- Brian Harrison served as HHS Chief of Staff as the agency formed an “Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, Diversity, and Inclusion”
- Republican Leaders have widely condemned Harrison’s conduct toward a high-ranking appointee of Governor Abbott
- A PAC that received over $4.7 million from a businessman whose family controls a company that has promoted diversity and inclusion initiatives has been one of the largest donors to Harrison’s campaigns.
A state representative who claims to be exposing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in state government served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Health and Human Services as the agency formed an “Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, Diversity, and Inclusion.”
State Representative Brian Harrison served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under then-Secretary Alex Azar from mid-2019 until January 2021. An organizational chart published in a “Justification of Estimates for Appropriations Committees” issued by HHS in connection with the Fiscal Year 2021 appropriations process put Harrison near the top of the Department’s hierarchy.
That same document describes various duties and initiatives within the Department of Health and Human Services to justify congressional appropriations to the Department.
The portion of the document that details the work of the Assistant Secretary for Administration includes a section that describes a “newly formed” office called the “Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EEODI).”
“EEODI is a newly formed office within ASA. EEODI combined ASA’s Equal Employment Opportunity and Compliance Division with the ASA/OHR’s Diversity and Inclusion Division. EEODI is responsible for the overall leadership and management of the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), Reasonable Accommodation, and Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) programs at the Department by providing policy, oversight, and technical guidance to all organizational elements. EEODI leads and coordinates enterprise level activities, such as the development and implementation of the EEO and D&I strategic plan, with the OpDiv EEO and D&I Offices,” reads the HHS document.
“EEODI also manages the Diversity and Inclusion program, which focuses on Special Emphasis programs and provides external reporting functions, to include such activities as periodic cultural climate assessments, diversity and inclusion benchmarking and best practice analyses, increased partnering with the Office of Human Resources to enhance targeted outreach planning and recruitment efforts, implementation of structured diversity and inclusion awareness and engagement activities, diversity and inclusion education/training, workforce analysis (statistical trend monitoring), and development of a diversity and inclusion toolkit for supervisors and managers.”
A review of the HHS website on the internet archive indicates that the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, Diversity, and Inclusion was formed sometime in late 2020, while Harrison served as the Department’s Chief of Staff.
As HHS Chief of Staff, Harrison also played a key role in the development of Operation Warp Speed. In a January 2021 op-ed for FoxNews.com, Harrison described Dr. Anthony Fauci as “someone I worked with closely” and characterized COVID-19 vaccines as “safe and effective.”
Harrison has recently been the subject of widespread criticism from Republican leaders concerning his hostile and aggressive conduct towards a high-ranking appointee of Governor Greg Abbott, who was brought to tears at a hearing of a Texas House Appropriations Subcommittee last week.
L’Oreal Stepney, who was named Chairwoman of the Texas Water Development Board by Governor Abbott in January, was subjected to a barrage of questions from Harrison regarding DEI programs. Stepney, who is African-American, holds two engineering degrees from the University of Texas and has served the State of Texas in various roles for over 30 years.
After the hearing, Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, and Speaker Dustin Burrows all released statements supporting Stepney.
“Water is one of the most important issues that the State of Texas will address this session. There is no one better and no one I have more confidence in to lead and implement our water solutions than TWDB Chairwoman L’Oreal Stepney,” tweeted Governor Abbott.
Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said, “I talked to Texas Water Development Board Chairwoman L’Oreal Stepney tonight and told her she is one of the most respected, experienced, and talented water experts in the nation. She has served Texas for 33 years.”
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dr. Greg Bonnen described Harrison’s conduct as “unacceptable and beneath the dignity of this institution, adding, “While passionate and open discussion will always be welcomed, comments that demean and belittle will never be tolerated.”
Even those who defended Harrison’s line of questioning were not entirely complimentary towards him. State Republican Executive Committeeman Rolando Garcia conceded that “Harrison is a soulless attention hound” in a lengthy tweet defending Harrison’s treatment of Stepney.
One of the biggest donors to Harrison’s campaigns for State Representative has been the Defend Texas Liberty PAC, which received over $4.7 million from businessman Farris Wilks. The Texas Voice has previously reported that ProFrac Holding Corp., a company controlled by Wilks and his family, promoted diversity and inclusion initiatives that incorporated “sustainable development goals” published by the United Nations. The Wilks family’s company also used the controversial term “Latinx” when discussing the ethnic, racial, and gender makeup of its employees.
