- The American Accountability Project, a conservative group, created a “DEI watchlist” website. It includes mostly Black employees at the Department of Health and Human Services.
- The effort comes as agencies are working to apply President Donald Trump’s executive order banning government agencies from engaging in or promoting diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility efforts.
- Government employees have expressed concerns. One employee on the group’s list saying it was “unnerving” and worrying about threats to their safety.
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A conservative watchdog group has created what it calls a “DEI watchlist” of several government workers it accuses of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion at work. Most of the people on the list are Black and work at the Department of Health and Human Services, and the DEI watchlist website refers to them as “targets.”
The list has drawn attention after President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month. It required the end of all programs that promote DEI as well as accessibility in government.
Newsweek confirmed that the website is the product of the American Accountability Foundation. The group is headed by former Republican staffers on Capitol Hill and at the White House.
The site singles out people who have done various things, including working on DEI initiatives, making campaign donations to Democrats and listing pronouns in their bios.
A separate order from President Trump signed last week bans employees from including pronouns in their email signatures.
NBC News spoke with an employee listed on the site, and they granted anonymity due to the employee’s safety concerns.
“It’s unnerving,” the person said. “My name and my picture is there, and in 2025, it’s very simple to Google and look up someone’s home address and all kinds of things that potentially put me at risk.”
“I don’t know what the intention of the list is for. It’s just kind of a scary place to be.”
The American Accountability Foundation has created at least one other list of government employees, which it said is focused on DEI.
It compiled a list of Department of Defense employees and sent it to then-Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth. The group says the people there were “excessively focused” on DEI and described it as “an impediment to national security.”
