Op-Ed: Rep. Michael Cloud and Heritage Action EVP Ryan Walker: We must dismantle DEI

The American people are relying on Congress to keep up with President Trump’s momentum and stop the Left’s radical agenda, Rep. Michael Cloud and Ryan Walker write in their latest op-ed.

On November 5th, the American people resoundingly rejected woke DEI policies at the ballot box that have infiltrated all aspects of our culture by voting for President Trump and his common sense agenda.

The American people have had enough political spin and of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” indoctrination that has made our country weaker and more divided than ever. These terrible policies perpetuate the very discrimination and division the Left claims to be fighting.

DEI policies marshal the power of the state and other institutions to discriminate against and punish those in the Left’s perceived “oppressor classes.” The Biden administration went even further and made no effort to hide its injection of DEI into every corner of the government, and it only made agencies more bureaucratic and significantly less efficient.

But with conservatives now in control of the White House and Congress, Americans can expect a return to true fairness and equality that only comes through merit.

President Donald J. Trump made the elimination of DEI a focal point of his campaign and has made good on his promise since taking office last week. He has already signed three executive orders closing down agencies’ DEI departments and canceling Biden’s discriminatory DEI practices, and he won’t be stopping anytime soon.

Now, it’s Congress’s turn.

When Americans handed the Republican Party a trifecta government on November 5th, they expected lawmakers to uphold their promises to codify anti-DEI measures. In a recent Fox News poll, eliminating DEI was the sixth-most important issue cited by American voters. The same poll found that nearly one-third of voters believe that ending DEI is “extremely important.”

The American people are relying on Congress to keep up with President Trump’s momentum and stop the Left’s radical agenda from permeating the fabric of our country.

The Dismantle DEI Act, which will be introduced in the House this week, safeguards equal protection under the law for all Americans, regardless of race or sex, and comprehensively defunds the federal government’s wasteful DEI bureaucracy — restoring true meritocracy and equal treatment under the law.

While executive orders are a useful tool that Republicans can — and must — use to hit back against DEI, the Dismantle DEI Act is the first bill introduced in the 119th Congress that directly addresses the harms of DEI and actively works to remove it from every facet of American society.

First, the bill would codify the wipe out of DEI across all federal agencies, which would significantly trim down the number of unelected bureaucrats who assert their radical agendas in daily operations.

Instead of uplifting qualified candidates through an impartial selection process, the spread of DEI has led to the unfortunate consequence of underqualified people being awarded positions in local, state, and federal governments.

Second, the Dismantling DEI Act would end DEI requirements for federal contractors and grant applicants, giving everyone a fair shot at serving their communities. Under the Biden regime, many of these programs forced compliance with extreme ‘diversity’ standards to receive contracts and grants, furthering the risk of awarding them to underqualified people.

Lastly, the bill would bring back government accountability, slash wasteful spending, and reassure the American people that their tax dollars will be used to serve all of them, without division getting in the way.

The Biden administration’s DEI initiatives were costly failures, wasting millions in taxpayer funds while diminishing the core purpose of the agencies and institutions they invaded. In 2023 alone, Biden allocated over $16 million for federal diversity training, and requested an additional $83 million for various DEI programs at the State Department. The Dismantle DEI Act would ensure American taxpayers that their money would never be spent on these trainings again.

Congress cannot sit idly by while DEI continues to undermine government efficiency, threaten national security, and subvert the American ideal of equality for all. Lawmakers have a duty to continue what President Trump started, honor the promises they made to the American people, and destroy DEI by passing the Dismantle DEI Act.

Rep. Michael Cloud represents Texas’s 27th District. Ryan Walker is the executive vice president of Heritage Action.