President Donald Trump shuttered a $14 million diversity, equity and inclusion initiative at the Department of Veterans Affairs under an executive order. Up to 60 employees whose jobs focused exclusively on promoting DEI activities were put on paid administrative leave. (Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — A $14 million initiative for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion policies and activities at the Department of Veterans Affairs is shuttered following a directive from President Donald Trump.
Up to 60 VA employees whose sole job was to advance initiatives known as DEI are on paid administrative leave, the VA said Monday. The employees’ combined annual earnings total more than $8 million. The average salary of these workers is $136,000 per year, the agency said.
The employees put on leave were not identified. No information was provided on whether the employees would be reassigned to other jobs within the federal government.
One employee’s salary was $220,000 a year in salary, which the VA described as “base pay, locality pay and additional earnings.”
The shutdown of DEI activities follows an executive order that Trump issued Jan. 20 to end “radical and wasteful DEI programs and preferencing” across the federal government.
“Under President Trump, VA is laser-focused on providing the best possible care and benefits to veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors. We are proud to have abandoned the divisive DEI policies of the past and pivot back to VA’s core mission,” said Morgan Ackley, the VA director of media affairs.
DEI programs and policies were adopted in 2021 under former President Joe Biden’s administration by executive order.
DEI initiatives at the VA focused on improving outreach to minorities, women, LGBTQ+ veterans, individuals with disabilities, religious minorities and people who were “adversely affected by persistent inequality,” according to information about DEI on the VA’s website.
The VA also is seeking to cancel several contracts valued at $6.1 million with consultants who hosted DEI training sessions and provided instructional materials.
DEI training at the VA focused on delivering effective health care to diverse populations and helping veterans to “feel more included,” according to the VA.
The agency will reallocate resources to other programs that support veterans and their families, Ackley said. The agency also will remove references to DEI programs on its website.
Former DEI activities by the VA included virtual listening sessions that invited veterans considered historically underserved by federal programs to share their experiences and concerns.
The term “underserved” referred to individuals historically “denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social and civic life,” according to an executive order that Biden issued in 2021.
Following Biden’s executive order, the Veterans Health Administration hosted more than 50 virtual meetings with veterans groups on “advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities through the federal government,” according to the VA.
But Trump’s new executive order accused Biden of implementing “illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’ ”
DEI programs represented “immense public waste and shameful discrimination,” according to the executive order. “That ends today. Americans deserve a government committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect, and to expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great.”
