Federal DEI employees to be placed on paid leave
The Trump administration has directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) employees be placed on paid leave by Wednesday evening.
In a Tuesday memo to heads of departments and agencies, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) directed them to place staff on leave and to remove all DEI-related websites and social media accounts by Wednesday at 5 p.m.
Charles Ezell, OPM's acting director, also instructed the heads to send an agency-wide notice of the closure and ask the staff about any known efforts to disguise similar programs.
The move follows President Trump's Monday executive order entitled "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing."
The move is an apparent effort to repeal President Biden's executive order to remove potential workforce barriers for the outlined demographic in 2021.
Federal agencies and departments must report on all steps taken to comply with what is outlined in the memorandum by Thursday and provide a complete list of DEIA employees as of November 2024.
Heads are also asked to submit a written plan to fulfill Trump's decree by Jan. 31.
"Under my leadership, we will restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law, and we are going to bring law and order back to our cities," Trump said during his inaugural speech.
"This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based," he added.