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Federal agencies had a 5 p.m. Eastern deadline today to place government workers in diversity, equity inclusion and accessibility offices on paid leave. It's part of President Trump's crackdown on DEIA initiatives within the government and beyond. NPR's Andrea Hsu reports.
ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: For the past four years, the federal government has embraced the idea that a more diverse, inclusive workforce will better serve the American people. President Trump made clear in his inaugural address he disagrees. Reversing course is one of his top priorities.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.
HSU: Already, Trump has signed several sweeping executive actions, calling DEIA programs illegal, immoral and discriminatory. He's even encouraged the private sector to end theirs.
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TRUMP: We will forge a society that is color blind and merit-based.
HSU: Yesterday, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management got to work carrying out his vision. A memo went out to agency leaders telling them to place all employees of DEIA offices on paid leave effective today. By noon tomorrow, agencies must submit a list of everyone who was working in those offices as of Election Day. The memo suggests there may have been efforts to disguise some of the work after Trump's win. Then, by January 31, agencies must have a written plan for laying people off. Rob Shriver was acting head of OPM under former President Biden. He's not sure exactly who will be affected, but...
ROB SHRIVER: Given the broad brush that they have painted, it's potentially very large numbers of people.
HSU: Now, DEIA programs exist all throughout the federal government because of executive actions taken by Biden. His administration called on federal agencies to recruit more from underserved communities, to run training programs advancing principles of equity and inclusion. Alaysia Black Hackett served as chief diversity and equity officer at the Department of Labor. She says the work wasn't just about race.
ALAYSIA BLACK HACKETT: A lot of what we did in DEIA, specifically at the Labor Department, was to ensure that we were creating pathways to good-paying jobs.
HSU: Sometimes the work involved figuring out which communities needed more training opportunities or apprenticeships. Other times, it was just getting more information out - simplifying government documents, to be sure farm workers in the South, for example, fully understood their rights.
HACKETT: It's not just something that we morally do, but it actually helps with the economic prosperity of our country.
HSU: Hackett has worked on DEIA initiatives her whole career, dating back to when it was called multicultural affairs. In her view, the federal government, of all places, needs to reflect the country we are today.
HACKETT: When you think about who was in the room during the creation of the Constitution of the United States of America, there was one vantage point, one lens, which was white, male, men.
HSU: Now, Hackett was a political appointee, so she's already left her job, but she's worried about former colleagues who are still at the Labor Department.
HACKETT: These are working people, hardworking people, whose job was to execute an executive order of the president.
HSU: The last president. The new one is taking the federal government in a vastly different direction.
Andrea Hsu, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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