House GOP grill State Dept on Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice, 'left-wing social agenda'

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FIRST ON FOX: Members of the House of Representatives’ Republican Study Committee (RSC) are demanding answers from the State Department over their plan to appoint a Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice.

RSC chairman Jim Banks of Indiana led the letter, signed by 37 of his House Republican colleagues, asking Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the leaked decision to appoint the official.

"America should be a beacon of life and liberty, not abortion and equity," Banks told Fox News Digital in a Friday statement.

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Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., believes the "left is obsessed with indoctrinating kids." ( (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

In the letter exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, the lawmakers wrote about their concern regarding the planned appointment for the special representative, pointing to President Joe Biden’s executive order requiring federal agencies to produce an "Equity Action Plan" and citing the order’s language that "includes terms like ‘advancing racial equity,’ ‘ending systemic racism,’ and ‘countering disinformation.’"

"This is the exact same language used by left-wing politicians, academics, media companies and corporations to justify new kinds of discrimination, censorship and other measures to take away American’s rights and divide our country," the letter states. "Such radical ideology has no place in the United States and exporting it will hurt our image abroad."

The lawmakers wrote their concern is that the special representative "will build on the Biden State Department’s track record of promoting Critical Race Theory ideology" and that American adversaries, such as China, will "pounce upon any statements made by the appointee apologizing for America’s human rights record."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is facing questions from Republicans over the State Department's new Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

The Republicans also said the State Department is hosting the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, E. Tendayi Achiume, who "is a member of the critical race studies program and is a proponent of Critical Race Theory" and called the ideology "self-defeating" with "anti-Americanism" playing a "key part."

"China, our chief adversary, understands that Critical Race Theory weakens the United States, which is why one of the Communist Party’s propaganda outlets, China Global Television, has promoted Critical Race Theory in the United States," they wrote. "In official diplomatic settings, China has claimed a false equivalence between the imprisonment of Uighurs in concentration camps and the U.S.’s "challenges… in human rights" which are "deep-seated" and led to the "Black Lives Matter" movement."

"The State Department’s left-wing social agenda is not limited to supporting Critical Race Theory," the lawmakers continued. "Under your leadership, the State Department has worked to remove restrictions on abortion around the globe."

Banks and his RSC colleagues pointed to the U.S. Vatican City Embassy hoisting an LGBT pride flag, calling it "a transparent provocation at tenets of Christianity," and wrote that,  to "placate the far Left, the State Department has created a new passport ‘X gender marker’ designations for people of ‘unspecified or another gender identity.’"

Rep. Elise Stefanik was among the Republicans who signed onto Banks' letter.  (Tom Williams/Getty)

"The Republican Study Committee is firmly opposed to attempts to use federal agencies to push the left’s cultural priorities at home and abroad," the lawmakers wrote. "The RSC’s proposed FY2023 Budget would ban federal funds from being used by the State Department to promote anti-American ideas such as Critical Race Theory."

The lawmakers also called on Blinken to answer several questions given his "use of the State Department to promote radical, divisive, and destructive cultural policies."

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Among the 37 GOP lawmakers joining Banks on the letter were House Republican Conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik of New York, Oklahoma Senate candidate Rep. Markwayne Mullin, and Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan.

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the department "does not comment on official and internal correspondence" and pointed to Blinken's statement regarding the appointment of Desirée Cormier Smith to the job.