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Experts say communities that overwhelming supported Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election are experiencing the "most suffering" amid his administration's attack on DEI, per Time Magazine.
On his first day of office, Trump signed an executive order titled “Ending Radical and Waste Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” targeting DEI and environmental-justice initiatives and programs.
The administration claimed that its goal was to cut down on spending and end initiatives singling out minorities for help. However, as a result of the executive order, countless numbers of federal government workers have been fired or put on administrative leave, including an EPA staffer who spearheaded an iniative to tackle elevated child lead levels in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
The city's children have dealt with health issues and developmental delays due to lead service lines scattered throughout Clarksburg. In 2023, the EPA's environmental justice division introduced a new program to increase lead testing for children so elevated levels could be caught early. The program invested $150,000 into lead-testing kits for Harrison County, raising testing rates in children from roughly 8 to 40 percent in several West Virginia counties.
With Trump's mass federal workforce purge and attack on DEI, the future of the program and ones like it across the country. Roughly 167 members of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights have been put on administrative leave.
In a video posted on X earlier this month, New EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin “the days of irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash to far-left activist
"UPDATE: I just cancelled another 21 wasteful DEI and Environmental Justice grants, with the help of our amazing @DOGE team, racking up $67m more in savings!" Zeldin said in another post last week.
Adam Ortiz, who up until last month served as an EPA regional administrator, said many of the environmental-justice programs that have been hit by staff cuts and funding freezes seek to help poor, white communities in places that overwhelmingly voted for Trump. Clarksburg is 90 percent rate, boasts a poverty rate of 23.2 percent and is located in Harrison County, which voted for Trump in 2024 by a margin of 40 percentage points.
“These are communities that had the most hope in this Administration and are now feeling the most suffering,” Ortiz said.
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