- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Biden prioritized DEI initiatives, including gender-neutral restrooms and pronoun policies, over addressing environmental and economic crises.
- Taxpayer dollars funded these efforts, with high-earning employees focusing on cultural changes rather than core environmental missions.
- The EPA's LGBTQIA+ Workgroup expanded gender-neutral restrooms and promoted gender-neutral honorifics like "Mx." across facilities.
- These initiatives misallocated resources during crises like fuel cost spikes and border security failures.
- Under Trump, DEI programs have been scrapped, with resources redirected to core government functions, a move praised for fiscal responsibility.
As Americans grappled with skyrocketing fuel costs, border security failures and economic instability, the Biden administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was busy spending millions of taxpayer dollars on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Internal documents reveal that EPA employees, some earning up to $168,400 annually, prioritized "de-gendering" bathrooms, policing pronoun use, and introducing gender-neutral honorifics like "Mx." instead of addressing pressing environmental and economic challenges.
These revelations, reported by the Washington Free Beacon and confirmed by watchdog group Functional Government Initiative, highlight a troubling misallocation of resources under the leadership of President Joe Biden.
DEI initiatives took precedence over environmental priorities
Under then-EPA Administrator Michael Regan, the agency established an employee-led "DEIA implementation team" in 2021 to embed DEI policies agency-wide. The team, which included scientists, engineers and policy analysts, focused on creating "cultural change" and making the EPA a DEI model for the federal government. Among its top priorities were increasing gender-neutral restrooms, adding pronouns to email signatures, and encouraging employees to disclose their sexual orientation and gender identity.
The EPA's LGBTQIA+ Workgroup, which spearheaded these efforts, reported directly to senior leadership and met weekly to come up with recommendations. By September 2023, the group had successfully expanded gender-neutral restrooms to 140 across the EPA's 118 facilities and retrofitted single-use restrooms with inclusive signage. The agency also committed to constructing all-gender restrooms in future building renovations.
These unnecessary changes came at the expense of the EPA's core mission. "In the Biden years, Americans endured crisis after crisis, many of them—rampant illegal immigration, draconian COVID-19 measures and skyrocketing fuel costs—of the president's own making," the Functional Government Initiative told the Free Beacon. "What was the administration instead focused on? A phony crisis of inequity, racism and 'transphobia,' which could only be met by wasting vast resources on un-American, divisive initiatives."
Taxpayer dollars funded identity politics
The EPA's DEI initiatives likely cost taxpayers millions in man-hours, with the average EPA employee earning $102,489 annually—some earning up to $168,400—according to Open Payrolls.
The EPA's LGBTQIA+ Workgroup also pushed for expanded training to address "misgendering" and issued a memorandum in October 2023 allowing employees to use gender-neutral honorifics like "Mx." instead of traditional titles. Then-deputy administrator Janet McCabe praised the changes, writing, "This update also includes some very important improvements that will help advance diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in our writing."
Trump’s executive order ended wasteful spending
In contrast, Trump took swift action to dismantle such initiatives. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order scrapping all taxpayer-funded DEI programs, calling them "immense public waste and shameful discrimination." His administration redirected resources toward core government functions, a move praised by many as a return to fiscal responsibility.
Under new administrator Lee Zeldin, Trump's EPA has canceled millions in DEI spending and placed 171 DEI and environmental justice employees on administrative leave. "The previous Administration used DEI and environmental justice to advance ideological priorities, distributing billions of dollars to organizations in the name of climate equity. This ends now," Zeldin said. "We will be good stewards of tax dollars and do everything in our power to deliver clean air, land, and water to every American, regardless of race, religion, background and creed."
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