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Trump’s Efficiency Commission to Slash Budget on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Programs
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the two billionaires tasked with slashing government waste, are expected to recommend an agency-wide purge of spending on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives, according to sources familiar with their plans. The move could include eliminating entire divisions involving DEI in agencies across the government, including the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, Diversity & Inclusion at the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity Policy at the Department of Defense.
President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is planning to target DEI programs, despite Musk’s earlier statement that DEI is "just another word for racism" and Ramaswamy’s tweet that DEI "has no place in an efficient government."
DOGE has no statutory authority, but it can make recommendations to Congress and the White House. If implemented, the proposed cuts would not only affect individuals but also communities, contractors, and the federal workforce.
Advocates of DEI programs worry about the potential impact on protections and opportunities for groups of people historically discriminated against. "It’s so important to always remember those three letters of the acronym and just realize what it actually is, which is about creating fair and equal opportunity for people, regardless of their identity and backgrounds," says David Glasgow, executive director at the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at the NYU School of Law.
Republicans in Congress tend to share Ramaswamy and Musk’s hostile view towards DEI programs. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will chair a new House subcommittee to work on DOGE initiatives, along with House Oversight Chairman James Comer, both of whom have been critical of DEI.
The proposed cuts would affect hundreds of millions of dollars or more in proposed government spending, but calculating the total cost of DEI across the government is challenging due to its subjective nature and lack of consistent reporting. The Office of Personnel Management, the federal agency in charge of leading DEI efforts across the federal government, declined to comment on this story.
The American Civil Liberties Union is preparing for legal fights against Republican efforts to dismantle DEI, and hundreds of civil and advocacy groups are gearing up for a fight to protect the programs that benefit Americans. "We are crafting a legal strategy by finding all the ways their anti-DEI plans are in defiance of civil rights laws," says ReNika Moore, director of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program.
