Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) is pressing the Biden-Harris State Department to disclose how much money it spends on its Office of Diversity and Inclusion, citing a Washington Free Beacon report showing that the agency's top DEI officials pull in nearly $200,000 annually in taxpayer-funded salaries—roughly double the pay of average American diplomats.
The State Department, under the Biden-Harris administration, has stood up several DEI offices and implemented rules requiring staffers to "pass a loyalty test in diversity, equity, and inclusion" if they are to be "considered for promotions and higher pay."
These practices have sparked a congressional probe from Blackburn, who is leaning on the State Department to publicly disclose the number of employees who have quit as a result of its newfound emphasis on DEI initiatives, as well as the agency's DEI budget and number of DEI employees. The agency's Office of Diversity Inclusion was formed in February 2021, shortly after a White House order instructed the entire federal government to ramp up DEI initiatives.
"The American people deserve transparency about the use of their tax dollars to advance a divisive ideological agenda, particularly when it comes at the expense of protecting and promoting U.S. security overseas," Blackburn wrote in a letter sent Tuesday to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and obtained by the Free Beacon.
Blackburn says she was shocked to learn that Constance Mayer, who served as the acting chief diversity and inclusion officer until April of this year, pulled in $194,510 a year. The State Department’s Special Representative for Racial Justice and Equity, Cormier Smith, makes $191,900. In both cases, this is far more than the average diplomat's annual salary of around $97,000.
"The hefty salaries of the Department’s top DEI officials demonstrate the agency’s apparent willingness to go to extreme lengths to prioritize a divisive agenda even if it comes at the expense of our national security," Blackburn wrote. "These are astonishing facts for an agency whose stated mission includes ‘protect[ing] and promot[ing] U.S. security.’"
The full taxpayer cost of the State Department’s DEI offices, initiatives, and dedicated staff remains unclear, though the diplomatic agency requested nearly $90 million in 2023 for a range of diversity-based programs. Blackburn wants to know exactly how much State is spending on its Office of Diversity Inclusion, which was widely touted by the Biden-Harris administration as the crowning jewel of its efforts to promote DEI priorities internationally.
Blackburn also asked whether the agency is "currently engaged in diversity-based hiring," a controversial policy forced on the federal workforce in the wake of the Biden-Harris administration’s 2021 executive order mandating DEI initiatives. She also questioned the very existence of the State Department’s DEI office, asking officials to explain "what statutory authority" they used to stand up the office and begin pumping taxpayer funds into it.
The senator raised additional concerns about efforts to tie internal promotions to a DEI "loyalty test." American diplomats, Fox News reported in May, are now required to "demonstrate through documentation that they are actively involved in DEI practices."
Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the State Department’s inaugural DEI officer who served in the job until June 2023, confirmed the practices during a speech last year.
"We made the change that if you wanted to be considered for promotion at the Department of State, you must be able to document what you are doing to support diversity, equity, and inclusion, and accessibility," Abercrombie-Winstanley said. "This is how you are judged for promotion."