Employees at several federal agencies were ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures by Friday afternoon, according to internal memos obtained by ABC News. The memos cited two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office that sought to curtail diversity and equity programs in the federal government.
“Pronouns and any other information not permitted in the policy must be removed from CDC/ATSDR employee signatures by 5.p.m. ET on Friday,” according to one message sent to CDC employees Friday morning.
Federal employees at the Department of Transportation received a similar directive on Thursday, the same day the department was dealing with the aftermath of the D.C. plane crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
According to ABC News, employees were told to remove pronouns from everything in the department, from government grant applications to email signatures.
Employees at the Department of Energy, who received a similar notice Thursday, were told it was to comply with Trump’s executive order, which requires the removal of DEI “language in Federal discourse, communications, and publications.”
It was unclear whether employees from other federal agencies received similar messages. Spokespeople for the Transportation Department, Energy Department, HHS, and CDC did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The mandate to remove pronouns from email signatures is the latest example of the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine federal diversity and equity initiatives.
On his first day in office, Trump issued two executive orders calling for the end of “radical and wasteful DEI programs” and restoring “biological truth to the federal government.” Both orders were mentioned in the Friday message to agencies.
The memos included instructions for editing email signatures.
At least one career civil servant was irritated by the order.
“In my decade-plus years at the CDC, I have never been told what I can and can not put in my email signature,” said one recipient, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.
The Office of Personnel Management issued a memo on Wednesday directing agencies to “review agency email systems such as Outlook and turn off features that prompt users for their pronouns.”
