The Department of Veterans Affairs has placed 60 employees who had been solely focused on diversity, equity and inclusion activities on paid administrative leave.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 to end DEI initiatives within the federal government.
“Under President Trump, VA is laser-focused on providing the best possible care and benefits to veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors,” said VA Director of Media Affairs Morgan Ackley. “We are proud to have abandoned the divisive DEI policies of the past and pivot back to VA’s core mission. We look forward to reallocating the millions of dollars the department was spending on DEI programs and personnel to better serve the men and women who have bravely served our nation.”
The move comes after Veterans Affairs announced thousands of exemptions to President Trump’s recently enacted federal hiring freeze.
In a release on Monday, VA said the combined annual salary – base pay, locality pay and additional earnings - of the employees totals more than $8 million, an average of more than $136,000 year per employee. One employee made more than $220,000 per year.
VA has also identified several contracts for DEI-related training, materials and other consulting services, which the department is currently working to cancel. The combined value of these contracts totals more than $6.1 million.
VA said it will be working to reallocate resources to better support the veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors the department exists to serve.
VA is also in the process of taking down a variety of DEI-related media from its various digital properties.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.