https://www.city-journal.org/article/dei-captures-the-treasury-department
The Treasury Department is ground zero for the Biden administration’s “whole-of-government” DEI agenda. The agency, which serves as the guardian of the American financial system, has translated critical race and gender theories into official policy—all under the guise of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
We have conducted an exclusive investigation that reveals the stunning capture of the Treasury, which, under the current DEI mandate, has worked to advance the principles of left-wing racialism, directing billions of dollars to favored racial and “underserved” groups, hiring a cadre of radical race “experts” to cement the new orthodoxy within the department, and considering potential auditees’ race in IRS tax investigations.
This ideological shift started at the top. In her first months in office, Treasury secretary Janet Yellen sent a statement to the department’s workers that “commitment to the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion is expected of every employee.” She sent the statement on the anniversary of the May 2020 death of George Floyd, at 9:29 a.m., to symbolize the nine minutes and 29 seconds that police officer Derek Chauvin had pinned Floyd to the ground. The statement set the tone: the Treasury secretary had a new ideological agenda—and expected compliance all the way down.
To implement this agenda, Yellen quickly built a centralized DEI apparatus within the department, establishing an official Equity Hub, tasked with implementing Biden’s executive orders on diversity, and an Advisory Committee on Racial Equity, made up of activists and executives. She also hired left-wing race activist Janis Bowdler as the department’s first Counselor for Racial Equity, a high-level position “charged with coordinating Treasury’s efforts to advance racial equity including engaging with diverse communities throughout the country.”
Yellen and Bowdler wasted no time, working to advance some of Treasury’s most flagrant racial programs, which subordinated lending standards, federal contracting, hiring policy, and even IRS auditing rules to the new racial calculus.