grants meet culture war
The document makes clear what kinds of things can be considered administration priorities and national interests – and those are, largely, war. For example, the Trump administration canceled PEPFAR, a program designed to limit the spread of HIV in Africa; This is a move that is estimated to lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths. But for OMB, that’s a good thing, because the alternative was woke: “Far-left activists hijacked the vital work done by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which was established to respond to the AIDS crisis in Africa. Because of the wasteful spending, PEPFAR became a left-wing foreign aid container that attempted to promote abortion and gender ideology.”
(Its cited source for this is an editorial by the Heritage Foundation, a far-right think tank.)
Although it demands “viewpoint neutral” behavior from everyone who receives money, it has no problem engaging in viewpoint discrimination itself. For example, it completely bans any funding for “principles of disparate-impact liability”, the idea that apparently race-neutral rules can have effects that vary depending on the race of the people involved. Also banned: Any attempt to redress historical discrimination that has denied women and minorities equal opportunities in society. This is considered DEI, and thus prohibited.
Also out: Funding for what it calls “gender ideology,” which it defines as “an attempt to deny the biological reality of sex or the sex binary in humans.” Apparently, the study of human chromosome disorders, which can result in abnormal combinations of X and Y chromosomes, is no longer welcome in America. OMB claims, based on no evidence, “Ending government-sponsored promotion of divisive gender ideology is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, and trust in government.”
There is also a political litmus test for funding that is reminiscent of the McCarthy era, when people with “un-American” views were ostracized. “OMB proposes a new provision that agencies may consider an applicant’s affiliation with organizations engaged in activities that violate federal law, undermine public safety or national security, or advocate the overthrow of the United States government,” the document said.
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