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A consumer watchdog group is accusing the federally funded National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine of using taxpayer dollars to support DEI, transgender-related and other left-leaning programs, according to a new report.
Consumer research has included a “Woke Alert” report detailing what it describes as left-leaning research, workshops and grants from a congressional agency, including projects related to transgender youth, diversity and inclusion programs, policing and climate advocacy.
Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, accused the agency, which receives 70% of its budget from federal funds, as “a wake-up call masquerading as a disaffected academic institution.”
“From promoting transgender ideology to children to promoting ‘police insanity,’ this taxpayer-funded organization routinely abuses its status and reputation to fund left-wing causes,” Hild said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “It has shamefully spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to push a divisive agenda behind high BS rhetoric about independence and objectivity.”
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A close-up view of the National Academy of Sciences logo at the organization’s headquarters in Washington, DC (Caspar Benson/Getty Images)
Consumer research argued that NASEM has established its credibility with left-leaning transgender views through its various publications, such as the workshop titled “Supporting the Health and Well-Being of Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth,” and the publication titled “Reducing Inequalities Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transgender, Transgender, Transgender, Transgender, Transgender, Transgender, Transgender Youth: Proceedings of the Workshop 2022.”
The report highlighted that over the years, NASEM has conducted various DEI workshops with topics including “Advancing Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Institutions: Current Status and Challenges;” and another entitled “Protecting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education and the Workforce,” which focused on setting affirmative action without race-based criteria.
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Members of Rainbow Families march from Bay Street in Sydney, Australia, as part of an action for LGBTQIA+ visibility and family rights, Feb. 22, 2025. (Steven Siewert/Getty Images)
In 2022, the National Academies partnered with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to award grants worth $1.15 million to each recipient in an effort to promote DEI among biomedical researchers.
In response to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, NASEM created its own Committee on Reducing Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System. The committee considered a proposal to cut $50 million from the Austin, Texas police budget.
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The report said that committee chairman Bruce Western accused the police of “causing great harm in low-income communities and communities of color.”
In one of NASEM’s studies, researchers accused the police of being “the leading cause of death for young men in the United States.”
The National Academies have also published many studies raising concerns about climate change. In one of these studies, the Centers focused on proposing strategies to get Americans involved in the fight against climate change.
Republicans are combining their election messages around crime and law enforcement (Getty Images)
NASEM previously ran into controversy in August 2025 for publishing a climate review that sought to influence the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to phase out Obama-era greenhouse gas emissions. Critics suggested that NASEM sought to undermine the authority of the Trump administration.
Roger Pielke Jr., a senior executive at the American Enterprise Institute who works on science and technology policy, told Fox News Digital that in recent years, the National Academies have moved from being held under the direction of Congress to acting as an “independent actor” to the interests of billionaires and foundations.
Pielke said the National Academies received funding from the Bezos Earth Fund, Jeff Bezos’ project to tackle climate change. With that support, the National Academies published a manual titled “Building Effective Geospatial Tools for Environmental Justice.” Pielke noted that the Bezos Earth Fund funding case focused on climate change and argued that there is “strong evidence of bias” against the Bezos Earth Fund.
“So I think the issues around conflicts of interest and bias go beyond just funding sources,” Pielke said. “They also extend to the research groups they choose to collaborate with when doing work that should be neutral and scientific.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to NASEM for comment.
