The Trump administration is moving to put on administrative leave all Federal employees who have been working in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility offices since Election Day, with a deadline for 5 p.m. today for layoffs to get underway.
The plans, outlined in a memorandum from the Office of Personnel Management, follow President Trump’s executive order on Monday that gets rid of Federal government DEI programs.
The memorandum calls on agency heads to notify all employees of DEIA office closures, notify employees in DEIA that they will be placed on administrative leave, take down any “outward facing media” related to DEIA, withdraw existing plans, and cancel DEIA training by 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
The memorandum states that DEIA office employees will still receive full pay and benefits during a period of administrative leave.
The ultimate fate of those employees is not immediately clear. However, the same OPM memo instructs managers to submit to OPM not later than Jan. 31 “a written plan for executing a reduction-in-force action regarding the employees who work in a DEIA office.”
A template email to employees in DEIA offices says their programs “divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.”
The memorandum also calls for a list of position descriptions that were changed since Election Day to “obscure their connection to DEIA programs,” with delivery by 5 p.m. on Jan. 31.
Also today, President Trump revoked several orders related to DEIA including a 1965 order by President Lyndon Johnson designed to block discrimination of workers employed by Federal contractors based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.
Trump’s order also encourages private sector organizations to eliminate DEIA policies in coordination with the head of the U.S. Justice Department.
“The heads of all agencies … shall take all appropriate action with respect to the operation of their agencies to advance in the private sector the policy of individual initiative, excellence, and hard work,” the order reads.
