Biden administration spent over $16 million on diversity training in 2023

More than $16 million flowed last year from taxpayers to consulting firms and third parties for diversity training in the federal government, spending records show.

The 2023 cash transfers came from dozens of agencies, including the departments of Defense, Education, Energy, Labor, Homeland Security, and the National Institutes of Health, as well as the Air Force and the Navy, the Daily Caller reported, noting that the outlet’s analysis did not account for in-house training. The individual awards ranged from under $10,000 all the way up to, in one case, $4.3 million.

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“Congress has an important role and responsibility about the issuance of appropriations dollars, and we believe there is an excessive amount of money being spent on these trainings,” Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), who sits on the House Oversight Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “What they are doing is wrong.”

The 2023 contracts underscore how the Biden administration has heavily prioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives, much to the ire of congressional Republicans and conservative advocacy groups. President Joe Biden signed an executive order in 2021 that instructed federal agencies “to cultivate a workforce that draws from the full diversity of the nation,” asserting that “such training programs should enable federal employees, managers and leaders to have knowledge of systemic and institutional racism and bias.”

In particular, DEI has come under scrutiny from conservatives in recent years due to race-based curricula and hiring practices at colleges across the United States. The Supreme Court, however, struck down affirmative action in June 2023. Corporations have also looked to implement DEI initiatives, though business leaders are, in some cases, scaling back the programs amid a flurry of lawsuits, including from the Trump-linked America First Legal Foundation.

Federal data show the Department of Labor dished out at least $8.5 million to third parties for diversity training in 2023, while the Department of Agriculture spent at least $1.2 million, the Daily Caller reported. The Commerce Department reportedly spent upward of $700,000 on training, while the Department of Homeland Security paid more than $800,000 to firms for similar initiatives.

Contractors ranged from the Ivy Planning Group, a consultancy organization seeking to “pursue organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion through an enterprise business lens” that received $200,000 combined from the Education Department and the National Institutes of Health, the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, which scored $91,000 from the Air Force to provide diversity seminars to its band, and Cornell University.

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Cornell received more than $670,000 from the Labor Department in 2022 for DEI training, records show. The New York-based Ivy League institution says in an online brochure for a diversity training program that participants learn about “unconscious bias,” as well as “white privilege.” The Washington Examiner reported in August of last year the Cornell Free Speech Alliance, a coalition of university alumni, faculty, and students, has sought to fight the school’s DEI policies and protect academic freedom.

“They are wasting our money,” Sessions added, referring to the federal government.