President Biden issued an Executive Order titled “Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.” Without any Congressional authorization, Biden has ordered a radical, racist, and fundamentally anti-American overhaul of every federal function under the guise of “equity.”
Background on “Equity”
“Equity” is a euphemism for discrimination based on race, national origin, sex, or economic class with respect to employment, university admissions, and access to government benefits, programs, or services. As applied, “equity” is nothing more or less than a rebranding and reorientation of the racism in the “Jim Crow” era, the class hatred in Stalin’s “anti-kulak” policies, and the dogmatism of Mao’s “Cultural Revolution.”
The Biden Administration is no stranger to illegal programs to advance “equity.” For example, President Biden and his congressional allies rendered certain farmers completely ineligible for COVID-19 related farm aid, based solely on the fact that they were white.
AFL sued and stopped the program, which was subsequently rescinded by Congress. President Biden and his congressional allies also put certain American restaurant owners at the back of the line for COVID-19 related benefits–again, because they were white. AFL sued and stopped this.
To be clear, the pursuit of “equity” is not just a federal phenomenon. AFL currently has multiple class-action lawsuits against private and public entities like Amazon, Texas A&M University, and six Texas medical schools for racially discriminatory hiring and admissions practices–all of which are premised on “equity.”
The Executive Order Directs a Radical Government-Wide “Equity” Overhaul.
Without direct Congressional authorization or supporting appropriations, Biden has ordered the federal government to accelerate the advancement of facially illegal “equity” measures throughout the federal government and its operations.
Among other things, the Executive Order instructs agency heads to establish an “Agency Equity Team” within the next thirty days, to staff those Agency Equity Team at each agency with personnel from every possible component of each agency (policy, legal, communications, financial assistance, civil rights, procurement, etc.), and to radically transform the way that the agencies conduct every aspect of their operations.
The Executive Order specifically charges each Agency Equity Team with “the implementation of equity initiatives” and “delivering equitable outcomes” for the American people.
Under President Biden’s Executive Order, these Agency Equity Teams will be established at the following departments and agencies:
- The Department of State
- The Department of the Treasury
- The Department of Defense
- The Department of Justice
- The Department of the Interior
- The Department of Agriculture
- The Department of Commerce
- The Department of Labor
- The Department of Health and Human Services
- The Department of Housing and Urban Development
- The Department of Transportation
- The Department of Energy
- The Department of Education
- The Department of Veterans Affairs
- The Department of Homeland Security
- The Small Business Administration
- The Social Security Administration
- The General Services Administration
- The Environmental Protection Agency
- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- The National Science Foundation
- The Office of Personnel Management
In addition to “delivering equitable outcomes,” the Executive Order charges each Agency Equity Team with things such as ensuring “continued equity training and equity leadership development,” and embedding “equity” into everything each agency does.
And the Executive Order creates a “White House Steering Committee on Equity,” chaired by Susan Rice, to coordinate efforts to embed “equity” at every agency.
Make no mistake–these efforts to incorporate “equity” are radical. For example, one component of the Executive Order directs all agencies to “facilitate equitable flows of private capital” when dealing with development in urban areas:
The Executive Order directs all federal agencies to favor “underserved communities” and provide them with special treatment. “Underserved communities” is defined by reference to Biden Executive Order 13985. The term has legal meaning, but for purposes of federal preferences, it is very broadly defined by reference to this Executive Order, Executive Order 13985, and Executive Order 14020, the combination of which leads to the following definition:
(a) The term “underserved communities” refers to populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, who have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life… this term includes individuals who belong to communities of color, such as Black and African American, Hispanic and Latino, Native American, Alaska Native and Indigenous, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, and North African persons.
It also includes individuals who belong to communities that face discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity (including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, gender non-conforming, and non-binary (LGBTQ+) persons); persons who face discrimination based on pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions; parents; and caregivers.
It also includes individuals who belong to communities that face discrimination based on their religion or disability; first-generation professionals or first-generation college students; individuals with limited English proficiency; immigrants; individuals who belong to communities that may face employment barriers based on older age or former incarceration; persons who live in rural areas; veterans and military spouses; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty, discrimination, or inequality. Individuals may belong to more than one underserved community and face intersecting barriers.
Biden’s new Executive Order mandates that this laundry list of favored groups obtain federal government preferences. Section 5 requires agencies to “Deliver Equitable Outcomes” to the specified privileged classes; Section 7 mandates agencies direct procurement to them. However, nothing in the Executive Order limits these new benefits to American citizens and legal residents. Instead, Biden has opened the floodgates of federal money going to countless aliens who entered our country illegally.
Through the Center for Legal Equality, AFL will fight tirelessly against Biden’s “Equity” agenda and this Executive Order. In the coming weeks and months, AFL will be launching multiple investigations, taking legal action when appropriate, and pursuing a number of other measures that will protect our laws, our Constitution, and the individual rights and dignity of every American.
All people of good will must stand together against this radical, racist, and deeply anti-American effort to divide our citizens.
Statement from America First Legal President Stephen Miller:
“With the stroke of a pen, Biden has transformed the entire federal government into a DEI cult—putting equity czars inside virtually every single agency of the executive branch and subordinating every department to the marxist equity agenda. Every previous law and regulation must now be reinterpreted to ensure racial and gender equity: in other words, to achieve a predetermined racial or gender identity outcome even if it requires ruthless discrimination against American citizens.
This includes every agency from the FBI to FAA to FDA to FHA to FEMA.
Indeed, the Executive Order is explicit in calling for ‘outcome-based’ decision-making in the implementation of all federal laws and regulations.
The most extreme excesses of the radical woke college campus have just been transported into, and embedded within, every function of the federal government— in an attempt to supplant the actual laws and Constitution of the United States in order to punish and exclude Americans based on their race, ancestry, and gender.
As part of this colossally lawless scheme, the Director of Domestic Policy, Susan Rice, will be leading a White House equity committee to ensure no government activity is left untouched by Biden’s DEI takeover of the government.
Biden does this all by passing no new laws, let alone constitutional amendments, but by ordering the permanent bureaucracy to follow his written orders to completely remake government in the image of the ultra-woke ultra-radical left.
Workers will be retrained and re-educated. Policies will be redrawn and redesigned. Benefits will be redirected and reoriented, all according to the marxist equity czars and their taskmasters in the White House.
We at America First Legal, and our Center for Legal Equality, will fight this abomination in every way that we can. From the beginning, we have led the charge against the poisonous equity agenda and we will be even more relentless in the days and months to come.” said Stephen Miller.
Statement from Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Vice-President and General Counsel:
“Apparently under the delusion that they have solved every major problem facing each agency in the federal government–and with no authorization from Congress to do so–the Biden Administration is embarking on a wholescale reform of the federal government under the guise of “equity.” The Biden Administration is clearly committed to radically reshaping the federal government to advance its ideological goals, and we are clearly committed to exposing and stopping their illegal efforts at every turn,” said Gene Hamilton.