The House Natural Resources Committee has launched an investigation into the Fish and Wildlife Service’s spending on its social justice agenda, saying the agency charged with rescuing endangered species is spending much of its time and money working instead on “social change.”
Led by Chairman Bruce Westerman and Rep. Paul Gosar, chairman of the oversight and investigations subcommittee, the committee took particular aim at the consultant FWS hired to lead its “Values Journey,” an attempt to infuse the agency’s operations with social justice principles.
FWS has labeled the Values Journey the director’s top priority for the agency.
The Republican lawmakers on Friday demanded the agency produce extensive documents detailing the various social justice pushes at FWS, the amount of money the agency is committing to it and the role played by Metropolitan Group LLC, an outside consultancy 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,’” they wrote in a letter to agency Director Martha Williams.
The letter follows a previous inquiry about FWS’s “eco-grief” training. The training, which was 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 that cost $4,000 per virtual session. Each session could train 35 people.
Committee Republicans had sent a letter to Ms. Williams demanding answers on the training. They said she replied with assurances that no additional eco-grief training was planned.
But the congressmen said her 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 which 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” following George Floyd’s death in 2020 and which 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 of Arkansas and Mr. Gosar of Arizona 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,
And they asked for estimates of how much paid time off employees have been granted to pursue equity and diversity interest groups.
The Times has reached out to the agency for this story.
The Times reported last month that FWS had issued a new policy erasing the cap on how much paid time employees could request to take part in resources groups for LGBT employees, women employees and other identity groups.
Ms. Williams, in a memo late last year, directed supervisors to approve diversity-related requests for paid time off.
Ms. Williams, in a memo detailing her push, said the “need to be our true selves at work” was crucial to the agency’s mission. And a top deputy declared 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 (DEIA) training, and were pushed to serve on the DEIA employee groups.
The agency declined to provide The Times with an estimate for manpower hours devoted to the Values Journey or broader diversity, equity and inclusion agenda.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.