Portland mayor orders changes to city equity policies to comply with Trump DEI mandate
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson
has ordered city bureaus to change the wording for city programs that benefit minority groups to comply with President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI directives.
“This means that City programs and services cannot give preference to groups with ‘protected-class status’ based on characteristics such as race or gender,” wrote Wilson in a Thursday letter explaining his executive order.
The move marks the city’s most significant policy shift in response to
Trump’s second term agenda.
Wilson noted that Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding from cities that don’t make these changes. Portland relies on about $350 million in federal grant funding for different programs, the majority of which impact city housing and transportation projects. These grants make up about 4% of the city’s annual budget.
“Although this decision has been challenging, it is in the best interest of Portlanders,” he continued. “Losing federal funding would harm the very people that many of our city programs are designed to help.”
Wilson’s first-ever executive order is a direct response to
an executive order signed by Trump in January, which threatened to withhold federal grant dollars from cities with policies that violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to the current U.S. Department of Justice, that could include any policies that attempt to prioritize certain races and genders above others.
According to the mayor’s office, that definition could include roughly 75 city programs and policies. For example, it could impact Portland programs that prioritize contracts with minority-owned businesses or
a policy that requires the city interview qualified women and people of color when recruiting bureau directors. Some councilors have also raised concerns that it could also apply to the Portland Clean Energy Fund, a voter-approved sales tax on large companies that has generated more than a billion dollars for programs that address climate changes — including job training and grants for marginalized communities impacted by climate change.
In a press release announcing the order, a spokesperson for Wilson said that some of these changes will be pretty straightforward, like “updating language to clarify that a program or resource is available to all Portlanders.”
The release stressed that the order doesn’t eliminate “most” of the city’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. It’s unclear which of these initiatives might be eliminated.
City Administrator Michael Jordan has been tasked with overseeing the policy language change across city departments. That work will begin in the coming weeks.
The city is under a time crunch: By August, it needs to sign paperwork with the federal government to unlock $31 million in anticipated federal grants. By signing those documents, the city confirms that no city policies violate anti-discrimination laws.
The city has tried to fight this financial threat in the courts. In May, Portland
joined a lawsuit against the administration’s restrictions to grant funding based on non-compliance with Trumps’ orders on DEI, immigration and transgender rights. But that challenge remains tied up in court as grant deadlines pass.
There are risks to the city accepting federal funding without changing city policies on race and gender. In May, the DOJ created a
new program to investigate whether recipients of federal funds “knowingly violate federal civil rights laws.” If a city is found in violation, the official who signed off on the grant agreement could face jail time.
