President-elect Donald J. Trump pledged during his campaign to eliminate federal programs that advance critical race theory in the name of promoting so-called Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Last week, the House of Representatives took the first step toward delivering that agenda, passing a bill to stop the U.S. government from foisting CRT/DEI ideology on the nation.

The Dismantle DEI Act (H.R.8706) passed the House Oversight Committee on a 23-17, party-line vote last Wednesday. The bill would curtail the federal government’s promotion of CRT, DEI, intersectionality, and similar concepts. It would end all federal training that requires employees to agree “that a particular race, color, ethnicity, religion, biological sex, or national origin is inherently or systemically superior or inferior, oppressive or oppressed, or privileged or unprivileged.” The bill would eliminate DEI offices such as “chief diversity officer” created throughout the federal government and “revise all regulations, policies, procedures, manuals, circulars, courses, training, and guidance” related to DEI.

“The Dismantle DEI Act, basically, would tackle all these initiatives we’ve seen stood up in the Biden administration to advance DEI,” Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) told “Washington Watch” last Friday.

DEI “basically institutes discrimination in the name of getting rid of discrimination,” said Cloud. Politically correct racism particularly afflicts the federal hiring process, when “race and sex become the first and primary determinant as opposed to merit in your qualifications,” he added.

Instead of immutable factors of birth, federal HR departments should focus on questions such as, “Have you done a good job? And what’s your work ethic like? Are you qualified to do the job?” argued the congressman.

“In some cases, this has actually led to dangerous situations where there’s a safety issue and you have a question of competency in an area where people’s lives are at stake,” Cloud pointed out.

In addition to eliminating DEI positions in the federal government, it would also bar the federal government from using the grant-making process to compel contractors to institute DEI hiring practices or carry out DEI training initiatives.

President Joe Biden’s advancement of DEI began in his first day in office, when he issued Executive Order 13985, aimed at “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.”

The medical group Do No Harm released a report last month reporting that the Biden-Harris administration had proposed 500 separate actions to implement DEI. “A comprehensive review of the federal government discovered that over 80 federal entities submitted ‘Equity Action Plans,’ revealing more than 500 DEI actions that those entities either took or planned to take,” notes the report.

Many of these hundreds of initiatives promote the LGBTQIA+ agenda. The Department of Education, which President-elect Trump has vowed to abolish, issued a toolkit which promotes “[a]dopting policies that recognize and respect all students and implementing policies to safeguard student privacy,” often interpreted to stop teachers from informing parents when students have begun to identify as a member of the opposite sex. Educators are also instructed about “[u]sing welcoming and inclusive language in school” and “[u]pdating school policies and forms to use gender-neutral terms.”

The Office of Personnel and Management (OPM) stated in its 2023 Equity Action Plan that it “continues to emphasize the importance of equitable healthcare coverage for LGBTQI+ employees, beneficiaries and eligible dependents,

including advancing comprehensive coverage of gender-affirming care and services.”

The District of Columbia’s Public Defender Service (PDS) promised to try to exclude those who do not accept extreme transgender ideology from serving on a jury of their peers. PDS vowed to “improve representation and litigation on behalf of clients who are transgender. For example, the training addressed the possible need for jury voir dire questions designed to identify bias, including implicit bias, against LGBTQIA+ persons.”

The Biden-Harris administration’s proposed budget this year requested $86 million for DEI programs — in the State Department alone. Federal records show that the administration spent $16.3 million in 2023 on outside vendors who presented DEI training, not including federal DEI employees.

U.S. Army training materials from 2021 refer to “medically necessary sex reassignment surgery.” Chaplains from a traditional background may walk on eggshells due to vague regulations instructing them to “provide spiritual support with dignity and respect to all [s]oldiers.” The document envisions a hypothetical conversation between a commanding officer and a female soldier who identifies as male “to discuss his newly confirmed pregnancy.”

Another federal training document focuses on “micro-inequities,” which “can have a large impact.” These micro-inequities include “[t]rying to speak with someone who is reading/sending e- mails during conversation” or “[t]alking with someone who keeps looking at his/her watch.” After all, “Social and Physical Pain Produce Similar Brain Responses,” it states.

“This is a very dangerous ideology that the Biden administration has force-fed the American people through, first of all, standing up a DEI office in virtually every single agency,” noted Cloud, a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. “HHS has about 300 employees in this endeavor, and they’re spending close to $40 million on this.”

Liberal pressure groups have volubly opposed Cloud’s legislation. Demelza Baer, director of Public Policy at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL), denounced the bill as “dangerous and regressive.” The bill’s true purpose, she said, lay in “rolling back hard-fought gains of the … LGBTQ+ [m]ovement.”

But if the Dismantle DEI Act passes Congress in a few months, it will find a ready partner in the incoming Trump administration. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance introduced the companion legislation (S.4516) in the Senate. “The DEI agenda is a destructive ideology that breeds hatred and racial division,” said Vance at the time. “It has no place in our federal government or anywhere else in our society.”