Administration targets certain words; bureaucracy pushes back
WASHINGTON» The Trump administration is waging a linguistic battle across official Washington, seeking to shift public perception of key policies by changing the way the federal government talks about climate change, scientific evidence and disadvantaged communities.
The push drew fresh attention after employees at the Department of Health and Human Services were told to avoid certain words — including “vulnerable,” “entitlement” and “diversity” — when preparing requests for next year’s budget. But the effort to disappear certain language and replace it with other terms is much broader, sparking resistance from career officials in multiple federal agencies, outside experts and congressional Democrats.
Climate change, for example, has for months presented a linguistic minefield; multiple references to it have been purged repeatedly at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department. In late summer, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention issued a document to employees and contractors bearing a column of words and phrases to be avoided, alongside a column of acceptable alternatives.
The one-page “language guidance” document recommends using “all youths” instead of “underserved youths,” referring to crime as a “public issue/ public concern” rather than a “public health issue/public health concern” and describing young people who commit crimes as “offenders” rather than “system-involved or justice-involved youths,” according to a copy of the document obtained by The Washington Post.
The document also says to avoid “substance abuse disorder” in favor of “substance abuse issue.” That runs counter to attempts by experts to raise awareness that substance abuse is a disease.
On Wednesday, a Justice Department official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said that “the recommended terminology is intended to be more accurate and better reflect Justice Department priorities.”
The desire to change the conversation — literally — in Washington is nothing new. For decades, incoming administrations have sought to advance their political agendas by rebranding existing initiatives and lifting new words to prominence in White House news releases.
After winning the election on a vow to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Barack Obama dropped George W. Bush-era references to the “global war on terror,” creating a new budget category labeled “overseas contingency operations.” Meanwhile, Obama appointees at HHS abandoned the term “unaccompanied alien children,” replacing it with “unaccompanied minors.” (The current administration has reverted to “alien children,” which is statutory language.)
But even in the context of this historical tug-of-war, the chasm between President Donald Trump’s top deputies and the federal workers charged with carrying out government policies appears particularly wide.
“The administration correctly understands that they are battling a hostile bureaucracy,” said Barry Bennett, a GOP consultant who advised the president during last year’s general election. “The left likes to think that words are very important, particularly if it’s words they don’t like. Well, the right thinks that, too.”
The debate erupted last week after HHS officials instructed employees to avoid certain words when drafting the department’s fiscal 2019 budget request. A budget request describes an agency’s work and mission, establishes priorities and sends a broad message about the direction of federal policy under an administration.
The instructions were part of a one-page “style guide,” obtained by The Washington Post, that was included in a much longer budget guidance document. The style guide lists “vulnerable,” “diversity” and “entitlement” as “words to avoid” when drafting the agency’s fiscal 2019 budget request.
HHS spokesman Matt Lloyd confirmed that agency officials created the document but said they did not ban any words outright. The document was distributed to budget offices in the department’s operating divisions, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, an HHS official said.
At a budget meeting last week at the CDC in Atlanta, employees were told to avoid four additional words and phrases: “fetus,” “transgender,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.” The origin and intention of that verbal direction remains somewhat murky.
In an email, Lloyd said that “HHS and its agencies have not banned, prohibited or forbidden employees from using certain words.”
But an official at another HHS agency who was briefed last week on use of “vulnerable,” “diversity” and “entitlement” said the message was clear: “It was interpreted as ‘you are not to use these words in the budget narrative.’ ”