Federal departments and agencies spent over $800,000 in contracts over a three-year period hiring guest speakers to talk to staff on the topics of equity, diversity, and inclusion, records show.
That amount represents the largest spending category out of the over $2 million total spent on speeches from Jan. 1, 2019, to Nov. 23, 2022, an analysis by The Epoch Times shows. The next two highest-spending categories are for topics related to leadership, ethics, and communication, at about $468,000, and topics related to mental health and to health and wellness, at about $462,000.
Some $190,00 was spent on topical issues such as digital government, cybersecurity, and innovation, while a variety of miscellaneous topics accounted for the remaining approximately $184,000….