3-day Virtual Seminar

DEI Programs Are Dead on Arrival (DOA) or Are They? Federal and Private Businesses Are Asking for Clarification!

Overview

As soon as President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2025, he signed an executive order titled "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing." This order called for the termination of all diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) mandates, policies, and programs in the federal government. We can explain the EO Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity and the impact on the DEIA program.

These included “equity-related” grants or contracts, such as programs supporting underrepresented people in STEM, and all DEI or DEIA performance requirements for grant recipients - for example, requiring that grant recipients have a plan to address underrepresentation in their area of study. Agencies were given 60 days to implement the order.

For decades, federal policies have supported efforts to promote equal opportunity, enforced by administrations from both parties. These policies grew out of federal anti-discrimination laws passed during the 1960s civil rights struggle and have been expanded to guarantee that opportunity was not denied - as it had been for too long - because of one’s race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or other legally protected characteristics.

Trump’s executive orders represent a major departure from these policies, particularly in the federal contracting space. The Trump administration views any diversity efforts specifically aimed at advancing women, minorities, or members of the LGBTQ+ community to be unlawful discrimination.

More broadly, the orders seek to intimidate all employers - ranging from private organizations and federal contractors and grantees to state and local entities - into abandoning DEIA initiatives, using vague and threatening language to create fear of enforcement actions. The strategy is clear: Bully everyone into dropping programs that ensure equitable workplaces by falsely equating diversity efforts with discrimination.

Why you should Attend

There are private employers following the ban, and they have been doing it since the last quarter of 2024. 13 private companies have rolled out their DEI programs, including Target, Amazon, Walmart, McDonald's, Lowes, etc. 8 companies are standing by their DEI programs, including Costco, Coca-Cola, Delta, JP Morgan, Apple, etc.

Employers in both federal and private workplaces are confused about these regulations and are looking for guidance, which we will provide for our Employer’s Edge Newsletter.

Areas Covered in the Session

• Learn how a merit-based program that focuses on hiring and promotion based on skills, experience, and achievements can be proven
• Learn how the DEIA ban mandates are impacting federal employers
• Learn why the DEIA ban is confusing federal and private companies
• Learn how the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)’s guidance on those discrimination factors that
• Employers may violate by eliminating DEIA programs
• Learn what factors determine what an illegal DEIA Program
• Learn what the penalties will be if DEIA programs 
• Learn what federal contractors need to continue as there is a ban on affirmative action programs
• Learn why other private companies have eliminated their DEIA programs 
• What are the legal cases leaning toward about these DEIA bans
• Learn how many court cases have focused on penalizing employers for violating DEIA program bans

Who Will Benefit

• All Employers
• Business Owners
• Company Leadership
• Compliance professionals
• HR Professionals
• Managers/Supervisors