The Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA), which administers the education of nearly 70,000 children of the nation’s military personnel, can’t seem to shake the agency’s culture of secrecy and deception, according to a breaking report published by Open the Books last week. The report details how the agency deceived Congress by claiming to disband its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) department, while actually doubling down on embedding DEI initiatives into every aspect of the organization.
When auditors from Open the Books sought answers via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, DODEA denied or heavily redacted requests for basic information. Auditors learned that DODEA Director Tom Brady was part of a newly-formed DEI Steering Committee, and when they inquired about the names of those who sit on the Steering Committee, they were told the names were unavailable.
Another FOIA request for electronic calendar invitations for Steering Committee events yielded documents that “were so redacted that they were functionally unusable: all non-executive names on the calendar invitations were redacted, along with all meeting descriptions. Dates for the meetings were revealed, however, so auditors can confirm the meetings are on-going.”
[READ: DOD Is Forging A Woke K-12 Army With Race And Sex Indoctrination In Military Schools]
But Open the Books auditors are not the only ones being shut out by DODEA. Members of Congress who have oversight of the agency have faced the same treatment. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter to Brady in 2020 asking for information about
