Employees at several federal agencies Friday were ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures after President Donald Trump signed executive orders aiming to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion programs from 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 a memo sent from Jason Bonander, the CDC's Chief Information Officer and obtained by ABC News. "Staff are being asked to alter signature blocks by 5.p.m. ET today (Friday, January 31, 2025) to follow the revised policy."
Employees at the Department of Transportation and Department of Energy received a similar memo, ABC News reported, being told to remove pronouns from everything from government grant applications to email signatures across the department, sources told ABC News.
Spokespeople for the Transportation Department, Energy Department, and CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
The memo explained to employees how to edit their signatures, ABC News said.
Trump last week moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity, and inclusion staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off.
The moves Tuesday follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government's DEI programs that could touch on everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners. Trump has called the programs "discrimination" and insisted on restoring strictly "merit-based" hiring.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.