Weaponizing Regulation
By Philip
Mattera, director of the Corporate
Research Project of Good Jobs First for the
Donald Trump has long presented himself as a foe of
regulation, and since taking office for the second time he has gone to great
lengths to eliminate existing rules, prevent the adoption of new ones, and
dismantle entire agencies..webp)
Trump is looking for a few good rats to
report employers for DEI
Yet now it appears he has discovered that regulation can be
put to good use—not to control corporate misconduct but rather to advance his
administration’s ideological aims and to weaken his perceived enemies.
The False Claims Act (FCA) is one of the primary tools used
by the Justice Department to address fraud by federal contractors and
healthcare providers. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, previously one of
Trump’s criminal lawyers, recently sent a memo to
DOJ prosecutors saying they should bring FCA actions against contractors or
other recipients of federal funds that have diversity, equity, and inclusion
programs.
To promote such efforts, Blanche said he is creating a Civil
Rights Fraud Initiative with teams of lawyers from the DOJ’s Fraud Division and
the Civil Rights Division who would be expected to collaborate with both the
U.S. Attorney Offices around the country and other federal agencies.
Blanche’s initiative is an escalation of the Trump
Administration’s aggressive moves to depict DEI, which is meant to address
racism and sexism, as its own form of discrimination. It is in keeping with
a document issued
in March by the DOJ and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission warning
that DEI could be unlawful. And it goes along with the announcement by the
Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs that it was looking for evidence
of supposedly illegal practices in the plans submitted by federal contractors
under the Biden Administration to address allegations of discrimination.
The Federal Communications Commission, which has a history of addressing employment discrimination by broadcast license holders, is also targeting DEI. FCC chairman Brendan Carr, an unabashed Trump supporter, has been pressuring companies such as Disney and Comcast over their diversity practices. Verizon won approval for its purchase of Frontier Communications by promising to abandon its DEI programs.
Carr is also using the FCC’s authority over media mergers to
assist Trump’s dubious lawsuits against private media companies such as CBS
parent Paramount Global. And he has used the power of the agency to try to
influence the way the news gets reported. He has, for example, posted tweets
suggesting that outlets owned by Comcast might be putting their licenses at
risk by failing to depict deportee Kilmar Abrego Garcia as the violent gang
member the White House claims him to be.
Carr and Blanche appear to be in the vanguard of an emerging
effort by the Trump Administration to use the justice and regulatory systems to
attack its perceived enemies in the business world.
Wholesale deregulation is troubling, but just as concerning
is the warping of oversight into a weapon against corporations for no
legitimate policy purpose. One might expect deep-pocketed companies to use
their resources to defend themselves. But for now, it appears they are more
likely to join many universities, law firms, and other institutions in giving
in to the intimidation.
