- Government agencies have been scrambling to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
- Since he took office, some agencies have updated websites to remove language on DEI and remote work.
- Here are some changes already rolled out across federal agencies and departments.
In the days since Donald Trump took office, federal agencies have scrambled to make changes to DEI and remote work-related language on their websites. In some cases, entire web pages have been removed.
As part of his flurry of executive orders, Trump has taken aim at both DEI initiatives and remote work in the government.
On Monday, he signed an order to end diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the federal government, giving agencies and departments 60 days to end DEI-related practices and mere days to put federal DEI staff on paid leave.
He eliminated Executive Order 11246, a Lyndon B. Johnson-era policy that mandated anti-discriminatory policies for federal contractors, and, during his inaugural address, said it was official US policy that “there are only two genders: male and female.”
Any agency that doesn’t comply with Trump’s new DEI policies could face “adverse consequences,” according to a memo issued by the US Office of Personnel Management.
Also on Monday, Trump ordered all federal employees to return to the office full time.
Now, agencies are clambering to respond to Trump’s edicts by changing their internal policies and websites, scrubbing DEI titles, mentions of inclusivity, and explanations of remote work policies.
Take the biography page of the United States Postal Service’s Deputy Inspector General, for example. Comparing the current version with an archived one shows that her “chief diversity officer” title has been removed.
The General Service Administration’s Technology Transformation Services handbook changed its Conduct and Norms page to remove mentions of an “open and inclusive community” that were present in an archived version before the inauguration. The new page also eliminated references to remote work and guidelines instructing employees to “treat everyone as a remote worker.”
In other cases, full web pages have vanished. The US Department of Agriculture, for example, used to have an entire page dedicated to its diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts. That page is no longer active.
An FAQ webpage from the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs — which enforced antidiscrimination policies — is no longer live. An archived version of the page answered questions about discrimination and Executive Order 11246, which Trump ended.
The Social Security Administration’s LGBTQI+ webpage, which used to offer “self-attestation” of a person’s sex, now seems to reflect Trump’s policy that “there are only two genders: male and female.”
None of the agencies or departments mentioned in this story responded to requests for comments about the changes from Business Insider.
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