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(Bloomberg) — Texas and nine other Republican-led states are lobbying for Wall Street’s diversity programs, asking companies about their hiring policies and supplier selections as the Trump administration moves to Gut Dei .
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote to the companies Thursday saying they appear to be “unlawfully advancing discriminatory diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and demanding they answer a series of questions about their programs .He said the companies could have breached their fiduciary duties by pursuing an ultra-modern “political motive or agenda”.
The letter was sent to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Money Manager BlackRock Inc.
“You appear to have adopted quotas based on race and sex, and to have made business and investment decisions based not on maximizing shareholder and asset value, but on advancing political agendas,” Paxton said in a letter obtained by by Bloomberg.
Paxton gave the companies 45 days to respond to the questions. “Before taking legal action, we extend to each of you the opportunity to avoid lengthy enforcement action,” he wrote.
The banks and Blackrock did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The letter comes after Trump, on his second day in office, ordered federal contractors to say they do not “engage in unlawful discrimination, including unlawful discrimination.” It directed government agencies to compile a list of publicly traded companies for possible investigations into compliance violations.
The CEOs of JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs said Wednesday that they will continue to focus on efforts to promote Dei in their workforces and client bases. “We’re going to continue to reach out to the black community, the Hispanic community, the LGBT community, the veterans community,” said JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon.
The attorneys general cited pledges and goals made and set by financial firms since 2021 to strengthen the hiring of women and minorities. For example, JPMorgan pledged to hire 4,000 black students by 2024, and Goldman set a goal of spending more than $1 billion on various vendors.
Corporate America ramped up its diversity efforts in the wake of the Metoo movement and the 2020 death of George Floyd that sparked nationwide unrest.
