them of the closure of these offices and asking them if they know of “any efforts to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.” The OPM memo further instructs agencies to remove all DEIA-related materials from their websites, cancel any DEIA-related trainings and cancel DEIA-related contracts. Agencies are also directed to submit to OPM a list of all employees in DEIA offices. By January 31st, Agencies must submit to OPM a “written plan for executing a reduction-in-force action regarding the employees who work in a DEIA office.” Rolling back or prohibiting inclusion efforts will undermine the federal government’s ability to attract and retain a responsive, representative federal workforce.

The EO also directs agencies to report information to OMB on any federal grantees who engage in activities related to DEI, DEIA, or “environmental justice” – a catch-all set of terms repeated throughout the EO. This risks the possibility that federal grant recipients could come under undue political scrutiny and threat if they name improving racial and gender equity or reducing disparate impacts of environmental harms among their program goals.