Subsidies face the culture war
The document makes clear what kinds of things could be considered administration priorities and national interest, and they are very much a war on wokeness. For example, the Trump administration canceled PEPFAR, a program aimed at limiting the spread of HIV in Africa; It is a step that is estimated to lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths. But for the OMB, that’s a good thing, because the alternative was awakened: “Far-left activists hijacked the critical work done by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which was established to respond to the AIDS crisis in Africa. Due to wasteful spending, PEPFAR became a left-wing foreign aid program that attempted to promote abortion and gender ideology.”
(The source cited is an editorial from the Heritage Foundation, a far-right think tank.)
While it requires “viewpoint-neutral” behavior from everyone who receives money, it has no problem with viewpoint discrimination itself. For example, it outright prohibits any funding for “disparate impact theories of liability,” the idea that seemingly race-neutral rules could have impacts that differ depending on the race of the people involved. Also prohibited: any attempt to compensate for historical discrimination that has prevented women and minorities from having equal opportunities in society. That is considered DEI and is therefore prohibited.
Also out: funding for what it calls “gender ideology,” which it defines as an effort to “deny the biological reality of sex or binary sex in humans.” The study of human chromosomal disorders, which can result in unusual combinations of X and Y chromosomes, is apparently no longer welcome in the United States. “Ending the government-sponsored promotion of divisive gender ideology is critical to scientific research, public safety, and trust in government,” the OMB states, without relying on any evidence.
There is also a political litmus test for funding dating back to the McCarthy era, when those with “un-American” ideas were ostracized. “OMB proposes a new provision under which agencies may consider an applicant’s affiliations with organizations engaged in activities that violate federal law, undermine public or national security, or advocate the overthrow of the United States government,” the document states.
