Opposition to the Pentagon’s DEI efforts has spiked among select conservative lawmakers since 2020, when Congress first expanded such programs and mandated the Defense Department’s hiring of a chief diversity officer, said Liz Yates, a researcher with the advocacy group Human Rights First. Attempts by some lawmakers to dismantle the military’s DEI programs has reached a flash point as the House and Senate struggle to come to terms on the Fiscal Year 2024 Defense Department Appropriations Act, which Congress must pass annually to determine military spending.