Washington, DC – Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a statement following the Subcommittee on Oversight & Accountability hearing on the State Department’s Fiscal Year 2024 diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility budget request: 

“Under Ambassador Abercrombie-Winstanley’s historic leadership, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion—with Congress’ cooperation—has made considerable progress in addressing longstanding institutional barriers for the recruitment and advancement of a diverse workforce at the Department, in which individuals’ talents are fully leveraged on behalf of U.S. foreign policy. However, there is much more work to be done. Unfortunately, rather than engaging in a substantive discussion on how the Department is working to resolve this critical national security challenge, my Republican colleagues in today’s hearing continued to politicize efforts to rectify longstanding inequities at State by perpetuating a false narrative that expanding equal opportunity and access for people of all backgrounds is effectively reverse racism or part of a “woke” agenda. 

“Unfortunately, their efforts to hinder the Department’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility work go further than today’s hearing. Extremist Republicans continue to attack the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and knowingly misrepresent its work. They have repeated mischaracterizations and half-truths about recent changes to boost accessibility at the Department, ranging from the Foreign Service Officers’ Test to the Department’s official font. And they have attempted to slow-roll or stop the disbursement of Congressionally-appropriated funds to support activities across the Department aimed at expanding human rights and equal opportunity—both inside State and around the world. This “anti-woke” campaign undermines our national security interests, fuels dangerous culture wars, and runs counter to the bipartisanship demonstrated across successive Administrations—and in my own engagement with Secretaries of State from both parties—to help bring about meaningful legislative and policy changes to make the State Department as effective as it can be.  

“America’s foreign policy is best served when we leverage America’s greatest strength: its diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, and ideas. Broadening recruitment practices through diverse pipelines and paid internships; addressing barriers to retention and promotion of historically excluded candidates; using comprehensive data to identify and address those barriers so no one at the Department is excluded in the future: these all work to advance U.S. national security and foreign policy goals, not hinder it.” 

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