The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), working alongside the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has announced the cancellation of 25 diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) grants, resulting in $13.6 million in savings for American taxpayers, according to Breitbart. This decision will halt funding for a variety of programs that were designed to support “gender-expansive people” and other DEI-related efforts.
Among the grants eliminated were significant funds allocated for DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) materials and training modules, gender equity awareness training, and initiatives directed toward migrant communities. A source familiar with the decision indicated that the canceled grants also included support for an equity summit focused on creating safe and inclusive workplaces for women and gender-expansive individuals, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds such as people of color, individuals with disabilities or neurodivergence, transgender people, and those underrepresented in technology fields.
Additionally, programs in Greater Houston, Texas, that targeted underrepresented groups including women of color, people with disabilities, formerly incarcerated women, immigrant women, and transgender women, were also affected. In Biloxi, Mississippi, pre-apprenticeship and nontraditional job training programs for women, transgender people, and non-binary individuals in the Gulf Coast area lost their funding as well.
A DEI initiative in Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania, which aimed to expand recruitment among historically underrepresented communities such as women of color, women with disabilities, justice-involved women, LGBTQI+ individuals, and immigrant women, was also among those cut. Furthermore, a project addressing climate change and its impact on vulnerable communities, with a focus on racial, social, and economic justice, was discontinued.
Earlier this year, the DOL had already canceled $577 million in contracts described as “America Last,” which included international programs. These programs ranged from worker empowerment initiatives in South America and improving worker rights in agricultural supply chains in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, to promoting safe and inclusive workplaces in Lesotho, improving social security access and worker protections for internal migrants in Bangladesh, supporting foreign migrant workers in Malaysia, and boosting women’s participation in the workforce in West Africa.
Explaining the department’s rationale, DOL spokesperson Courtney Parella stated, “We want to focus on getting more women into good-paying jobs based on merit — not funding discriminatory DEI experiments that elevate gender ideology over the real challenges women face in the workforce.”