• The White House DOGE office has targeted federal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs for cuts.
• Federal workers told BI about programs that were flagged that aren't related to DEI.
• Some programs, webpages, and jobs that were flagged used specific words in non-DEI contexts.

Business Insider has found examples of government programs that contained keywords like "equity" — but that weren't actually related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives — that have been indefinitely paused after being flagged for review or, in some cases, cut entirely.

This comes in the weeks following President Donald Trump's executive order ending DEI initiatives.

One USAID employee told BI their program on helping people in sub-Saharan Africa "grow equity through savings accounts" was flagged to be reviewed by the DOGE office shortly after it began targeting DEI-related initiatives. The request for review happened prior to the widespread USAID cuts.

The USAID employee, now on administrative leave, said they believe the review was triggered because the program's name contained the word "equity," even though it was geared toward financial equity rather than anything DEI-related. Business Insider has verified the employee's identity and others who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity.

It felt like "they just used Control+F, or some AI did exactly that," they said. "My impression was it was them just being ham-fisted."

Another federal employee, whose primary job function is managing relations with private equity-held businesses, was placed on administrative leave "pursuant to the President's executive order on DEIA," per a dismissal memo reviewed by BI.

"My job has nothing to do with DEIA at all," the federal employee said, adding that they had attended DEI-related training, but such work was not part of their job description. BI reviewed a copy of the employee's job description and verified it did not contain any work tasks or priorities related to diversity, equity, or inclusion initiatives.

It remains unclear exactly why these two jobs were flagged to be cut.

Representatives for the White House and the DOGE office did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Other DEI language

While it remains unclear exactly how the employees and programs were targeted for removal, Business Insider's reporting expands a growing list of cuts initiated by the DOGE office that appear to target terms like "equity" and "gender" even when used in contexts unrelated to their meanings in DEI frameworks. The USAID employee compared the nature of the cuts to a keyboard shortcut — find and replace — to target DEI-related language.

The Washington Post reported the DOGE office has fed sensitive data into AI software to identify programs to cut.

The Associated Press reported that references to the Enola Gay, the name of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, were among tens of thousands of photos and online posts marked for deletion as the Defense Department works to purge DEI-related content. The AP reported that it appeared the photos were flagged because of the word "gay"; the Enola Gay was named after a colonel's mother.

Per Bloomberg, a DOGE office review led to millions of dollars in canceled affordable housing contracts after their websites and social media posts were combed for terms linked to equity and diversity. It remains unclear what ultimately caused each of the contracts — which addressed homelessness, disaster recovery, and other housing issues — to be flagged.

Business Insider identified over a dozen removed pages of the Internal Revenue Manuals, the official staff instructions for members of the Internal Revenue Service. The pages previously contained notes indicating that their last update — made in response to a Biden-era executive order promoting equity — removed "unnecessary gendered language," such as changing the phrase "he or she" to the gender-neutral pronoun "they."

Business Insider's review of the manual found that the pages were removed after the Trump executive order went into effect. The update note contained the word "gender."

The Wall Street Journal reported that the IRS also removed pages from the manual about the "inequity" of holding on to taxpayer money longer than necessary and the "inclusion" of a taxpayer identification number on a form.

"I feel like this must be reactionary panic at the agencies," one tax attorney told BI about the pages removed from the IRS manuals. "This doesn't seem possible or legal in some cases."

DOGE office cuts reversed and rolled back

Trump said during his address to Congress last week that the DOGE office is being "headed by" White House senior advisor and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. (The White House has said that Amy Gleason is the acting administrator.) The office has been tasked with rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. But though the office has publicly celebrated its wins, it has quietly reversed some of its efforts and hedged its claims of cost savings.

Although not every cut has been permanent, Trump has cheered Musk on, saying he hopes the billionaire businessman gets "more aggressive" in his effort to slash federal spending.

Critics have lambasted the DOGE office and Musk for employing Silicon Valley's "move fast and break things" maxim rather than a slower, more targeted strategy.

The USAID employee whose equity program was flagged for review said they believed the program was likely permanently cut, along with the vast majority of USAID contracts cut through DOGE office efforts.

