The memo directs agencies to place DEI employees on paid leave by 5 p.m. on Jan. 22.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memo on Tuesday instructing all federal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) employees to be put on paid leave as agencies work to dismantle DEI initiatives. The OPM is an independent agency of the federal government that manages the federal civil service.
The memo directs agencies to place DEI employees on paid leave by 5 p.m. on Jan. 22 and to remove all websites and social media accounts associated with DEI initiatives by the same time.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order shortly after his inauguration aimed at eliminating DEI-focused policies and programs within the federal government.
According to the memo, federal agencies are required to cancel all DEI-related training programs and terminate any contractors involved in the initiatives.
Agencies were required to compile a list of federal DEI offices and staff working in those offices as of Nov. 5, 2024, and to submit a plan for executing a “reduction-in-force action” against those workers to the OPM by Jan. 31.
The memo also asks for a list of any contract or position descriptions that were changed after the Nov. 5 election “to obscure their connection” to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) programs. This list must be submitted no later than Jan. 31.
Trump’s executive order criticized the former Biden administration for forcing “illegal and immoral discrimination programs” into virtually “all aspects” of the federal government through DEI initiatives.
It stated that “nearly every federal agency and entity submitted Equity Action Plans to detail the ways that they have furthered DEIs infiltration of the federal government” following Biden’s previous directive.
“The public release of these plans demonstrated immense public waste and shameful discrimination. That ends today,” the order stated.
Trump’s order directs the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Attorney General, and the director of the OPM to terminate “all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.”
