Trump administration orders agencies to find more DEI workers to axe

President Trump’s Office of Personnel Management last week required federal agencies to close offices that focus exclusively on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility and place employees of those divisions on paid administrative leave by Jan. 22. Agency leaders were required to submit a list of all DEI employees the following day.

After doing so, agencies were asked to identify additional staff who worked on those areas during a meeting with OPM staff last week, the officials said. These people said it seemed that the Trump administration had expected the number to be larger. Some agency officials parsed through position descriptions to find additional related roles. The Trump administration has followed up with agencies about employees thought to be working on diversity issues as well as those who have attended internal diversity events, people familiar with the matter said.

It isn’t clear how many DEI-related jobs have been identified by agencies so far. The Department of Veterans Affairs said this week it had placed nearly 60 people, with average annual earnings of $136,000, on paid leave. Other officials said their agencies’ initial counts were far lower. The Education Department said it had canceled $2.6 million in ongoing DEI training and service contracts. In a Wednesday post on X, the Department of Government Efficiency said roughly $1 billion in diversity-related contracts have been terminated across several dozen divisions.

In a follow-up meeting on Tuesday, two people said, the OPM told agency officials that employee resource groups—also known as affinity groups, such as for Black or LGBTQ staff—cannot hold meetings during work hours or use government resources. Workplaces typically use those forums for staff to share common career obstacles and advancement strategies.

Charles Ezell, the acting OPM director, on Friday told agency and department leaders to begin issuing reduction-in-force notices to employees immediately. Agencies have told their employees to report ongoing DEI-related work to a centralized tip line, or potentially face “adverse consequences." This push has rattled employees, who note that many DEI activities are difficult to define and interpret.

“They have been encouraged to report anybody who is doing DEI work and you’ll be protected if they do. But if, after 10 days, you haven’t, you’ll face consequences. They find it very bizarre and confusing," said Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.), whose state is home to tens of thousands of federal workers.

Federal workers are still assessing the implications of the orders. A memo dated Tuesday indicated that the Defense Intelligence Agency would suspend the commemoration of 11 observances, including those related to the Holocaust Days of Remembrance, Women’s Equality Day and Black History Month. Asked about the memo, the agency said it is working with the Department of Defense to implement executive orders in a timely manner. The State Department on Monday learned its Black History Month messages had to be in line with the “spirit" of Trump’s diversity executive order.

As it eliminated references to its diversity practices and offices, the Internal Revenue Service removed some mentions of “equity" and “inclusion" from its Internal Revenue Manual, the procedural handbook for IRS employees. Some of these cuts seemingly had little to do with DEI. One section that was still deleted as of Wednesday morning mentioned the potential “inequity" of holding on to a taxpayer’s money and described the potential “inclusion" of a taxpayer identification number on a form.

At the National Transportation Safety Board, an internal office’s webpage and earlier staff announcement about its leader’s hiring were scrubbed of references to diversity and inclusion, according to documents and an archived internet site viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The board’s Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, Diversity and Inclusion has now dropped the last three words from its title. An NTSB spokesman said the board is complying with the president’s executive orders.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday that Trump’s directives were to “help return America to a merit-based society."

The Treasury Department’s Equity Hub had a name that attracted conservative ire.

Those affected by the executive order—through being placed on leave, or with canceled contracts—describe aspects of their jobs as focused on widening access to government programs.

Many said they were surprised their roles were included in the sweep: One person advocated for employees to be able to change their display names on their staff email accounts from their government names, useful for transgender employees and those who go by a middle or other name. Another spread the word about Community Benefits Plans, submitted by applicants for some federal contracts to show how a project could impact the workforce or disadvantaged groups—not just racial groups but potentially including parents or veterans, for example.

Diane Lim, director of the Equity Hub at the Treasury Department

Diane Lim’s team in the Treasury Department, the Equity Hub, had a name that attracted conservative ire. She said that in practice, her colleagues analyzed data, reviewed research and convened groups to discuss the impact of the agency’s policies.

The goal, she said, was to analyze how different groups were affected by Treasury’s programs and identify barriers that prevented policies from having a wide reach. She said she made $185,000 annually as the group’s director.

“There was this jumping to conclusions that this must be a woke, politically motivated office," Lim said. “We’re more boring than the Republicans realize."

Lim hoped to explain the function of her office to the incoming Treasury secretary, thinking that her work could continue. But she was placed on leave last Wednesday. Later, her three-person staff—each planning to move to vacant positions in Treasury—learned their transfers were rescinded and that they, too, would be impacted, she said.

At her office overlooking the White House, Lim left behind a pair of shoes in her filing cabinet and a clock commemorating her presidency at the National Tax Association. She wasn’t permitted to attend a retirement party on premises, she said.

“DEI has become a toxic set of words—toxic not because people have learned what it means and really hate it, but because they don’t know what it means," Lim said.

Richard Rubin, Rebecca Ballhaus, Andrew Tangel and Dustin Volz contributed to this article.

Write to Lindsay Ellis at lindsay.ellis@wsj.com and Ken Thomas at ken.thomas@wsj.com