Letter to the Honorable Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget - Oversight Chairs Condemn Trump Administration on Cancellation of Diversity, Anti-Racism Training

Letter

Dear Acting Director Vought:
We write to request documents and information about the Trump Administration's
cancelation of diversity and anti-racism training in the federal government.
On September 4, 2020, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a
memorandum instructing federal agencies to "identify all contracts or other agency spending
related to any training on "critical race theory' [and] "white privilege,'" and to "identify all
available avenues" to cancel those contracts and redirect obligated federal funds. Following
issuance of your memorandum, President Trump issued an Executive Order banning diversity
training in federal agencies, at companies that receive federal government contracts, and within
organizations that are awarded federal grants or other awards.1
OMB's memorandum and President Trump's Executive Order exhibited a level of
ignorance rarely seen at executive levels in government or the private sector. For instance, they
hyperventilated that diversity trainings were "un-American propaganda" and "race or sex
stereotyping or scapegoating." These trainings help Americans to understand the history of race
and racism in the United States, how that legacy affects government policy, and how they can
identify and correct unconscious biases that affect important policy and personnel decisions.
Banning such trainings as the OMB memorandum and Executive Order do threatens to
undermine decades of equal employment opportunity efforts and blindfold policymakers who
should be working to eliminate racial disparities in health care, employment, and other critical
sectors of society. OMB's memorandum and the President's Executive Order also undercut a
positive federal response to the social unrest sparked by the deaths of Breonna Taylor and
George Floyd, and the paralyzation of Jacob Blake at the hands of police.
Unfortunately, OMB's memorandum and the President's Executive Order are consistent
with other actions taken by President Trump that antagonize equal opportunity and aggravate
social divisions in America. Studies Reveal That Hiring and Promotion Decisions in the Federal Government and
Economy At Large Do Not Reflect Composition of Society
Studies have revealed that the federal government falls short in hiring and promoting
qualified, diverse individuals. The nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, for example,
recently found that:
[P]eople of color represent 46% of all full-time, entry-level employees but only 32%
of senior-level positions. And within the Senior Executive Service--the elite corps of
experienced civil servants responsible for leading the federal workforce--the disparity
is even wider. Only 22% of all career SES members are people of color.
Government is not just failing to promote nonwhite employees, it is failing to hire
them into professional positions in the first place. Black and other employees of color
make up 53% of clerical positions but only 31% of the professional workforce,
according to OPM's FedScope data. People of color also aren't equally represented
across the executive branch. For example, white people make up 77% of the Office of
Management and Budget, a federal agency that has significant impact on policy and
the nation's financial resources, while people of color are the majority at the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, an important organization but one with
significantly less influence.2
A January 2020 Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found that in the
Department of State's civil service, racial and ethnic minorities were between 4% and 29% less
likely to be promoted than their similarly educated and experienced white coworkers.3 Another
GAO study of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) found that racial and
ethnic minorities were between 31% to 41% less likely to be promoted than their similarly
situated white counterparts.4
A 2019 Congressional Research Service (CRS) study found that people of color were
underrepresented in the military officer corps, even though they were proportionally represented
in the rank and file,
[I]n the officer corps, and especially at the senior leadership level, racial and
ethnic minorities are underrepresented relative to the enlisted corps and the U.S.
population. For example, those of Hispanic origin (age 18-64) account for
approximately 18% of the population and 18% of the active duty enlisted corps. However, Hispanic officers account for roughly 8% of the officer corps and 2% of
General/Flag officers.5
The same study found that Blacks constitute just 8% of the officer corps, though they
comprise nearly 14% of the population.
6
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2018, joblessness rates were higher than
the overall national rates in American Indian and Alaska Native populations, Black and African
American populations, and in populations where people were categorized as being of two or
more races. The data also show that Hispanics and Blacks have much lower earnings than their
White and Asian counterparts--and the disparity holds across all major occupational groups.7
Other Racial Disparities Have Also Worsened Under the Trump Administration
Under the Trump Administration, other types of racial disparities have also worsened.
For instance, the coronavirus pandemic has had a disproportionately large impact on people of
color. Many preventable deaths of people of color can be linked to missteps taken by President
Trump. That is an example of the deadly consequences when federal leadership fails to consider
the historical legacy of racism and discrimination in making federal policy.
Though President Trump knew that the coronavirus was unlike other flus and was deadly,
he knowingly downplayed the threat and refused to take necessary steps to protect the general
public.8
He failed to issue sweeping quarantine orders, as other world leaders did, to slow the
spread of the disease.9
People of color have paid a disproportionate price for the
Administration's failure to act. Nationwide, "people of color are really bearing the heaviest
burden of COVID-19 at every stage, from risk of exposure, to access to testing, to severity of the
illness and eventually death."10 In the early months of the crisis, the Administration failed to collect or release adequate
demographic data on the virus, obscuring the racial disparities as the virus spread out of
control.11
The federal government has taken no discernible steps to address those disparities, and in
intervening months, the racial gaps have only widened.12 Recent data showed that 76% of
American children who have died from the virus were people of color.13 The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention itself noted that the racial disparities in the virus are likely due to
long-standing structural inequalities that our government has failed to eradicate, including
"crowded living conditions, food and housing insecurity, wealth and educational gaps, and racial
discrimination," as well as "delays in accessing health care because of lack of insurance, child
care, transportation, or paid sick leave."14
The economic crises caused by the Administration's mishandling of the pandemic has
also devastated people of color. A recent survey on the pandemic's economic impact showed
