The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has canceled $577 million in taxpayer-funded grants deemed “America Last” contracts, including $10 million for “gender equity in the Mexican workplace,” the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced Wednesday. The cancellations are expected to save taxpayers $237 million.
Among the grants eliminated were $12.2 million for “worker empowerment in South America” and $6.25 million for “improving respect for worker’s rights in agricultural supply chains” across Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Additional canceled grants included $3 million for “safe and inclusive work environments” in Lesotho, $3 million to “enhance social security access and worker protections for internal migrant workers” in Bangladesh, $4.3 million for “assisting foreign migrant workers” in Malaysia, and $5 million for “elevating women’s participation in the workplace” in West Africa.
The announcement follows DOGE’s update to its savings leaderboard, which now reports an estimated $130 billion in cost reductions across federal agencies. The watchdog agency tracks wasteful spending through asset sales, contract and lease cancellations, fraud elimination, grant terminations, and other regulatory savings, estimating a taxpayer savings of $807.45 per person. Currently, DOGE has identified and terminated 9,289 grants, amounting to $32 billion in savings.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized wasteful government spending, citing examples uncovered by DOGE during his recent address to Congress. Trump highlighted numerous instances of questionable spending, including $22 billion from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for free housing and cars for illegal immigrants, $45 million for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) scholarships in Burma, and $40 million to support the “social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants.”
Trump also called attention to $8 million allocated for LGBTQI+ promotion in Lesotho, $60 million for indigenous and Afro-Colombian empowerment programs in Central America, and $8 million reportedly spent on transgender research for mice. The latest cuts reflect the administration’s broader push to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending.
