Under former President Joe Biden, staffers for a taxpayer-funded climate study were “required” to fervently embrace diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) when assembling a team in 2023, according to documents obtained by government watchdog group Democracy Restored.
Internal documents viewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation show that the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA 5) sent materials to staff on Nov. 7, 2023, noting that “social science is science” and they were “required to build diverse teams by considering a range of disciplines” that included “Indigenous Knowledge” and “science communication.” The documents showed that staffers were also directed to take into account physical characteristics like “race, ethnicity, [and] gender” as well as “diverse lived experiences and perspectives.”
The NCA 5, which assessed climate change, was released under Biden on Nov. 14, 2023. The assessment has been organized by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) with periodic releases since 2000.
Notably, the USGCRP website went dark as the Trump administration has reportedly moved to shutter the office in early 2025, and the “Hard Q&A” internal notice viewed by the DCNF gives a glimpse into the office’s practices in recent years.
“Nothing screams scientific rigor than turning to pseudoscience to push a preferred narrative,” Democracy Restored Director Houston Keene told the DCNF. “The NCA as a document is already one rife with problems, but these new revelations show just how deep those problems run. Real science should not be stymied by draconian political interests that ultimately harm Americans. The NCA should be thrown out in its entirety.”
