AFPI Launches Major Anti-Discrimination Review of Top Federally Funded Contractors and Grant Recipients for Potential Violations of Federal Civil Rights Laws

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) today announced the launch of a major investigation into compliance with the Attorney General’s July 29, 2025, guidance on unlawful discrimination. The investigation focuses on large federally funded contractors and grant recipients whose publicly available program materials warrant raises compliance concerns.

AFPI is sending formal investigative letters to:

• Sandia National Laboratories
• Bechtel Corporation
• Honeywell International, Inc.
• The Leland Stanford Junior University
• University of Maryland

Together, these five organizations receive billions of dollars in taxpayer funds. For several of them, continued access to federal funding is existential.

Potentially Unlawful DEI Practices Cited

AFPI’s concerns stem from program descriptions indicating certain internship pipelines, scholarships, research tracks, employee-resource groups, and DEI initiatives that appear to restrict eligibility or confer benefits based on race, sex, national origin, or their proxies — practices which may not comply with the July 29, 2025, “Guidance for Recipients of Federal Funding Regarding Unlawful Discrimination” issued by Attorney General Pam Bondi and may violate federal anti-discrimination law.

The Attorney General’s guidance explicitly warns recipients of federal funds that the use of demographic preferences — including “diversity,” “representation,” or “underrepresented” criteria as proxies for racial or sex-based selection — is prohibited in any program design, hiring, pipeline, or scholarship.

Some of the programs flagged in AFPI’s letters include:

• Race-restricted STEM internships and youth programs at Sandia National Laboratories
• Bechtel internship and apprentice pathways framed around demographic “representation” criteria.
• Honeywell’s partnership programs limited to African American students
• Stanford University’s DEI-targeted biomedical research tracks
• University of Maryland’s DEI-based scholarship structures and LGBTQ-exclusive benefits

AFPI is requesting detailed descriptions of eligibility criteria, selection practices, DEI policies, demographic data, and all internal compliance assessments conducted in response to federal law.

“DEI has become a cover for illegal discrimination — and the federal government will no longer allow taxpayer dollars to fund it,” said Leigh Ann O’Neill, AFPI’s chief legal affairs officer. “The Attorney General made it clear last July that every federal contractor and grant recipient must eliminate race-based and sex-based decision-making. These organizations receive billions in federal funds. They do not get to break the law.”

Skyler McCann, an AFPI law clerk working on the investigation, agreed. “Our job is simple: ensure every recipient of federal money follows the law,” she said. “The public deserves answers, and these companies and universities need to explain exactly how their DEI programs operate — and whether they violate civil-rights law.”

AFPI’s investigation is part of a broader push to bring federally funded entities back into compliance with longstanding civil-rights protections and root out discrimination disguised as “equity.” Federally-funded corporations, laboratories, and universities are all subject to the same requirements — and the same consequences for violating them.

AFPI will release public findings as organizations respond.