To be honest, research funding turned stupid before DOGE. I remember talking a guy who was struggling to write the mandatory diversity statement for a grant in quantum computing.
If your guy couldn’t say stuff like we will do outreach to local CCs, will design summer research programs, etc, then they’re just not a very good grant writer
This leads to purely performative diversity statements that mean nothing in the real world.
Sounds like a good thing to try to increase diversity and recruitment.