Trump administration sidelines staffers from disbanded DEIA offices
The move is downstream from an executive order that President Donald Trump signed Monday.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday rescinding certain Biden-era diversity policies and eliminating all DEIA offices within agencies. | Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
By
Nick Niedzwiadek
01/21/2025 10:30 PM EST
The Trump administration is placing all government staffers in diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility roles on paid administrative leave as part of the White House’s revamp of how federal agencies operate.
Agencies were ordered to do so by 5 p.m. on Wednesday at the latest, according to a
memo issued Tuesday by Charles Ezell, the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management.
The memo included a template for agencies to use to inform their staff of the policy that states DEIA “programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars and resulted in shameful discrimination.”
The move is downstream from an executive order that President Donald Trump signed Monday rescinding certain Biden-era diversity policies and eliminating all DEIA offices within agencies.
The memo also directs agencies to ensure that any public-facing media from these various offices is taken down, a process that has already begun.
Ezell instructed agencies to report back on their progress by noon on Thursday, and begin developing plans due by the end of the month “for executing a reduction-in-force action regarding the employees who work in a DEIA office.”
OPM’s template for agencies also calls for federal workers to contact an email tipline to ferret out “efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.”