A prominent consumer advocacy group has raised concerns about the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, accusing the institution of channeling taxpayer money into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, as well as supporting transgender and other progressive causes, according to a recent report.
In their “Woke Alert” report, Consumers’ Research details what it views as a series of left-leaning endeavors funded by the congressionally chartered organization. These efforts include research, workshops, and grants focused on issues such as transgender youth, diversity and inclusion, policing, and climate change.
Will Hild, the executive director of Consumers’ Research, criticized the institution, which relies on federal funding for 70% of its budget, labeling it “a radical woke organization disguised as a nonpartisan educational entity.”
Hild expressed his concerns to Fox News Digital, stating, “From promoting transgender ideologies to children to advocating for ‘defund the police’ narratives, this taxpayer-funded organization consistently leverages its prestige to advance favored leftist causes. It has misused hundreds of millions in public funds to support a divisive agenda, all while cloaking itself in rhetoric about independence and neutrality.”
The report by Consumers’ Research claims that NASEM has demonstrated its support for progressive transgender ideologies through its publications. These include a workshop on “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.”
For years, the report notes, NASEM has organized a range of DEI-focused workshops. Among these are sessions titled “Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations: Current Context and Challenges,” and “Protecting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education and the Workforce,” which aimed to implement affirmative action without relying on race-based criteria.
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.
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.
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 Fox News 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.”
Fox News Digital reached out to NASEM for comment.