"The program was about increasing the impact-per-dollar in these developmental impact programs," the employee said, adding that they were making things efficient "in a measured impactful way."

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• Federal workers were emailed Saturday with a request to list productivity details from their week.
• Elon Musk said that those who don't reply by 11:59 p.m. on Monday will have forfeited their role.
• Many federal employees told BI they feel frustrated by the request. Some have already been told not to respond.

Several federal workers across agencies told Business Insider they're frustrated and scared for their jobs after Elon Musk said they must email their work accomplishments or risk losing their jobs.

Some say they're skeptical of the ramifications — others have been told not to respond.

The productivity-tracking email, sent Saturday afternoon from an HR account in the Office of Personnel Management, followed President Donald Trump's request that Musk "get more aggressive." It's the latest of DOGE's sweeping initiatives that have resulted in mass firings, funding pauses, and work stoppages in departments and agencies across the federal government.

Musk, the face of the White House DOGE office, teased that the email would be forthcoming in a post on X Saturday, writing: "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."

"It's terrible," one Department of Education employee whose work has been slowed by executive orders and layoffs said. "It feels like harassment, especially sending it out on a Saturday and boasting about it in advance on X so that everyone could be checking their email afternoon in anticipation of its arrival."

Another federal employee — from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — said they "can only imagine how many people they'll fire based on the responses/non-responses to this."

An additional employee wondered "how much money is being wasted" on having federal employees respond to the email, while yet another questioned who would review the replies.

A probationary federal worker told BI that they agreed with the need to cut waste, but felt that "taking a sledgehammer" to federal agencies isn't the best way to approach the issue.

"As part of the Trump Administration's commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce, OPM is asking employees to provide a brief summary of what they did last week by the end of Monday, CC'ing their manager," an Office of Personnel Management spokesperson confirmed to BI in a statement. "Agencies will determine any next steps."

Many of the federal workers who spoke with BI said that hours after the DOGE email had been sent, they had still not received any communication from their supervisors regarding how or whether to respond.

"No idea how to respond being as this is from outside our chain of command," one federal worker told BI.

Others said they had been instructed by their union representatives or managers to wait for further direction before replying.

"Once again, agencies were caught off guard by these emails, just like the chaotic "Fork in the Road" email," the National Treasury Employees Union wrote in an email to its members, urging them not to respond until they receive further guidance. "This email is yet another attempt by the administration to scare hardworking civil servants who deliver for the American people every day. It is shameful. We will update you soon."

The American Federation of Government Employees said in a Sunday letter to the OPM that the email "fails to identify any legal authority permitting OPM to demand the requested information."

"Federal employees report to their respective agencies through their established chains of command; they do not report to OPM," the AFGE letter reads. "The email was nothing more than an irresponsible and sophomoric attempt to create confusion and bully the hard-working federal employees that serve our country."

The productivity email that was sent to federal workers did not include Musk's comment on X that employees who did not respond by the Monday night deadline would be considered as having resigned. Several workers who saw his post said they wondered whether that would be possible — or legal.

"I question whether them firing people based on a nonresponse to this would be legal," the Department of Education employee said. "There are a number of agencies, like DOJ, which has attorney-client privilege, or DHS, which engages with national security topics, where people will surely be told by supervisors not to respond."

Some of the federal workers who spoke to Business Insider had resolved not to respond. Others, disheartened by the aggressive funding and job cuts propelled by the White House DOGE office, said they had begun looking for other work even if they didn't believe they'd be fired.

A member of the Department of Health and Human Services' Disaster Medical Assistance Team, part time disaster workers who respond to federal disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes, suggested they might resign either way.

"I have another job like the rest of us and I don't need this type of stress," the DMAT member said. "Maybe I'll just resign."

The employee said they're part of a group of people that thrives "in stressful situations," but that the stress of having their job in limbo "is different."

Are you a federal employee who received this email? Share your thoughts by using a non-work device to email ktangalakislippert@businessinsider.com and jdorman@businessinsider.com.