Internal NFFE News
January 23, 2025
President Trump is continuing to make sweeping changes to the federal government and workforce.
Yesterday, the Trump administration directed all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff to be put on paid leave and eventually laid off. This move follows a first-day executive order that President Trump made ordering the removal of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. These programs include anti-bias training which Trump has described as “discrimination.”
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) directed agencies to place DEI office staffers on paid leave by 5 p.m. Wednesday and take down all public DEI-centric web pages by the same deadline. Agencies must also cancel any DEI-related training and end any pertaining contracts. Additionally, federal workers are being asked to report to Trump’s OPM if they suspect any DEI-related program has been renamed to obfuscate its purpose within 10 days or face “adverse consequences.”
This move comes after Monday’s executive order which accused former President Joe Biden of forcing “discrimination” programs into “virtually all aspects of the federal government” through “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs.
“Biden had mandated all agencies to develop a diversity plan, issue yearly progress reports, and contribute data for a government-wide dashboard to track demographic trends in hiring and promotions. The administration also set up a Chief Diversity Officers Council to oversee the implementation of the DEI plan. The government released its first DEI progress report in 2022 that included demographic data for the federal workforce, which is about 60% white and 55% male overall, and more than 75% white and more than 60% male at the senior executive level,” the Federal News Network reports.
Large and notable companies from Walmart to Facebook have already scaled back or altogether ended some of their diversity practices in response to Trump’s election and conservative-backed lawsuits against them. The programs targeted include diversity accountability efforts, federal grant and benefit avenues, pay and hiring equity practices and more.