Recent government actions and new laws in Cincinnati and Scranton show a growing conflict between local efforts to promote inclusion and political opposition to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs.

辛辛那提與斯克蘭頓最近的政府行動與新法規顯示，本地推動包容的努力與反對多元、公平與包容 (DEI) 計畫的政治勢力之間，衝突正日益增加。

In Cincinnati, a disagreement has started between Senator Bernie Moreno and Mayor Aftab Pureval over a June law that created the Department of Economic Inclusion and Procurement. Senator Moreno claims that this law might break executive orders that forbid DEI initiatives; consequently, he suggests that this violation could put the city's federal funding at risk. The Senator's office emphasizes that funding DEI policies is wrong and argues that the city should return to hiring based only on merit. On the other hand, city officials describe the law as a simple reorganization of departments to improve efficiency without spending more money. Furthermore, they point to a 2023 study showing that Black-owned and women-owned businesses received very few contracts as the reason for these changes.

在辛辛那提，參議員 Bernie Moreno 與市長 Aftab Pureval 因六月份一項成立「經濟包容與採購部」的法規而產生分歧。Moreno 參議員聲稱，此法規可能違反禁止 DEI 倡議的行政命令；因此，他認為這種違規行為可能會使城市的聯邦資金面臨風險。參議員辦公室強調，資助 DEI 政策是錯誤的，並主張城市應回歸僅基於能力（merit）的招聘方式。另一方面，市府官員將該法規描述為單純的部門重組，旨在提高效率而無需增加支出。此外，他們指出 2023 年的一項研究顯示，黑人與女性擁有的企業獲得的合約極少，這正是做出這些變更的原因。

Similarly, in Scranton, Mayor Paige Cognetti previously proposed a budget that included a DEI coordinator, which would have been paid for by a 3% property tax increase. Although the city council rejected the budget and removed the position, the proposal has become a major topic in her campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. Mayor Cognetti asserts that seeking diversity in representation is compatible with hiring the best candidates. In response, her campaign has argued that her opponent, Representative Rob Bresnahan, actually benefited from similar programs through his company, Kuharchik Construction Inc., even though those federal contracts ended in 2017.

同樣地，在斯克蘭頓，市長 Paige Cognetti 先前提出了一份包含 DEI 協調員的預算案，該職位的費用將由增加 3% 的地產稅支付。儘管市議會否決了該預算案並取消了該職位，但此提案已成為她競選美國眾議院議員的主要議題。Cognetti 市長堅稱，追求代表性的多元化與聘用最優秀的候選人是相容的。對此，她的競選團隊反駁道，她的對手 Rob Bresnahan 眾議員實際上透過其公司 Kuharchik Construction Inc. 從類似的計劃中獲益，儘管那些聯邦合約已於 2017 年結束。

The current situation is defined by a clear difference in how DEI is understood, with local leaders seeing these programs as tools for economic fairness while political opponents describe them as illegal quotas.

目前的狀況在於對 DEI 的理解存在明顯分歧：本地領導者將這些計畫視為實現經濟公平的工具，而政治對手則將其描述為非法的配額制度。