Huffines: No Taxpayer Dollars for Woke DEI
(AUSTIN) — Texas Comptroller Don Huffines announced an executive order ensuring that not one dime of taxpayer money flowing through his agency goes to discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Under the order, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts contracts and grants will require contractors and grantees to certify that no part of their work for the state involves discriminatory DEI, and the Comptroller's office is writing immediate-termination authority into its agreements to enforce it.
Under the order, discriminatory DEI means disparate treatment based on race, color, ethnicity, religion, age, sex, or national origin in recruiting, hiring, contracting, program participation, or the use of state resources. Contractors and grantees must also comply with all state and federal anti-discrimination laws and certify they operate no DEI program that violates such laws. Programs that promote preferences based on race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, or national origin, whether in training, hiring, or anywhere else, have no claim on Texas taxpayers’ money.
“The radical left turned diversity, equity, and inclusion into a racket, and taxpayers got stuck with the bill,” Huffines said. “Woke DEI is discrimination, plain and simple. It sorts Texans by skin color and sex, punishes merit, and funnels money to consultants who produce nothing. Those days are over at this agency. This office handles thousands of contracts and grants for hundreds of state agencies and thousands of local governments, and not one dollar of it will go to woke DEI. Not one.
“Every contractor and every grantee is on notice. Hire the best, promote the best, and serve every Texan the same, and you will do just fine. Push woke DEI with taxpayer money, and we will terminate your agreement on the spot. Texas is a merit state, not a quota state. No woke DEI.”
The DEI order follows Huffines’ Oct. 13 executive order banning the use of Comptroller grant money for Flock cameras, automated license plate readers, and other vehicle-identification systems that convert license plate images into computer-readable data. It is the latest in a series of new standard terms Huffines is writing into Comptroller contracts and grants to protect taxpayers and enforce Texas law. More will be announced in the coming weeks.
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