First wave of DEI-related contract cancellations hit the market
An even larger number of contracts are seeing modifications that drop requirements related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
President Trump’s push to rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion requirements has started to hit specific contracts and task orders.
Most of the contracts we have identified, so far, are tagged with orders to modify and/or remove requirements related to DEI. We are working to identify more of course.
In one example, the Energy Department has removed DEI requirements from a $20 billion contract with the University of California system to manage the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Using information from the GovTribe data base and USASpending.gov, we found three contracts that are cancellations and are tagged with “stop work” or “termination” orders.
Ernst & Young had a $3 million contract with the Department of Housing and Urban Development cancelled on Friday. The contract support implementation of Biden administration executive orders.
Gant Global Services, a woman- and veteran-owned small business, had a $2.7 million HUD contract cancelled. The company was supporting equal employment opportunity investigations.
A third cancelled contract we found belonged to Performax 3. That $520,000 award covered DEI training at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
It is important to note that contract actions from defense agencies have a 90-day lag in their reporting to USASpending. On the other hand, actions from civilian agencies are generally reported more immediately.
We expect this to just be the start. After all, the executive orders are barely a week old.
More cancellations and modifications are likely in future days and weeks. We’ve reached out to several companies and will continue to track these developments.