Among other things, these grants supported “editorial resilience” in Moldova, “media diversity” in the United Kingdom, and “environmental sustainability” in Armenia. The cancellation is expected to save $214 million, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The Department for Overcoming Government Excess (D.O.G.E.), led by billionaire Elon Musk and focused on fighting bureaucracy, cutting unnecessary spending, and restructuring redundant agencies, conducted an “additional review of remaining foreign aid grant programs” after the State Department completed its initial review of foreign funding at the end of February.
While the initial review identified $60 billion in foreign grants for cancellation, D.O.G.E.’s additional investigation revealed “a significant number of grant programs that remain inconsistent with administration policy,” particularly those associated with “media propaganda programming,” according to an internal memo.
Among the canceled grants were: a $14.6 million program supporting “the expansion of editorial resilience and engagement” in Moldova; a $5.2 million grant for “media diversity,” which funded a “disinformation countering program in the United Kingdom”; a $400,000 grant for “building environmental sustainability” in Armenia; a $1 million grant to “advance freelancer rights” in Brazil; and a $750,000 grant to “create a migrant domestic worker movement” in Lebanon, where Hezbollah influences the government.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed off on these cuts Monday evening, and they took effect on April 15, according to a senior State Department official cited by American journalists.
