For Immediate Release: 
December 13, 2025

[email protected] 

Congresswoman Waters Demands Answers on Implementation of Anti-DEIA Executive Orders 

Sends Letters to Six Executive Branch Agencies signed by 40 Members of Congress

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, sent letters on December 9, 2025, to six executive branch agencies in response to the Trump administration’s executive orders terminating diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) policies and programs. The letters ask how the agencies are implementing these anti-DEIA executive orders and what steps – if any – they have taken to ensure they are not violating civil rights law. The letters were signed by 40 Members of Congress. 

“Everyone deserves to have access to living-wage jobs; safe, affordable housing; quality health care; and educational opportunities,” said Congresswoman Waters. “Yet, the Trump administration’s anti-equity executive orders seek to weaponize civil rights enforcement, terminate longstanding legal government programs, and dismantle important, decades-old legal tools for ferreting out discrimination. Pursuant to these executive orders, the Trump administration has sought to cut funding for research into cancer, Black maternal health, autism, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and HIV; halt programs to improve teacher development and quality; withhold funding for domestic violence services, food access, and school-based mental health supports; and terminate grants for college preparatory programs. These attacks have harmed people of all backgrounds in this country: Black, white, Latino, Asian American, and Indigenous; from urban and rural areas; of every gender, sexual orientation, and ability. People in America deserve to know how the Trump administration is implementing these harmful executive orders.” 

Each letter was signed by the following 40 Members of Congress: Nanette Barragán, Joyce Beatty, Shontel M. Brown, André Carson, Troy A. Carter, Sr., Yvette D. Clarke, Steve Cohen, Danny K. Davis, Adriano Espaillat, Dwight Evans, Cleo Fields, Jesús G. “Chuy” García, Sylvia R. Garcia, Daniel Goldman, Al Green, Jared Huffman, Glenn Ivey, Jonathan L. Jackson, Pramila Jayapal, Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr., Robin L. Kelly, Timothy M. Kennedy, Summer L. Lee, Jennifer L. McClellan, LaMonica McIver, Kelly Morrison, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Ayanna Pressley, Delia C. Ramirez, Janice Schakowsky, Terri A. Sewell, Lateefah Simon, Bennie G. Thompson, Rashida Tlaib, Ritchie Torres, Lauren Underwood, Maxine Waters, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Nikema Williams, and Frederica S. Wilson. 

The letters were sent to the Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, Department of Labor, and the Environmental Protection Agency. 
 
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