NASA takes rapid action to stop diversity initiatives and urges employees to disclose any policy breaches | Tracer Tecz

Our agency DEIA offices will shut down and we will cancel all DEIA contracts as demonstrated through President Trump's 'Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs' and 'Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions' executive orders. As part of his reelection bid Trump vowed to shut down federal programs advancing diversity inclusion and equity initiatives. After the oath ceremony on Monday he began issuing executive orders aimed at this change.

Programs viewed as polarizing

NASA started its diversity programs by expanding on affirmative action in the middle of Trump's first term while Black Lives Matter and #MeToo gained momentum. US organizations started employing professionals to develop diversity equity and inclusion initiatives at universities and big companies. Before President Trump's election the Diversity and Inclusion movement hit its peak.

Last year MIT discontinued faculty interviews using diversity statements as part of its hiring decisions. The current NASA DEIA plan hurt national unity while squandering team funds and resulted in nasty racial prejudice. Petro's email shows that NASA workers tried to protect their DEIA work from the Trump administration's control after he won the presidency in early November.

NIH and NSF impacted

Many other federal agencies experience similar practices as NASA. All major federal agencies received nearly identical messages from their temporary leaders on Wednesday. The top science funding agencies of the United States—the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation—now focus specific programs on including minority groups in STEM subjects.

The programs support research funding to enable students to conduct studies and help them through their education pathway with grants for underrepresented populations in these fields. By 5pm Eastern Time most training program pages were visible online, except for the "Broadening Participation in Training Programs" webpage at NIH was taken down. Medical researchers face more critical problems than losing these support initiatives.

Starting Tuesday the Health and Human Services Department blocked all agencies including NIH CDC and FDA from sending information to the public. The system will show notices about diseases that are emerging in specific animal populations including H5N1 bird flu variant which affects agricultural animals worldwide. Our analysis shows that this policy application goes much deeper than just external communications.

Research participants at an NIH workshop discovered that officials terminated the gathering when their scheduled remarks finished. Many scientists have stated the NIH stopped analyzing grant applications permanently. Tightening of operations at NIH will extend delays that require extensive planning and travel arrangement for peer review panel evaluation teams.

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