The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduced a sweeping number of new diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives under the Biden-Harris administration, a report released Wednesday found.
NASA enacted various DEI-related efforts over the past four years, including issuing guidelines to its staff on ways to better support any employees going through “gender transition,” and introducing coursework that heavily promoted diversity, according to a new report from OpenTheBooks.
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The government agency also spent hefty sums on DEI-related contracts between 2021 and 2024, such as shelling out $2,366,122 to LMI Consulting to “incorporate and deeply engrain” DEI and accessibility “in the culture and business” of NASA alongside an additional $182,281 for “diversity training.” Another contract to the Neuroleadership Institute provided $90,000 for “diversity training,” the report found.
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NASA also awarded a $74,000 grant to Cook Ross, Inc. for “Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Training,” OpenTheBooks found. The agency also provided DEI-related grants to some universities and non-profit institutes, such as a $100,000 grant to the Planetary Science Institute to “help NASA’s planetary science workforce to become more diverse and equitable” because “diversity and inclusiveness along gender, ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation, generational, and other axes is a business as well as a social imperative,” according to the report’s findings.
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In 2022, NASA provided employees with a 22-page information packet titled “NASA Guidance for Supporting Gender Transition/Affirmation in the Workplace,” according to a document a whistleblower shared with OpenTheBooks. The document aimed to “help all individuals at NASA” maintain “an inclusive and supportive workplace for gender transition and affirmation.”
Notably, the document also told NASA staffers that “a transitioning employee may use the restroom, locker room, or other facility that they feel most comfortable using.” The packet said that if another employee has a concern about this, “the transitioning employee should not be asked or required to use an alternate facility in order to accommodate such concerns.”
Moreover, the document also encouraged NASA staff to “be willing and available to collaborate with the transitioning employee on the development, implementation, and evolution of a Workplace Gender.”
The agency also promoted professional development coursework that contained DEI-related messaging, including one titled “Diversity All In,” which is a three-and-a-half-hour course that “provides a common understanding and language for diversity and inclusion,” as well as “The Power of Inclusion,” a separate three-hour course on how to “engage men to advance women in leadership positions,” according to the report.
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Relatedly, the report found that NASA promoted coursework involving a book called “Diversity Beyond Lip Service: A Coaching Guide for Challenging Bias,” which advertised that “a deeper level of candor and vulnerability is needed to move the needle towards real progress.”
NASA also released an “Executive Performance Management” document that indicates that executive performance plans in 2023 were “updated to include a diversity, equity, and inclusion” element, meaning that staff’s work performance was evaluated on how closely the staffers conformed to DEI ideology, OpenTheBooks states in their report.
Several of the suggested actions in the document heavily promoted DEI, such as practicing “allyship,” emphasizing “social justice and inclusion,” and striving to “advance the interests of underrepresented or marginalized groups.”
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Former President Joe Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office aimed at “advancing equity and racial justice through the federal government,” which opened up the floodgates for hundreds of DEI-related programs to be implemented at dozens of government agencies during his sole term. Biden’s Department of Justice also awarded K-12 schools over $100 million in grants aimed at increasing DEI initiatives.
President Donald Trump has been leading a massive push to dismantle DEI initiatives across the federal government, including signing a Jan. 20 executive order to end “wasteful” and “radical” DEI programs at all government agencies. The Trump administration has also been cracking down on DEI programs at K-12 schools and universities across the U.S., leading to massive pushback from many Democrats.
Various companies have been scaling down on their DEI policies over the past year amid increasing scrutiny from consumers, shareholders and Conservative activists, including Walmart, Boeing and Lowe’s.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
