The Biden-Harris Administration has introduced the first-ever Chief Diversity & Inclusion Director for the White House
Biden and his team have made it clear from the beginning that they are taking Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion seriously and we applaud them for taking the steps to demonstrate this by creating a Chief Diversity and Inclusion Director for the White House. Ideally, however, this role would be a senior level position to ensure the importance of the issue and access to the President.
As outlined in our Executive Order establishing a presidential initiative to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the White House needs to task the Director for the Office of Presidential Personnel with the responsibilities that would include leading efforts to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) in political appointments. In addition, they would appoint a standing Government-wide Committee on Federal Workforce Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (the “Government-wide Committee”) to guide the Administration on DEI matters in government.
We hope that Michael Leach, who was appointed to this new role, will not only work with the Executive Office of the President but also all 15 departments and agencies. We need them to set goals and a plan for increasing the diversity of appointees to Government Policy and Supporting Positions, including but not limited to Executive Schedule, Senior Executive Service, and Schedule C positions.
In addition, we urge the Biden-Harris Administration to release data on demographic diversity regularly including People with Disabilities, Religious Affiliation, and non-binary Gender Identity, which have been left out of the data on the Biden-Harris Transition website so far.
President-elect Biden has made a promise to make our government look more like America. We hope as he continues to build his administration he will aim for parity at every level.
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Inclusive America is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that will help make the government as diverse as the people of the United States.
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