After top Democrats and community leaders called for the firing of the state’s diversity chief last spring over his “DEI is dead” comments, the General Assembly included language in its budget to redirect funding from the Office of Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion to a loan program to help licensed cannabis sellers unless “equity” is put back into the state’s diversity office title by this summer.
In January 2022, Gov. Glenn Youngkin renamed the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion through an executive order by replacing “equity” with “opportunity,” contrary to the state code. The move was met with swift pushback from Democratic leaders.
“The law is diversity, equity and inclusion,” Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, said in an interview at the end of this year’s session. The governor’s press office did not respond to the Mercury’s request for comment earlier this week.
The governor introduced his budget proposal in December, which appropriated an estimated $2.6 million in funding over the next two years for the Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion, consolidated into the general fund for the governor’s office. If the governor instead accepts the General Assembly’s proposal, a budget amendment carried by Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, by July 1, $3.6 million over the next two years will be appropriated to the office and its title would be restored to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Nathaniel Cline, Virginia Mercury over at WTOP
