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EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Jim Banks Says Air Force Is Violating Federal DEI Ban
The United States Air Force has continued pushing its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda in violation of federal law, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) claims in a letter exclusively obtained by the Daily Wire.
In a letter to Alex Wagner, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower & Reserve Affairs, Banks contends that the Air Force cloaked its DEI activities in an effort to circumvent provisions in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which bar the Defense Department from creating any new DEI roles or filling vacancies in existing DEI positions.
“Rather than following the law, it appears that the Air Force has simply rebranded DEI,” Banks, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Military Personnel, wrote in his letter.
07.10.2024 – Letter to Air Force Re DEI at Ramstein_FINAL by Daily Wire Investigations Team on Scribd
The letter comes as the military grapples with the NDAA’s ban on new DEI initiatives. The funding bill sought to curb the Defense Department’s DEI agenda by capping the pay of those currently in DEI-related positions and prohibiting any new hiring of DEI professionals, pending an audit of existing DEI spending by the Government Accountability Office. The bill also barred the Pentagon from filling any existing DEI positions that become vacant.
The DEI ban was a response to the military’s embrace of critical race theory and the Biden administration’s push to establish DEI offices and policies throughout the federal government. The Department of Defense has made DEI a priority under Biden, requesting a whopping $270 million for DEI from fiscal years 2022 to 2024.
Banks’s letter highlights one Air Force DEI training in particular, a copy of which was obtained by the Daily Wire. The training, “Supporting Systemic Equity,” was administered at Ramstein Air Base and other installations by Team Triad, a consulting firm.
The training aims to“highlight the benefits of diversity and equity” to help Air Force personnel “recognize the importance of empowerment & equity” and “understand what it means to be an ally.”
“Equity is about giving people what they need to make things fair to achieve ‘equality,’” the training materials say.
Attachment 2. USAFE-AFAFRICA Brief – 2024 Supporting Systemic Equity by Daily Wire Investigations Team on Scribd
“This training is an attempt by the Air Force to contravene the clear intent of the law: Prohibited from hiring new DEI positions or filling vacant ones, the Air Force has simply contracted out its DEI training,” Banks said.
“Bureaucrats who think that carrying out the Biden administration’s woke agenda is more important than the law are in for a rude awakening,” Banks told the Daily Wire.
“Biden DOD officials need to realize that they won’t have a left wing radical Commander in Chief forever,” Banks said. “Congress has prohibited the military from hiring new DEI officials and Republicans will keep using our oversight authority to enforce the laws on the books.”
Team Triad held “Supporting System Equity” trainings at eight Air Force bases last year, and says it will host 16 training sessions across 10 different bases in 2024.
Banks has requested a copy of the contract between the Air Force and Team Triad.
The Indiana Republican’s letter also addresses an April 2024 Air Force memo, “Standard Core Personnel Documents Directive for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Positions,” which the congressman says violates the most recent NDAA.
“The memo states that to deter adversaries, the Department of the Air Force ‘requires intentionally designing a force that leverages the talents of our diverse Nation’” Banks says.
“An ‘intentional design’ suggests that the Air Force desires the use of quotas and screening requirements for certain races, genders, or sexual orientations during recruiting and retention efforts and that it desires to use Promotion, command selection, and other personnel actions to ensure its preferred mix of races, genders, and sexual orientations,” Banks writes.
The Air Force’s seeming defiance of the NDAA’s DEI ban is the branch’s latest effort to push far-left ideologies. In February, a Daily Wire investigation revealed that the Air Force Academy hosted Lt. Colonel Bree Fram, a man who identifies as a woman, for a speech on leadership. Fram is a transgender activist and the president of SPARTA, “a non-profit that advocates and educates about transgender military service.”
Fram also spoke at a pride month event where he called for “intentional inclusivity” in the military, and demanded that leadership “initiate difficult conversations about racial and gender barriers.”
WATCH?: The U.S. Air Force Academy hosted a transgender Pentagon official for a symposium on inclusion. Our military is focused on transgender dogma while wars rage on two continents.
Here he is at a pride celebration calling for “intentional inclusivity” in the military ? pic.twitter.com/6BAbEwrS4j
— Spencer Lindquist ?? (@SpencerLndqst) February 29, 2024
The Daily Wire also revealed that the Air Force celebrated pride month with two days of events in June, including “LGBTQ+ trivia” and a keynote speech from the CEO of an organization that pushes transgenderism on children. The group, PFLAG, has sued states that have moved to safeguard minors from irreversible sex change operations.
Banks’s letter poses a number of questions to Wagner regarding the Air Force’s embrace of DEI, requesting responses no later than July 20th.
“Are there currently any quotas or goals for race, gender, sexual orientation, or other protected categories in Air Force recruiting and retention efforts?” Banks asks. “If so, what are they? And how do these quotas and/or goals achieve the service’s required end strength goals and protect U.S. national security?”
The Department of the Air Force did not respond to a request for comment.
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