President Trump has issued executive orders ending diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives (DEI). As applied to federal contractors and grant recipients, these orders have been challenged as unconstitutionally vague or in excess of presidential authority, and portions of those challenges by private entities have proved successful, while some other challenges have failed.
But the government has a freer hand in governing its own operations than in regulating the activities of private contractors and grant recipients. Even if a private entity has the freedom to operate a DEI program, it does not follow that federal employees have the prerogative to do so against the wishes of the White House. So not just cabinet departments but also independent agencies have taken steps to comply with Trump’s executive orders against DEI. The fact that bans on DEI lack lapidarian precision does not make them too vague as applied to federal employees, since restrictions too vague to apply to the public, such as a ban on being rude to customers, are generally valid as applied to government employees.
Accordingly, an independent agency whose head was critical of the Trump administration nevertheless removed DEIA-related messages and ended a DEI-related committee in response to Trump’s executive order against DEI. It did that even though the leader of that agency opposed Trump firing many inspectors general, saying Trump lacked the authority to do that.
That agency, the Council of Inspectors General for Integrity and Efficiency, accordingly ended outward manifestations of DEI in January 2025 in response to Trump’s executive orders. It also ceased the operations of a committee that handled DEI functions.
On January 22, 2025 at 4:40 pm, CIGIE’s Leadership sent a message that said,
Please see the message below from Hannibal “Mike” Ware, Chairperson, and Tammy Hull, Vice Chairperson:
CIGIE Members, In accordance with the President’s executive orders (here and here), we are removing all DEIA-related information from all outward facing CIGIE media.
We are also ceasing operations of the Employee Engagement and Innovation Committee, effective today.
Additionally, per the implementing guidance for the executive orders, employees are asked to report “any efforts to disguise [DEIA] programs by using coded or imprecise language” to DEIAtruth@opm.gov. Please see the implementing guidance here for more information.
Thank you,
Hannibal “Mike” Ware
ChairpersonTammy Hull
Vice Chairperson
This email was sent to all CIGIE members (it was sent to CIGIE@LIST.NIH.GOV). It was forwarded by one of its recipients — Robert Steinau at NASA — to Nina Murphy at the EEOC. (The EEOC enforces antidiscrimination laws and disability-rights laws against federal agencies, and sometimes sues private sector businesses for discrimination or for failing to accommodate workers’ disabilities in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act).
Someone in the NASA Office of Inspector General then sent an email to members of CIGIE’s Employee Engagement and Innovation Committee, telling them on January 23 at 11:09 AM that:
EEIC Recruitment, Development, and Recognition Subcommittee Members:
Per the CIGIE leadership email below, all operations of the EEIC are ceased effective January 22, 2025.
Thank you.
These documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Bader Family Foundation against CIGIE for failing to turn over these records despite the passage of a long period of time that exceeded FOIA’s statutory time limits.
