Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Screenshot from video
The U.S. Department of Labor has canceled $38 million in foreign aid grants, including funding for a project in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry, Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced. She stated that these funds should be redirected to domestic priorities in the United States.
Among the canceled initiatives is the “Enhancing Transparency and Accountability in Uzbekistan’s Cotton Industry” program. The project, launched in August 2022, had already received $2 million in funding, with an additional $1 million expected in 2025. It was set to run until December 2026, aiming to improve labor conditions, combat forced labor, and implement international labor standards in Uzbekistan’s cotton sector.
“I bet you had no idea that your hard-earned tax dollars were being spent on things like increasing transparency and accountability in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry, advancing so-called climate change policies in Brazil and Colombia, supporting collective bargaining in Indonesia and Guatemala, and monitoring labor standards in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Chavez-DeRemer said in a video message posted on X (formerly Twitter). “Simply put, we are eliminating programs that put America last.”
According to Politico, the Trump administration has canceled more than 5,300 grants and contracts under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), totaling over $27 billion.
However, nearly 900 programs deemed “aligned with U.S. national interests” will continue to receive approximately $8.3 billion in funding. These include food assistance for Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Yemen; HIV prevention projects in Africa; Ebola response efforts in Uganda; emergency aid in conflict zones; and support for strategic U.S. allies.
