Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directed the secretaries of each military department on Friday to conduct a complete review of their Military Equal Opportunity and Department of Defense civilian Equal Employment Opportunity programs.
The department released on Friday a copy of the memo Hegseth signed, which is dated April 23. It said the review is meant “to ensure prompt and impartial investigations, fair treatment of all involved, and timely and appropriate resolution of allegations of discrimination.”
In the review, each service secretary will “identify areas for reform, and provide plans to streamline the investigation process, timely address problematic behaviors, and mitigate undue mission impacts.”
Plans must include specific actions to ensure unsubstantiated claims are dismissed in a timely manner, “favorable personnel actions” for alleged offenders are considered when “the preliminary or a subsequent investigation does not indicate that the complaint is likely to be substantiated,” and for administrative and/or disciplinary actions for personnel “who knowingly submit false complaints.”
They have 45 days to submit the plans, which will hit in the first half of June.
Hegseth signed the memo in a video he shared on social media in which he said this process has been “weaponized” in certain instances and has ended careers unjustly.
“The DoD has equal opportunity programs for service members and civilians to report discrimination and harassment. That’s a good thing. But what’s not good is when these programs are weaponized. Some individuals use these programs in bad faith to retaliate against superiors or peers,” he added. “I hear it all the time.”
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The Pentagon directed the Washington Examiner to Hegseth’s video when asked for examples of the weaponization of this process.