The House Natural Resources Committee, which has launched an investigation into the Fish and Wildlife Service’s spending on its social justice agenda, said the agency charged with rescuing endangered species is focusing much of its time and money working instead on “social change.”
Chairman Bruce Westerman, Arkansas Republican, and Rep. Paul Gosar, Arizona Republican and chairman of the oversight and investigations subcommittee, are leading the investigation. The committee aimed particularly at the consultant whom the Fish and Wildlife Service hired to lead its “Values Journey,” an attempt to infuse the agency’s operations with social justice principles.
The agency has labeled the Values Journey the director’s top priority.
The lawmakers on Friday demanded that the agency produce extensive documents detailing the various social justice programs at the Fish and Wildlife Service, the amount of money the service is committing to the programs and the role of Metropolitan Group LLC, an outside consulting firm hired to lead the Values Journey.
“The Committee is especially interested in understanding how the Service, aligning with the priorities of the Biden Administration, promotes various ‘social change’ and environmental justice initiatives at the expense of good governance and the Service’s mission to conserve and manage ‘fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the American people,’” Mr. Westerman and Mr. Gosar wrote in a letter to agency Director Martha Williams.
The letter follows an inquiry about the Fish and Wildlife Service’s “eco-grief” training. The training, first revealed by The Washington Times, involved sessions for employees to grapple with trauma or a sense of loss stemming from climate change or other environmental changes.
DOCUMENT: USFWS Consultant Contracts for Social Change Initiatives
The agency struggled to fill the classes, which cost $4,000 per virtual session. Each session could accommodate 35 people.
Committee Republicans had sent a letter to Ms. Williams demanding answers about the training. The lawmakers said Ms. Williams replied with assurances that no further eco-grief training was planned.
The congressmen said Ms. Williams’ response raised questions about the more expansive Values Journey project, which seeks to place the agency at the vanguard of President Biden’s diversity, equity and inclusion agenda.
That includes $2.5 million spent with Metropolitan Group, an Oregon-based firm that contributes exclusively to Democratic candidates and liberal causes and is leading the Values Journey.
The Republicans said other consultants paid to help the social justice transformation include Collabovate Consulting LLC, which expanded out of the “poetic chaos” after George Floyd’s death in 2020 and places “racial equity and inclusion” at the center of its training; and Syah B. Consulting, which argues that social justice is “deeply imbedded in our culture” and says the solution is training to bring workers’ “authentic selves to the table.”
Mr. Westerman and Mr. Gosar questioned how the contracts with those consultants were issued.
They pointed to another federal agency, the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is facing an inspector general’s audit over what they called “excessive use and cost of outside consultants.”
The Republicans sought any contracts or agreements with Metropolitan Group, Collabovate Consulting, Partners for Performance Inc. and Syah B. Consulting.
They asked for estimates of how much paid time off employees have been granted to pursue equity and diversity interest groups.
The Times has contacted the Fish and Wildlife Service for this report.
The Times reported last month that the service had issued a policy erasing the cap on how much paid time employees could request to participate in resources groups for LBGTQ employees, female employees and other identity groups.
In a memo late last year, Ms. Williams directed supervisors to approve diversity-related requests for paid time off.
In a memo detailing her push, Ms. Williams said the “need to be our true selves at work” was crucial to the agency’s mission. A top deputy declared that the diversity, equity and inclusion agenda was the agency’s most important work right now.
Employees said they were sent to diversity training, constantly received emails offering seminars and webinars on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, or DEIA, training, and were pushed to serve on the DEIA employee groups.
The agency declined to provide The Times with an estimate of man-hours devoted to the Values Journey or broader diversity, equity and inclusion agenda.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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