that compared to 36% of white households, 72% of Latino households, 60% of Black
households, and 55% of Native American households "reported a serious financial problem like
using up all of their savings, food insecurity and an inability to pay for housing."15
Meanwhile, the Trump Administration has used the courts to dismantle the Affordable
Care Act, which narrowed racial gaps in health care coverage for the precise communities that
are bearing the brunt of this virus.16
The Trump Administration has also abdicated leadership on policing reform, which has
broad support among the American public of all races.17 OMB's memorandum and the President's Executive Order may undercut the actions of at least one federal agency, which
scheduled an anti-racism training in direct response to George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis
police. The Administration, however, has refused to meaningfully entertain such reform.
Businesses across the nation have committed themselves to affirmatively tackling structural
racism.18
Widespread Condemnation of the OMB Memorandum
OMB's memorandum has provoked strong condemnation from government, the private
sector, and academia.
For instance, the Deans of the five University of California law schools called your
memorandum "absurd," adding:
The OMB memorandum equates Critical Race Theory to two inaccurate and
wildly oversimplified tenets: (1) the United States is "an inherently racist or evil
country" and (2) that white people are "inherently racist or evil." This
characterization reduces a sophisticated, dynamic field, interdisciplinary and
global in scope, to two simplistic absurdities. In fact, a center principle of Critical
Race Theory is that there is nothing "inherent" about race. Rather CRT invites us
to confront with unflinching honesty how race has operated in our history and our
present, and to recognize the deep and ongoing operation of "structural racism,"
through which racial inequality is reproduced within our economic, political, and
educational systems even without individual racist intent." We cannot stand silent
in the face of the OMB's absurd claim that Critical Race Theory is "contrary to all
we stand for as Americans and should have no place in the federal government."19
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights called your guidance "an attempt to discredit,
condemn, and silence important conversations happening in communities and workplaces about
anti-racism and about our nation's history of white supremacy." They added that yours and
President Trump's efforts send "a dangerous message to the country that racism is a fallacy."20
The Anti-Defamation League said your guidance was "directly contrary to our nation's
fundamental beliefs and values of liberty, justice, and equality," adding that participation in training that seeks to identify and abolish structural racism is "essential work to ensure that our
nation can live up to its founding ideals."21
Chad Hooper, the President of the Professional Managers Association who also serves as
a manager at the Internal Revenue Service, noted that federal employees of color are 50% less
likely to get a promotion in the civil service, and that people of color in the military are twice as
likely to go to military court as a defendant. He added that our country has a racist past, and the
"notion that we would not have to as a society heal from that or reconcile our past practice with
our current situation to me is very cognitively dissonant, I just don't believe that we can stick our
head in the sand and say it will all work out."22
Longstanding Federal Policy Has Sought to Equalize Opportunity
The federal government has long recognized that a workforce that represents the diversity
of society at large can spark innovation, better serve customers, and improve outcomes.23
Policies intended to achieve that standard "can prevent civil rights violations, increase inclusion
and promote teamwork" as well "prevent or reduce discrimination complaints and lawsuits."24
The Supreme Court has recognized that a robust anti-discrimination compliance program
with diversity training is so important that having one can insulate employers from claims of
discrimination.25 Both the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of
Justice Civil Rights Division have included mandatory anti-discrimination diversity training in their employment discrimination settlement agreements.26 Diversity training is so essential that
the federal government's rollback has been characterized as "HR malpractice.27
Request for Documents
In our view, OMB's memorandum and President Trump's executive order are steps
backward for society. We therefore request that OMB provide, by October 13, 2020, and on a
weekly basis thereafter, documents and information sufficient to show:
1. All guidance distributed by OMB to federal agencies, contractors, or grantees on
how to implement the September 4, 2020, memorandum, President Trump's
September 23, 2020, Executive Order, or any other similar directives;
2. Any documents or communications referring or relating to the reasoning behind
or justifications for the memorandum and the Executive Order, including
complaints, studies, reports, analyses, memoranda, and legal opinions;
2. A spreadsheet of all programs, trainings, or contracts that have been reviewed for
compliance with the memorandum or Executive Order, including:
a. the federal agencies slated to host or administer affected programs,
trainings, or contracts;
b. the dates of the scheduled programs, trainings, and contracts;
c. the numbers of expected attendees for each program, training, or contract;
d. the stated purposed and full description of affected programs, trainings, or
contracts, as written before September 4, 2020, including any documents
or information included in a contract, training, or program proposal;
e. an indication as to whether the program, training, or contract will be
altered, cancelled, or otherwise affected by the memorandum or Executive
Order, if so, how it will be altered and/or the date of cancellation;
f. a breakout by agency of the funding or appropriated dollars the federal
government may lose because of the alteration or cancellation of a program, training, or contract affected by the guidance or the executive
order;
g. a list of all federal contractors, grantees, or other federal awardees affected
by the any alteration to the program, and any financial losses those entities
have incurred or anticipate incurring; and
h. if federal funds will be redirected pursuant to the memorandum or
Executive Order, the amount of money to be redirected and a full
description of how those funds will be used; and
3. Any analysis of how this guidance and Executive Order will affect the
recruitment, retention, and advancement of women and people of color in the
federal government, federal contractor communities, and the federal grantee and
awardee communities; and
5. All documents and communications with any individuals, inside or outside OMB,
who were involved in the drafting or review of or consulted about the
substance, implementation, or potential impacts of the memorandum or Executive
Order.
The Committee on Oversight and Reform is the principal oversight committee of the
House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate "any matter" at "any time" under
House Rule X. If you have any questions, please contact Subcommittee staff at (202) 225-5051.

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