Under Biden-Harris administration, federal DEI initiatives, spending exploded, report
December 5, 2024
By Casey Harper | The Center Square
President-elect Donald Trump has promised to reduce government waste and employed successful entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the charge.
So far, spending on federal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies are prime targets for Musk and Ramaswamy, and a recent report shows just how widespread federal DEI spending has become.
The report from the conservative-leaning policy advocacy group Do No Harm concludes the Biden-Harris administration “infused DEI into the federal government” in 500 different ways.
Those examples include federal agencies starting dozens of equity training programs, doling out federal contracts and jobs based on race and gender and teaching Americans more about their country’s racism – past and present.
The DEI explosion took off after Democratic President Joe Biden issued executive orders on his first day in office as well as another in June 2021. The first executive order “established that affirmatively advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity is the responsibility of the whole of our Government.”
The second order established “that it is the policy of my Administration to cultivate a workforce that draws from the full diversity of the Nation.”
Biden also issued other executive orders, including around gender and sexuality, to the same effect his first year in office. Those orders gave federal bureaucrats direct orders, not just permission, to embrace DEI policies across the board.