Jeremy Wood thought he was immune to the outbreak of the diversity initiatives of the federal government which he expected to start as soon as Donald Trump swore.
Raleigh, career civil servant based in Northern Carolina in the American Department of Agriculture, Wood had been among the persons responsible for implementing the policies commanded by Joe Biden to reduce discrimination on the basis of the race, of sexual orientation and gender identity in the federal government.
A few weeks before Trump started, he moved to a completely different job from the department in anticipation that Trump interrupted such programs, expecting to continue his career.
Instead, he and his colleagues in the federal departments received letters two days in Trump’s second term by saying that they were placed on leave and faced a potential shot, and not for disciplinary purposes ” , the document indicates, but simply because they had worked on programs intended to diversify the federal workforce and to ensure that its resources were accessible to all Americans of the vast operations of the government.
“(That) seems really disciplinary,” said Wood. “If the idea is to increase the effectiveness of the government and to deliver our programs more quickly and better, to remove the labor market which is not the best way.”
Immediately after having assumed his duties, Trump took a distress bullet in the efforts of his predecessor by signing an executive decree prohibiting all the federal programs of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA). The order is still being implemented, but since the days, the State Department of the State Department has suspended access to thousands of pages of training equipment linked to Deia, and the income returned Service has deleted any mention of the words “diversity”, “equity” and “inclusion” of its procedural manual, including annoyne passages on taxes and finances.
The most immediate impact of the order was on the employees who had worked on the programs and were ordered on leave – even if they had already increased to various jobs.
“This is not comparable to everything we have seen for decades,” said Randy Erwin, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees. Although the order does not seem to have affected the members of his union, several non-members have contacted the organization since it was transmitted.
“In any recent administration, even Trump’s first administration, we have not seen the officials be removed from this kind. This is unprecedented and, frankly, a frightening action taken, ”said Erwin.
Those who swept the order defended their work, claiming that they helped the public service become more representative of the diversified population of America.
“You really want to strengthen confidence and make sure that these agencies are able to reflect the communities they work with,” said an employee on leave by Trump’s order. Speaking under the cover of anonymity because they feared reprisals, they said that they feared that general layoffs undermine the ability of their agency to do their job.
“The role of government employees is to be this unwavering force thanks to changes in administration. We are supposed to be the constant and continue this continuity of services for people, ”they said.
“Obviously, a new administration between, the visions are changing, but to find us like that, it’s very late.”
The purge of civil servants who worked on Deia’s initiatives intervenes while the Trump administration moves to considerably shrink the federal workforce in large part, using unusual tactics for its bureaucratic culture.
The president has set up Elon Musk in charge of what he calls the “Ministry of Effectiveness of the Government”, an effort to reduce the federal government which, according to the Multi-Millionaire Tesla CEO, will imply “reductions in head counts of mass ”. This effort seemed to be starting seriously this week, when the staff management office (OPM), which operates as the government’s human resources department, has offered deferred resignations to a large part of its workforce of 3 million for eight months and would not have to work – an agreement unknown for civil servants.
For former DEIA programs staff, the Trump administration simply ordered them to go out. The acting director of the OPM, Charles Ezell, told agency leaders to all those who worked on such programs until November 5 – the day of the presidential election that Trump won – should be target.
The OPM also distributed an email model for federal employees who encouraged them to report colleagues who continued to do work related to Deia. “These programs have divided the Americans by race, wasted the dollars of taxpayers and led to shameful discrimination,” said the message.
Jenny Mattingley, vice-president of government affairs of the Public Service Partnership, who defends civil servants, acknowledged that employee reallocates is the prerogative of a new administration, but was opposed to Trump’s general approach.
“Each administration has priorities around various policy issues, and Dei is one of them,” said Mattingley.
“What is worrying is to hold non-supporter career employees responsible for the implementation of the political choices of the last administration, which is the role they play in each administration, including this one. »»
Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of National Government employees, the largest federal union, said that the Deia Ban Mine Programs that had shown results.
“More than half of the 642,000 veterans serving in our federal government have disabilities connected to the services. An important role in diversity, the equity and inclusion programs played is to ensure that the workplace is welcoming and accessible to these veterans so that a diversified workforce can exploit its collective forces To better serve the public. The elimination of these programs will unfairly harm the veterans carrying their second uniform in the service of their country, “said Kelley.
“In the end, these attacks against Deia are only a smoke screen to dismiss civil servants, undermining the apolitical public service and transforming the federal government into an army of men yes, only faithful to the president, not to the Constitution. “”
Those who put on leave expect a reduction in force, the procedure to let the federal employees go.
“There is a lot of hope that it can still be recovered in a way that those of us who have devoted our careers and our livelihoods to support from the American public will have the opportunity to continue to do so,” Declared another federal employee who was on leave, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“For the moment, we are waiting, hope, pray that there is a type of resolution which continues to allow us to do what we love, and which support the American people.”
