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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I rise to bring attention to the cost- cutting efforts of President Trump and DOGE. A lot has been said about DOGE's work in the media in the last month. The truth is, DOGE is working tirelessly to cancel grants and funding that taxpayers absolutely should not be footing the bill for. I want the American people to know exactly what some of these ridiculous funding items are so here are a few examples from the last couple of weeks.

At NIH, DOGE identified these grants for cancelation this week and last: $532,000 to ``use a mouse model to investigate the effects of cross-sex testosterone treatment''; $33,000 to test feminizing hormone therapy in the male rat; $120,000 for personalized 3D avatar tool development focused on gender identities; $160,000 for researching radicalized sexual discrimination among ``young sexual minority men of color''; $241,000 for an intervention to promote healthy relationships among transgender and gender expansive youth''; $1.3 million for transforming health for gender-diverse young adults.

DOGE also canceled grants at the Inter-American Foundation that included $903,811 for alpaca farming in Peru; $364,500 to reduce social discrimination of recyclers in Bolivia; $813,210 for vegetable gardens in El Salvador; $323,633 to promote cultural understanding of Venezuelan migrants in Brazil; $731,105 to improve marketability of mushrooms and peas in Guatemala; $677,342 to expand fruit and jam sales in Honduras; $483,345 to improve artisanal salt production in Ecuador; and $39,250 for beekeeping in Brazil.

DOGE and EPA are cutting ridiculous grants funding at EPA, which includes the Vermont-based Institute for Sustainable Communities, which has yet to receive $12.4 million of the $16 million it was promised under two separate Biden-era grants to serve as the National Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center.

Another group losing funding was the San Diego State University Foundation, which was tapped to help bring ``environmental justice'' to ``underserved Tribal, Indigenous, and Pacific island communities'' and has yet to receive $4.2 million of its $5.1 million in grants.

DOGE is also looking to cut ridiculous DEI programs in the Department of Education. One grant was reportedly funding the training for teachers to ``engage in ongoing learning and self-reflection to confront their own biases and racism and develop asset-based anti- racist mindsets.''

Additionally, according to DOGE, 4.6 million government credit cards resulted in $40 billion in spending last year alone.

President Trump and DOGE are saving your taxpayer dollars. Tune back next week for more updates.

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