Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr this week ended the agency’s diversity, equity and inclusiveness (DEI) initiatives, following a directive issued by President Donald Trump that ordered much of the same throughout the federal government.
On Tuesday, Carr said he was immediately ending the FCC’s promotion of DEI initiatives by eliminating said matters from the agency’s strategic plan, pulling money set aside from the FCC’s budget for DEI initiatives, and ending the FCC’s DEI Task Force, among other things.
“President Trump’s leadership on this will deliver great results for the American people as agencies act pursuant to his Executive Order,” Carr, who was appointed by Trump to lead the FCC earlier in the week, said in a statement released by the agency.
The FCC’s first DEI initiatives were implemented during the administration of President Joe Biden, who was the successor to Trump’s first term in office and the predecessor to his second term.
In an interview on the Fox News Channel, Carr called the inclusiveness of DEI programs “wild,” but said Trump had “set the course for a great American revival.”
“People would be shocked if they learned how much DEI had been embedded in agencies,” Carr said. “At the FCC alone, we were spending millions and millions of dollars promoting it. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, that’s ending.”
At the FCC, DEI initiatives were reportedly the “second-highest strategic priority” in the agency’s strategic plan, Carr said. A portion of the FCC’s annual budget was also set aside to promote DEI initiatives, to include hiring.
In addition to the elimination of DEI-related policies at the FCC, Carr said the agency will “take further actions, as necessary and appropriate, to ensure that the FCC’s promotion of DEI ends.”
It wasn’t clear if any FCC officials or staff workers would lose their jobs as a result of the agency’s decision to rescind DEI initiatives, though other agencies have placed such workers on paid leave ahead of mass layoffs.
