Jan. 21 (UPI) — All diversity, equity and inclusion federal employees are to be placed on paid leave no later than Wednesday evening, the Trump administration ordered Tuesday as it continued its attack on DEI initiatives and programs.
In a memo sent to the heads of all federal departments and agencies, the Office of Personnel Management set a 5 p.m. EST Wednesday deadline for notifying employees in DEI offices that they have been placed on paid leave, effectively immediately.
It also directed the departments to inform employees of the closure of their offices and to ask “if they know of any efforts to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.”
The memo further directed the agencies to supply it with a written plan no later than 5 p.m. Jan. 31 “for executing a reduction-in-force action” for DEI employees.
The announcement came a day after President Donald Trump — one of his first actions upon being inaugurated — signed the End Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing executive order
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the integration of DEI policies in the public and private sector in the United States grew following high-profile killings of Black people in 2020 in order to incorporate anti-racism principles. However, DEI programs and initiatives have been a target of conservatives and Republicans for years, who frame it as a form of racism or identity politics.
On his first day in office in 2021, then-President Joe Biden rescinded Trump’s anti-DEI policies and replaced it with an executive order advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities;. Trump rescinded Biden’s policies Monday with his executive order, labeling Biden’s DEI programs as “illegal and immoral.”
It was under this executive order that the OPM sent its memo to departments. It is unclear how many federal employees will be placed on paid administrative leave.
Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, issued a statement Tuesday saying he was ending his agency’s promotion of DEI programs and preferencing in compliance with the executive order.
On Tuesday, Trump issued a second executive order direct federal agencies to combat DEI in the private sector.
“Reversing the progress made in the decades since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 toward a colorblind and competence-based workplace, radical DEI has dangerously tainted many of our critical businesses and influential institutions, including the federal government,” a fact sheet on the executive order provided to reporters states.