Interior renews campaign for employees to snitch on ‘DEI discrimination’ in the department

The Trump administration is once again looking for employees to sound the alarm on diversity initiatives happening within their agencies, continuing a year-long crackdown on policies and practices it said interfere with the civil service’s merit system. 

The Interior Department issued a memorandum to staff on Wednesday reminding employees that they should report any suspected diversity, equity and inclusion activities, providing multiple channels for doing so and informing the workforce that such reporting represented protected whistleblower activity. 

Rachel Borra, Interior’s chief human capital officer, highlighted several examples of “DEI-related discrimination,” noting there is “no reverse discrimination exception” to civil rights laws. Any department activities that require “diverse slates” or “racial/sex balancing” are prohibited and should be reported, Borra said, as well as any trainings, leadership programs or projects that prefer or exclude candidates based on protected characteristics. 

Any employee resource group based on race, gender, religion or other characteristics is banned, as are any diversity metrics. Trainings themselves must also meet certain parameters. 

“DEI trainings or materials that stereotype or demean employees based on race, sex, or other protected traits (creating a hostile work environment)” should be flagged, Borra said in the memo obtained by Government Executive. 

Reporting any of those activities, or even opposing them at all, amounted to a protected whistleblower activity that comes with requisite guardrails against retaliation, the Interior official said. She instructed staff to take their complaints to the Office of Special Counsel, the independent agency tasked with implementing whistleblower law, or to report them directly to the Interior Department’s Office of Civil Rights through an email address or phone number she provided. 

“The Office of Civil Rights will review, coordinate any required investigation [sic], and ensure compliance with merit-system and anti-discrimination laws,” Borra said. “Internal reports are encouraged and fully protected.”

She reminded employees they can report DEI activities or refuse to participate in them without fear of retaliation and told them to report any pushback they might face. 

President Trump signed two executive orders on his first two days in office to root out DEI initiatives at federal agencies, which led to mass layoffs of employees working in those areas. The Office of Personnel Management followed up with specific instructions to eradicate such efforts from agencies and to warn employees against taking any steps to "disguise" the programs. OPM required agencies to report on their efforts and to send employees an email asking them to flag any ongoing DEI initiatives to DEIAtruth@OPM.gov. 

Interior employees told Government Executive they had not received any further communication instructing them to report on their colleagues engaging in DEI efforts until Wednesday’s email. The department has, however, gone to significant lengths to crack down on public-facing signage and displays that the administration has deemed out of step with Trump’s orders and its priorities. The National Park Service tasked employees and the public with identifying any language that negatively discussed America’s past or present. NPS has begun removing such language, including displays outside Independence Hall that documented the role that slaves played in maintaining the original executive mansion in Philadelphia that a federal court has since ordered restored. Litigation is currently pending regarding additional displays and signs that NPS has removed. 

Employees seemed to not take the latest request seriously. 

“We have all agreed it’s just a chest-beating and posturing gimmick,” said one NPS staffer. 

Another Interior employee said their colleagues were contemplating “malicious compliance,” meaning they would report “every little thing” so as to overwhelm the department. 

“Most people are not willing to create the culture of fear” that Interior and the Trump administration were aiming to instill, the employee said. 

In her memo, Borra told employees their complaints would be handled “promptly, fairly and confidentially” and voiced optimism that employees would follow the department’s requests. 

“Thank you for your service and for helping maintain a lawful, merit-based federal workplace,” she said.