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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 initiatives, according to a new report.
Consumers’ Research compiled the “Woke Alert” report outlining what it describes as left-leaning research, workshops and grants from the congressionally chartered institution, including projects related to transgender youth, diversity and inclusion initiatives, policing and climate advocacy.
Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, accused the organization, which receives 70% of its budget from federal funds, of being “a radical woke organization masquerading as a nonpartisan educational institution.”
“From pushing transgender ideology onto kids to spreading ‘defund the police’ insanity, this taxpayer-supported organization regularly abuses its status and reputation to fund the left’s favorite causes,” Hild said in a statement to Digital. “It has shamefully used hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to push a highly polarized woke agenda behind lofty BS rhetoric about independence and objectivity.”
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A close-up view of the National Academy of Sciences sign at the organization’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Caspar Benson / Getty Images)
Consumers’ Research argued that NASEM has established its allegiance with left-leaning transgender ideology through its various publications, such as a workshop titled “Supporting the Health and Well-Being of Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth,” and a book titled “Reducing Inequalities Between Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Adolescents and Cisgender, Heterosexual Adolescents: Proceedings of a Workshop 2022.”
The report highlighted that for years, NASEM has run a variety of DEI workshops with titles including “Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations: Current Context and Challenges;” and another titled “Protecting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education and the Workforce,” which was focused on putting affirmative action in place 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 hand out grants worth $1.15 million per recipient in an effort to promote DEI among biomedical researchers.
In response to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, NASEM established its Committee on Reducing Racial Inequalities in the Criminal Justice System. The committee evaluated a proposal to cut $50 million from Austin, Texas’s police budget.
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The report noted that committee co-chair Bruce Western accused police officers of having “caused a great deal of harm in low-income communities and communities of color.”
In one of NASEM’s studies, researchers accused police officers of being a “leading cause of death for young men in the United States.”
The National Academies have also published multiple studies raising concerns over climate change. In one of the studies, the Academies focused on elevating techniques that would make Americans more likely to participate in climate activism.
Republicans are ramping up their election messaging on crime and law enforcement support (Getty Images)
NASEM previously came under fire in August 2025 for publishing a climate review seeking to influence the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision on whether to rescind an Obama-era greenhouse gas finding. Critics suggested that NASEM was seeking to undermine the authority of the Trump administration.
Roger Pielke Jr., a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute specializing in science and technology policy, told Digital that in recent years, the National Academies has gone from acting under the direction of Congress to acting as an “independent actor” for the interests of billionaires and foundations.
Pielke said the National Academies received funding from the Bezos Earth Fund, a Jeff Bezos project created to address climate change. Through that support, the National Academies published a manual titled “Constructing Valid Geospatial Tools for Environmental Justice.” Pielke noted that the Bezos Earth Fund funds litigation centered on climate change and argued that “there is pretty strong evidence of a bias” in the Bezos Earth Fund.
“So I think issues about conflicts of interest and bias go well beyond just funding sources,” Pielke said. “They also extend to the groups researchers choose to partner with when conducting work that is supposed to be neutral and scientific.”
Digital reached out to NASEM for comment.
