On an unknown date, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia lost $37.5 million in federal funding after Atlanta’s leadership refused to comply with the Trump administration’s demands to forego diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
On July 29, the airport refused to accept the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) demand to to drop DEI programs “that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.” As a result, the FAA has withheld $57 million from the airport, though $19 million may be recouped if it bends to the will of the Trump administration in the next federal budget year.
The mayor of Atlanta, Andre Dickens, has contemplated making changes to the airport’s DEI program, as well as locating alternative sources of funding. Dickens has proposed to do the former without surrendering Atlanta’s values. His spokesperson, Michael Smith, noted that, while federal funding is important, it makes up less than 10% of the airport’s billion dollar, six year-long construction program.
The FAA’s demands on Atlanta are in alignment with several of Trump’s early extreme executive orders that are intended to root out DEI in a culture war.
It was Mayor Maynard Jackson’s demand for a program that benefited minorities and women within the airport that enabled it to become the busiest one in the world. The airport is now partially named after him. If Atlanta gives in to Trump on this issue, they are abandoning what fundamentally made the Hartsfield-Jackson airport successful.
