by Addison Smith
When the Biden Energy Department recently unveiled $72 million in funding to help train the next generation of green energy workers it did more than just tout its latest solution for climate change. It argued a racially and gender diverse workforce was “crucial” to the project’s mission.
The Cabinet department tasked to “ensure America’s security and prosperity” through energy didn’t explain how a “diverse workforce” can mitigate or reverse Biden-era energy trends such as some of the highest gas prices in American history, some of the lowest oil reserve levels in nearly 40 years and “unprecedented” growth in utility bill debt.
The Biden administration has inserted diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, requirements, goals and rhetoric into everything from food supply chain policies to DOJ prosecution strategies and energy.
In September, the Energy Department unveiled its Biden-inspired Roadmap to Equity and Justice and promised a “total transformation” of federal energy policy. By January, it had placed heavy emphasis on “bringing energy justice, equality, and diversity” to fight the “climate crisis.”
Its commitment to such causes stems from a Biden executive order directing the federal government to “pursue a comprehensive” equity approach.
But for many the focus on equity has shifted resources to an ideological crusade and away from other core competencies, raising suspicions that the government had taken its eye off the ball when calamities like train wrecks, airline woes and bank failures struck.
“We want to make sure that the regulators are actually focused on the right things,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) told Just the News last month after regulators failed to detect the impending collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank. “They were very focused on diversity, equity and inclusion and climate risk. Those are mandates given by the Joe Biden administration.
“But it seems like this bank was uniquely bad at adjusting to the interest rate risk that every bank, frankly every person” is facing. “I mean, we all have interest rate risk as the cost of money has gone up. Whether that’s a higher mortgage, higher car loan, higher credit card payments, interest rates were raised by the Federal Reserve. And so if you don’t navigate that, well, that’s a really dangerous situation for the whole economy.”
Here are just a few examples of DEI diverting the the government’s focus from its core missions:
Agriculture Department amid soaring food prices
As food prices continue to soar and place heavier burdens on American consumers, especially the working class, the Department of Agriculture has focused on diversity and inclusion among farmers and agriculture industries.
In February, the USDA Equity Commission released a report presenting more than 30 recommendations to help farmers of color. The agency’s equity commission requested greater diversity, equitable access to USDA programs, and county council diversity.
Department of Transportation amid airline and rail woes
Run by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has himself been famously dubbed a “diversity hire,” the DOT lists “equity” as a “Department-wide strategic goal.”
But while the DOT has been prioritizing equity, it has fumbled many of its core tasks. The department, for example, oversaw one of the worst airline crises in U.S. history in February, when the FAA’s nationwide computer system crashed, leaving every single flight in America grounded for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001. That outage followed disastrous delays during the holiday travel season.
News media reported that the Federal Aviation Administration system’s tech is three decades old and the agency “desperately needs significant upgrades.”
Flights are not the only transportation crisis to happen under Buttigieg’s DOT: Car shortages have been rampant, supply-chains have been flipped on their heads, and East Palestine, Ohio faced a catastrophic toxic chemical spill after a train derailment, which Buttigieg took three weeks to address in person and which Biden never did.
Department of Justice amid soaring urban crime
Throughout Biden’s presidency, the Department of Justice has remained in the crosshairs of public criticism. In its Equity Action Plan, the DOJ boasts of its “many steps to advance equity” in the U.S., conflating it with “equal justice under law.”
While the DOJ may be successfully advancing equity, many have taken issue with how it’s administered justice under Biden. A 2022 Trafalgar poll found 79% of Americans believe the nation has a “two-tiered justice system,” meaning a different set of rules for liberals and conservatives.
Last May, an individual leaked the Supreme Court’s draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade. Following the leak, more than one hundred pro-life centers and churches were firebombed and vandalized. Radical left groups like Jane’s Revenge took credit for many of the attacks and declared “open season” on pro-lifers. After nearly six months and increasing publicly scrutiny, the DOJ finally made arrests in connection to the attacks.
Also accompanied by the Roe v. Wade leak were swarms of people who gathered to protest outside the Supreme Court Justice’s homes. Despite proesting outside of a federal judge’s home reportedly being a felony crime, then White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said she “encourage[d]” them to continue. The DOJ was eventually sued for ignoring the gatherings.
Meanwhile, pro-life activist Mark Houck had his home raided and was arrested by nearly two dozen armed SWAT agents in front of his “screaming” children. Houck found himself facing 11 years in prison for allegedly violating the Freedom to Access Clinic Entrances Act a year prior. But after months of intense public scrutiny for what some have called the “politically-motivated” charges, Houck was acquitted.
The Pentagon amid Chinese spy balloon disaster
The Defense Department proudly touts an entire office dedicated to “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” on its website, stating it’s “imperative” to recruit for jobs based on the evolving “demographic make-up of the American population.” The DOD has also assumed the new task of “advancing the human rights of LGBTIQ people around the world,” according to then-Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby.
But national security anxieties have been rising sharply, even as the DOD has been ramping up its DEI initiatives.
The Chinese spy balloon is a recent example of this. In February, the surveillance vehicle was spotted over the state of Montana. According to a report from NBC News, U.S. officials watched the balloon as it flew over U.S. military bases — including a nuclear missile silo field — and later discovered the balloon collected secret data and had been transmitting back to China in “real time.” The State Department even acknowledged the balloon’s data-surveillance capabilities prior to the report, and didn’t shoot it down for a week.
Asked if the Pentagon had “regrets” about not taking the balloon out sooner, John Kirby replied that Biden “doesn’t regret” their handling of it in the slightest.
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Addison Smith is a reporter and podcast host for Just The News. Previosuly, Smith hosted “In Focus with Addison Smith” on One America News Network and was a reporter at Campus Reform, covering liberal bias on college campuses. Addison has also worked with Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center as a social media manager and the College Fix as a student reporter. Follow Smith on Twitter.
Photo “Port Containers” by Tom Fisk.
