Forty-nine Democratic lawmakers have urged U.S. companies to maintain their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
The letter, led by Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), follows numerous companies reducing their DEI initiatives due to boycotts and shareholder pressure.
“We write to call on you to reject division and continue supporting programs, policies, and initiatives that give everyone a fair chance at achieving the American Dream,” the letter reads. “Inclusion is a core American value, and a great business practice. By embracing this value, you create safer and fairer workplaces without sacrificing quality or financial success. Continual progress towards more equal policies and benefits decreases the risk that anyone—employees and consumers—will experience discrimination, bias, and other threats to their safety and well-being.”
According to the lawmakers, inclusion is “good for business.”
“Fostering a culture of equality allows your companies to remain competitive, letting them recruit and retain the best employees from our country’s increasingly diverse and talented workforce,” the letter says, claiming that companies reflective of the nation’s “gender and racial diversity” are “more likely to outperform all other comapnies.”
Toyota, Ford, John Deere, Tractor Supply, Lowe’s, Harley-Davidson, and Jack Daniel’s have scaled back DEI efforts in recent months.
At the time of Toyota’s DEI reduction, conservative activist Robby Starbuck wrote on X, “Our campaigns are so effective that we’re getting some of the biggest corporations on earth to change their policies. The landscape of corporate America is quickly shifting to sanity and neutrality. We are the trend now, not the anomaly.”
Democrats have long called for greater “equity” in American businesses and culture.
In January 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order to “advance racial equity and support for underserved communities,” declaring that it is his administration’s priority to promote “equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity” throughout “the whole of our Government.”
That June, Biden issued another executive order that demanded the federal government be a “model for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.”
“Accordingly, the Federal Government must strengthen its ability to recruit, hire, develop, promote, and retain our Nation’s talent and remove barriers to equal opportunity,” the order read. “It must also provide resources and opportunities to strengthen and advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility across the Federal Government.”
