NASA forked over more than $20 million in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) grants and contracts during the Biden administration, shelling out for “implicit bias” trainings, talks with so-called “anti-racist” authors, “gender-affirming” workplace guidelines and an aggressive, left-wing media presence.
Prodded by executive action from former President Joe Biden, NASA officials also implemented a strategic plan to suffuse all agency operations with DEI, altering criteria for recruitment, performance evaluations and promotions.
The taxpayer-watchdog group Open The Books revealed the politicization of the space agency in a report published Wednesday, which shares a trove of documents obtained from various public records requests.
“NASA’s mission is too risky to get distracted by identity politics,” Open The Books CEO John Hart told The Post. “Newtonian physics and atmospheric re-entry do not care about antiracism talks and gender ‘affirmation’ policies. NASA has an opportunity to take one small step toward fiscal responsibility and one giant leap toward common sense.”
The $11.7 million in grants and $8.3 million in contracts represent just a fraction of the agency’s $25 billion annual budget, though former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson advanced Biden’s equity agenda far beyond the reach of those spending items.
NASA’s Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity kicked off their DEI agenda in earnest during the final months of President Trump’s first term.