Trump administration targets certain words
Agencies push back against dropping ‘climate change,’ others
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 “language guidance” document recommends using “all youth” instead of “underserved youth,” 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 literally change the conversation 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.
After winning the election on a vow to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Barack Obama dropped George W. Bushera references to the “global war on terror,” creating a new budget category labeled “overseas contingency operations.” Meanwhile, Obama appointees at Health and Human Services abandoned the term “unaccompanied alien children,” replacing it with “unaccompanied minors.” (The current administration has reverted to “alien children.”)
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 Health and Human Services 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 “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 — except “when the terms are referenced within a legal citation or part of a title.”
Health and Human Services 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 Health and Human Services official said.
At a budget meeting last week at the CDC in Atlanta, employees were also 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.” Instead, Lloyd said, employees have “misconstrued guidelines provided during routine discussions on the annual budget process. It was clearly stated to those involved in the discussions that the science should always drive the narrative.”
But an official at another Health and Human Services 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,’ ” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal agency communications.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Health and Human Services budget, interpreted the agency’s guidance as “more silly than sinister,” saying it shows the “bureaucracy trying to react to what they think the new administration wants to hear.”
Agency officials are writing budgets “to make the case” for their priorities with both the White House and the GOPcontrolled Congress, Cole said, meaning they have to write in a way their audience “might actually read.” Cole noted that Obama administration officials referred constantly to climate change, assuming that would “unlock the door” to congressional funding. Now, Cole said, the term has essentially vanished from budget discussions across departments.