After years of working on the federal level assisting President Donald Trump’s first administration and former President George W. Bush, one state lawmaker is taking his diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) budget-slashing efforts to Texas – but is being met by resistance from Democrats and Republicans alike.
“We have gotten far away from the principles and the values that made our state and our country great [consisting] of limited government, low taxes, low regulations, maximum individual freedom, free markets, [and] private property rights,” Texas State Representative Brian Harrison told Fox News Digital. “I wish every elected Republican would remember this: As government expands, liberty shrinks.”
“I’m not going to be silent, and I’m going to cut this off at the source. And I think the best way to do that is to starve it by cutting off all the funds that are going to DEI because my constituents, they’re already overtaxed, many of them are being taxed out of their homes. And the last thing they want their hard-earned tax money going to pay for is woke, Marxist, facially discriminatory DEI policies,” he continued.
In recent Texas House Appropriations hearings, Harrison has made it a point to confront state agency leaders over alleged “billions” of state taxpayers’ dollars being spent on DEI-related expenditures.
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He pointed out DEI-based courses being taught in state universities, and a civil rights office under the Department of Transportation which employs 50 people dedicated to DEI efforts within the agency. Harrison was also caught in a tense exchange with the Texas Water Development Board chair over alleged race-based hiring, which was outlawed by a gubernatorial executive order last year.
“I had one state [agency], just one agency alone. I forced them to admit to me that they have spent probably at least $1 billion, just one agency, on awarding contracts that were… at least in some part, on the basis of race or gender,” Harrison said.
The Texas Department of Transportation’s media relations director said it follows “all federal and state law and regulations,” in a written statement to Fox News Digital.
Harrison’s recent outbursts over DEI on the House floor has put him in hot water with his own party – House Appropriations Chairman Greg Bonnen and Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows sent a written directive that DEI funding-related questioning is “unacceptable and beneath the dignity [of the House].”
“No true conservative supports DEI or spends billions of tax dollars on it while protecting and empowering Democrats who are championing it, as you have done,” Harrison wrote back in response. “Voters would be shocked to learn your proposed budget for this session increases funding for state agencies engaged in DEI.”
“Democrats, their mouthpieces in the mainstream media, and perhaps worst of all, weak liberal establishment RINO Republicans… They organized a complete hatchet job, dishonest smear campaign, okay? Accusing me of [absolute] lies,” Harrison expanded with Fox Digital.
“They’re going to have to do a lot better than that if they want to shut me up,” he added. “I am not going to stop until my taxpayers no longer have to have their money, their hard-earned tax dollars, weaponized against them and their values by funding these racially discriminatory DEI practices.”
Bonnen did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, but Speaker Burrows’ press secretary said in a statement: “These allegations are objectively false and are being made by an attention-seeker trying to advance his own political ambitions. First, no one has tried to silence anyone, and Speaker Burrows has a history of working on legislation to prohibit hiring practices based upon prioritizing DEI over merit. Speaker Burrows has consistently opposed DEI initiatives in Texas public institutions—most notably by voting for and helping pass Senate Bill 17, the landmark legislation prohibiting DEI in higher education last session.”
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“While House lawmakers have broad latitude to ask probing questions during committee hearings,” the statement continued, “they are expected to treat public servants—in this case, a gubernatorial appointee – with respect and decency.”
The Texas House Democratic Caucus told Fox News Digital that they are “on board with smart bipartisan proposals,” and that they’re “glad” to join conservatives in “condemning” Harrison’s anti-DEI campaign.
“Texans shouldn’t be fooled by Harrison, who is no conservative nor freedom fighter — just a goldendoodle breeder-turned-COVID czar who presided over the creation of the Department of Health and Human Services Equal Employment Opportunity, Diversity, and Inclusion office. He will blow where he thinks political winds are headed, and his transparent political ambitions should be snuffed out by Republicans and Democrats alike who see through his deceit.”
When it comes to how diversity initiatives are viewed by average Americans, though, an NBC News poll conducted from March 7 to 11 found that almost half of U.S. workers believe DEI programs should continue in the workplace (48%) and the other half feels workplace DEI programs should be eliminated (49%).
But still, Rep. Harrison is committed to proving that DEI policies violate Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and bringing President Donald Trump’s sweeping DEI takedown to his own state.
“Not only does [DEI] make government run less efficiently, not only is it immoral, not only is it unethical, not only is it probably unconstitutional, not only is it illegal to discriminate against Texans on the basis of their race or their gender, the state of Texas is doing it in such a way that it’s costing more money… overpaying for contracts and unemployment decisions that are predicated on the basis of race,” Harrison said.
“I agree with Martin Luther King [Jr.] when he said he dreamed of an America where his children will be judged on the content of their character and not the color of our skin. We have got to return to American exceptionalism, to Texas exceptionalism, where the best qualified candidate gets the job with the hardest work ethic, with the best character, not on immutable characteristics like their race or their gender,” he continued. “We’ve got to make Texas and America exceptional again.”
Just last week, two Republicans voted against Harrison’s budget rider proposal to stop taxpayer-funded DEI initiatives in a formal appropriations meeting, ultimately moving not to adopt it. In response, Harrison filed H.B. No. 4784, “to end all DEI in the Texas government.”
“We are being outdone in the fight to eradicate DEI by Washington, D.C., the biggest swamp of them all,” Harrison said. “I’d actually like to see the state of Texas step up and do at least as much as President Trump is doing at the federal level to eradicate these racially discriminatory practices.”
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