FOIA documents obtained by FGI illustrates the Biden EPA’s efforts to keep diversity, equity, and inclusion in the agency.

(Washington, DC) — In the Biden era of government, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) became not just a buzzword, but the driving philosophy of our government. This philosophy took Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of equality and merit and twisted it to meet the Marxist interpretation of “equity” — a radically different worldview that is fighting tooth and nail to remain in our federal government.

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents obtained by the Functional Government Initiative (FGI) illustrated just how far those efforts went at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On November 15, only ten days after the election, Tyvonia Ward, the Director of the “Office of Inclusive Excellence,” had a call with Bob Leavitt, an Executive Partner at Gartner Inc. — a massive organization that promotes DEI for human resources professionals — discussing three key priorities ahead of the Trump administration transition. Leavitt himself has had over two decades of experience in the federal government, serving as the chief human capital officer at USAID and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and in a variety of other positions.

These vague key priorities were “proactively leading through the transition with a focus on people,” “proactively developing a strategic plan,” and “audit or assess existing activities to set a baseline.” In a follow-up meeting on November 22, 2024, Leavitt even went so far as to admit that DEI “related themes would be a component” of the “people strategy.” Ward then emailed Leavitt the EPA’s DEI goals from the start of the Biden administration that illustrated just how ingrained the controversial practices were throughout the agency. This included recruitment, hiring, and promotion that would “strategically integrate DEIA goals [and] explore opportunities to achieve more equitable outcomes” and payroll policies to “advance pay equity across the agency” with a direct line to the secretary.

Ward and Leavitt also met again on December 13, 2024, where she asked to “start the process to plan to conduct an offsite [meeting] with leaders of [her] team in early January” to “develop a strategic plan for the office and program.”

Roderick Law, spokesman for FGI, issued the following statement:

“These documents obtained by FGI illustrate just how deep the DEI rot went. Immediately after the 2024 election, Ward reached out to a pro-DEI company to lay the groundwork for continued DEI practices, knowing that the future administration was going to eliminate these divisive policies. This effort was an exercise in futility, yet it goes to show the lengths these unelected bureaucrats will go to ‘save’ DEI.”

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