Biden squandered millions of dollars on DEI policies at NASA

During Joe Biden's administration, NASA allocated more than 20 million dollars to grants and contracts related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), which has caused significant controversy and strong criticism.

These investments included funding for "implicit bias" programs, talks with "anti-racist" authors, guidelines on "gender affirmation" in the workplace, and a left-wing media presence, as revealed by a report.

The push to implement these policies came from an executive order signed by Biden at the start of his term, which promoted a series of measures to integrate DEI principles into all operations of the space agency, affecting recruitment criteria, performance evaluations, and promotions.

The CEO of Open The Books, the organization that drafted the report, John Hart, commented that NASA's mission is too risky to be distracted by identity politics, noting that "Newtonian physics and atmospheric reentry don't care about anti-racist talks and 'affirmation' policies."

Although the grants and contracts allocated to these initiatives represented a fraction of its annual budget of 25 billion dollars, former NASA administrator Bill Nelsonpromoted an equity agenda beyond those funds.

NASA's DEI approach, when the agency's Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunityorganized a talk with the Democratic author and professorIbram Kendi at the end of 2020, titled "Mission to Inclusion: Cultivating an Anti-Racist Workplace."

Although it is not known how much Kendi was paid, in 2022 he received 5,000 dollars for a similar talk with employees of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

It was during the early moments of Biden's presidency when NASA fully adopted these policies, which included courses like "Total Diversity" and "The Power of Inclusion", as well as discussions on books related to unconscious bias and workplace diversity.

A book promoted by NASA, Diversity Beyond Lip Service, indicated that white European, heterosexual, and Christian men must acknowledge the privileges they enjoy and be aware of the feelings of discomfort that this "new responsibility" might generate for them.

Talks on anti-racism topics were also promoted, such as those by the communist Uju Asika, who wrote about how to raise children "in a biased world."

Asika encouraged parents to be aware of racial issues and not to "whitewash" American history, in a clear attempt to interfere in the upbringing of children.

Other implemented policies included guidelines on gender in the workplace, allowing transitioning employees to use the bathrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities they felt most comfortable with, without being forced to use alternative facilities.

Regarding recruitment, NASA focused on "underserved" communities and people with disabilities. Likewise, in performance evaluations, employees were rated based on their commitment to social justice and inclusion, as well as their participation in DEI activities and their effort to promote diversity in employee professional development.

In 2023, NASA organized a "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Day", in which it hired several DEI-oriented companies to provide training to its employees at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston.

One of the provider companies, Decide Diversity, created a "Diversity Table" that labeled employees based on their race, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other markers, with the aim of generating conversations about workplace diversity.

However, this focus on diversity and inclusion has sparked significant criticism for distracting from NASA's main objectives. In this context, the group Open The Books also revealed a report on the financial and quality issues faced by NASA's private contractors.

Among the worst offenders is Boeing, which has suffered delays and cost overruns in the development of the Starliner spacecraft, intended for crew transport to and from the International Space Station (ISS).

This project has had a cost overrun of around 1.8 billion dollars and is six years behind in its development.

Among NASA's most important contractors, Boeing received approximately 6.4 billion dollars in contracts between fiscal years 2021 and 2025, becoming the agency's second-largest contractor after the California Institute of Technology (9.8 billion dollars).

Boeing has been under fire for major quality control issues, which also affected its fleet of 737 MAX aircraft, involved in two fatal accidents.

Regarding SpaceX, Elon Musk's company received 5.4 billion dollars in NASA contracts between 2021 and 2024, including 2.7 billion for developing a Human Landing System for lunar missions and 2.3 billion for transporting astronauts to the ISS.

Unlike Boeing, SpaceX hasn't been accused of significant cost overruns or delays, and Musk has been at the forefront of the Trump administration's initiative to reduce costs in government acquisitions.

Finally, other prominent NASA contractors between 2021 and 2024 include Lockheed Martin (2.8 billion), Northrop Grumman (2 billion), and Blue Origin (1.2 billion).

Regarding NASA's budget, in 2024 it was 24.9 billion dollars, slightly lower than the 25.4 billion in 2023.

This landscape reflects a growing tension between the DEI focus driven by the Biden administration and the financial and operational difficulties NASA faces due to delays and cost overruns in several of its key projects.