Several government web sites serving Wisconsin went offline this week after President Donald Trump issued an executive order Monday that seeks to dismantle federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The website for Wisconsin’s Department of Military Affairs went down Wednesday afternoon about 4 p.m. before coming back online the next day, a spokesperson confirmed.
A spokesperson said that agency wanted to ensure its online content complied with Trump’s new anti-DEI directive affecting the federal government. Wisconsin’s Department of Military Affairs includes a mix of federal and state employees, and it oversees the state’s Emergency Management office.
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Wisconsin’s Emergency Management website likewise went offline temporarily earlier this week.
As of Friday afternoon, Wisconsin’s National Guard website remained offline. A message on its landing page said officials were reviewing the site to ensure compliance with the presidential order.
Trump’s order reversed a directive from former President Joe Biden’s administration, which had asked federal agencies to come up with plans for advancing diversity, equity and inclusion.
Proponents say such programs make the federal government more inclusive of and responsive to people from underserved groups.
But Trump’s order disavowed all federal DEI efforts.
“The public release of these plans demonstrated immense public waste and shameful discrimination,” Trump’s order said. “That ends today.”
Trump’s order told the heads of federal agencies to undertake a list of actions within 60 days. That included terminating all DEI and environmental justice offices and positions “to the maximum extent allowed by law” and compiling a list of all contractors and grant recipients who have provided DEI training or other DEI-related services.
On Wednesday, Trump’s administration issued a memo, ordering all employees of federal DEI offices to be placed on leave by the end of that business day.
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