Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said Tuesday that the agency under President Donald Trump has begun dismantling internal diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and encouraging telecommunications companies to focus instead on performance and customer service.
Carr made the remarks during a policy discussion hosted by Breitbart News, where Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyle asked about the administration’s broader effort to eliminate DEI programs within federal agencies and regulated industries.
Carr said that one of his first moves after becoming chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in January 2025 was to end the agency’s internal DEI initiatives.
“So as soon as I came in, we ended that,” Carr said.
According to Carr, the FCC had previously ranked promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion as one of its top strategic priorities, diverting attention and funding away from the agency’s core mission of expanding communications infrastructure and ensuring reliable internet access.
“Most people don’t realize that when I came in as chair of the FCC in January of ’25, the FCC had promoting DEI listed as, I think, our number two or three highest strategic priority,” Carr said.
He added that the agency had been spending millions of dollars supporting those initiatives.
“We were spending millions and millions of dollars promoting DEI at the FCC,” Carr explained. “The FCC — we’re trying to make sure there’s more internet connectivity out there — but we were getting sidetracked by promoting DEI.”
Carr said the commission has also begun reviewing companies under FCC oversight to determine whether they were implementing what he described as discriminatory DEI policies.
“We’ve been going through the entities that we regulate and looking at ones that have been participating in this sort of invidious form of DEI discrimination,” Carr said.
Several major telecommunications companies have already responded to the administration’s shift in policy, he added.
Carr said firms including Verizon, AT&T, and Charter Communications have moved to end internal DEI promotion efforts and instead emphasize merit-based hiring and service improvements.
“As you’ve noted, Verizon, AT&T, Charter, others have come forward, and they’ve agreed to end their promotion of those invidious forms of DEI discrimination,” Carr said.
The FCC chairman argued that focusing on merit and customer needs will ultimately benefit consumers and strengthen telecommunications infrastructure across the country.
“They’ve agreed to focus on merit and focus on serving their customers,” Carr said. “I think that’s a good thing.”
