House Republicans are taking aim at the Biden administration’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, claiming they’ve funneled billions in taxpayer dollars into federal contracts awarded based on race and gender rather than merit.
At a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing on healthcare and financial services Wednesday, GOP lawmakers criticized DEI-related contracting policies, arguing they promote division and compromise government effectiveness.
“You’re trying to destroy America by pitting one ethnic group against another,” said Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., condemning the administration’s DEI initiatives.
Judge Glock, director of research at the Manhattan Institute and a key witness, said current federal grant regulations increasingly tie contract awards to the race or gender of business owners instead of the quality or efficiency of services provided. He pointed to a Biden administration goal requiring up to 15% of federal contracting dollars to go to “disadvantaged businesses.”
“These minority contracting programs cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, degrade our infrastructure and national defense, and do nothing to help the truly disadvantaged,” Glock testified.
He also raised concerns about potential fraud, saying some businesses have falsely claimed disadvantaged status to qualify for set-aside contracts. Glock urged Congress to review and potentially roll back federal programs like the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program, which prioritizes contracts for minority- and women-owned businesses.
“Preferences for already successful businesses based on their owners’ race or sex are unconstitutional, expensive, and detrimental to the core functions of government,” Glock said.
House Democrats pushed back, defending DEI programs as long-overdue efforts to address systemic inequality and historic injustice.
Erec Smith, a professor at the University of Southern California and a witness called by Democrats, said minority groups and women are still owed compensation and acknowledgment for generations of unpaid labor and exclusion.
“America owes the enslaved Africans who built the White House and the U.S. Capitol,” Smith said. “They and their descendants were never rightly compensated for their immense contributions or the centuries of forced labor that followed.”
Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Mo., echoed that sentiment, emphasizing that DEI policies are about ensuring equal opportunity for all Americans.
“This country that we all love has a history of racism—against the very people who make up our diverse society,” Bell said. “Inclusion—the ‘I’ in DEI—means everybody. It means no one gets left behind.”
The hearing highlighted the deep partisan divide over how the federal government should address inequality and allocate public funds—a debate likely to intensify as the 2024 election approaches.
