Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faces a tough confirmation battle in the Republican-led Senate, and it’s a safe bet that Big Pharma’s supporters are preparing for a relentless campaign of character assassination. However, those attacks may not be the biggest hurdle he faces as President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). His biggest challenge could be the entrenched career civil service bureaucracy and its ideological weapon: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
At its core, DEI promotes the false notion that the color of one’s skin defines every individual, and that people’s perspectives, behaviors, and thoughts are immutable based on race. According to this ideology, if you are a white person, you are inherently racist and a beneficiary of “White Privilege,” which allegedly underpins the Constitution, the political system, and every law passed since 1789.
You might be asking, “What does DEI have to do with COVID origins, vaccine lies, taxpayer-funded research grants, or federal regulations stifling our health care system?” The answer is simple. DEI is the spearhead of the Left’s long-standing control over the 2.1 million-member federal civil service. Anyone opposing the Left’s agenda is labeled a racist, a tool of White Privilege, and is either isolated or removed from government service.
In the Reagan era, when I worked at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which oversees the civil service, there was still room for open debate and differing opinions within the career bureaucracy. The expectations set by the Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883, which required civil servants to carry out the policy agendas of elected Presidents, regardless of personal beliefs, still held sway. But that is rapidly becoming a distant memory as the Baby Boomer generation retires, replaced by younger, ideologically driven employees steeped in leftist views that reject the idea of professional neutrality.
A new analysis from Open the Books (OTB) reveals the staggering presence of DEI within HHS. The department, with a budget second only to the Pentagon, employs 294 DEI staffers at a total annual cost of $38.7 million. This doesn’t include another $29.4 million spent on seven Offices of Minority Health within various HHS agencies. DEI’s influence permeates nearly every corner of the department.
Further evidence of DEI’s deep integration came when OTB reviewed the most recent HHS budget request, which included the term “Equity” a staggering 829 times. The funds allocated target initiatives like promoting equity and “justice” in public health, including partnerships with Black churches to promote vaccinations, grants for universities to hire diverse researchers, and outreach programs for various marginalized groups.
The DEI agenda was solidified when President Biden signed Executive Order 14305, which is deeply influenced by DEI advocates like Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo. Biden’s order emphasizes the need for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility within the federal government, but it implies that the government has failed to treat its workers with dignity and respect, requiring additional resources to address supposed inequities.
Biden’s EO also conflicts with existing federal merit system principles, which already mandate that recruitment policies should aim for a workforce that reflects all segments of society and ensures fair treatment in hiring and promotions. Furthermore, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent legislation have already created a federal workforce that “looks like America.” According to OPM, 18.19% of federal employees are Black, compared to 13.6% of the general population, while 6.49% are Asian, roughly matching their share of the general population. Hispanics, however, are underrepresented in federal employment.
Despite these facts, DEI advocates persist in pushing their agenda. OTB uncovered that 92 DEI employees work directly under HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, while other subagencies like the CDC and NIH maintain their own DEI offices, resulting in a total of 294 DEI staffers across HHS. Most of these employees, 247 of them, earned over $100,000 in base salary for FY 2023, with four making over $200,000. DEI-related entities within the Food and Drug Administration alone include three separate offices.
These highly compensated, ideologically driven bureaucrats are unlikely to go quietly. But perhaps RFK Jr. can leave that fight to Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
