Fort Worth council suspends DEI programs, adopts small-business plan to protect federal grants

The Fort Worth City Council voted Tuesday to suspend application and enforcement of certain diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) ordinances and to adopt a small business development program intended to preserve federal grant funding and shift the city's procurement priorities toward locally based small businesses.

City staff warned council that recent executive orders, federal agency directives and related court rulings have required grant recipients to certify that they do not operate programs that use race, color, national origin, religion or similar criteria for participation. "These grant requirements do not affect our civil rights office and our ability to support our Human Relations Commission," Assistant City Manager Dana Bergdorf told the council, but she said the city faces the risk of losing active federal grants totaling about $277,000,000 across multiple departments and about $40,600,000 in annual awards if it does not act.

The immediate policy change will suspend DEI-related ordinances and resolutions that staff concluded would put the city and covered employees at legal risk under the federal False Claims Act and other federal enforcement actions if the city continued to certify certain grant documents. Council members were briefed that the city's annual HUD-related awards alone include approximately $13,300,000 for community development programs that support low-income households and fund neighborhood services…