Republican House members launched an investigation into the State Department’s new racial-equity post last week, citing a National Review report. In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Representative James Comer — the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee — and other GOP lawmakers on the panel expressed their concern that the new role “categorizes and further divides Americans.”
Comer and the GOP lawmakers compared the new role to the Department of Homeland Security’s recently disbanded “Disinformation Governance Board,” writing, “The Special Representative is the latest evidence the Biden Administration is willing to devote time, funding, and other government resources to enact divisive policies.”
The Biden administration created this new special representative for racial equity and justice post earlier this year, as part of the State Department’s equity-action plan, as NR previously reported. The special representative has a number of responsibilities that include promoting racial equity within the department, advancing equity globally throughout U.S. diplomacy, and countering disinformation on related topics.
The lawmakers also contested the Biden administration’s characterization of equity as a core national-security objective.
“The Biden Administration has characterized equity as a ‘national security challenge with global consequences’ in an April 2022 Department press release initially announcing the Special Representative,” they wrote. “The Biden Administration’s prior attempts to shoehorn this pernicious ideology into every corner of the federal government have failed, and Committee Republicans urge reconsideration of this latest change within the Department.”
Blinken announced Desirée Cormier Smith, a former senior adviser within State’s international-organizations bureau, as his pick for the role on June 17. Cormier Smith, he said in a statement, “is a recognized racial justice expert with a deep and steadfast commitment to equity and justice to all.” The position does not require Senate confirmation, and she immediately started her tenure as special representative.
Before joining the administration in 2021, Cormier Smith made a number of statements hinting at the perspective with which she approaches her job. During her time as an analyst at the Open Society Foundations, she expressed her support of a global reparations campaign for structural racism on Twitter. She also railed against the Electoral College, which she characterized as a racist institution.
The Republican lawmakers requested all State Department documents relevant to the creation of the special-representative position and Cormier Smith’s appointment to it.