'Bureaucratic and wasteful': DOGE sniffs out eye-popping spending on Biden DEI efforts in key agency

FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Labor announced connected Tuesday that it has terminated $400 cardinal dollars successful spending it has deemed wasteful done its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts by rolling backmost diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)-related grants from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). 

The section said DOGE had terminated all of its Unemployment Insurance (UI) ARPA grants, totaling astir $400 cardinal successful savings, which it said addresses an unemployment strategy that has been successful an "infrastructure situation riddled with fraud, waste, and abuse."

Some of the cuts from the $2 trillion portion of authorities signed into instrumentality by then-President Joe Biden successful 2021, included creating an "Office of the Unemployed Workers’ Advocate" and backing an "Equitable Access Director."

Other cuts included initiatives to "conduct a concern process investigation for equity," processing an "equity analytics dashboard," studying the "equity of the unemployment system," conducting a "DEIA assessment" and backing "equity show staff."

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The Department of Labor says it is cutting $400 cardinal successful DEI-related spending from the Biden era. (Getty)

"America’s unemployment benefits strategy is facing an infrastructure crisis, riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse," Labor Department spokesperson Courtney Parella told Fox News Digital. "The Biden medication was fixed a historical accidental by Congress to hole it but alternatively squandered it connected bureaucratic and wasteful projects that focused connected equitable entree alternatively than advancing entree for each Americans successful need."

Parella added that the section volition proceed moving with authorities workforce agencies nationwide to absorption connected ways to amended the UI strategy to amended "meet the needs of the American worker" and chopped down connected fraud, which has been prevalent successful caller years, according to respective quality reports. 

Earlier this year, DOGE announced that it had discovered tens of thousands of unemployment claims for improbably aged and young claimants that were approved successful the years aft 2020.

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Elon Musk looks connected arsenic President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. (AP/Evan Vucci)

"This is different unthinkable find by the DOGE team, uncovering astir $400 cardinal successful fraudulent unemployment payments," Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer told FOX Business successful April. "The Labor Department is committed to recovering Americans' stolen taxation dollars. We volition drawback these thieves and support moving to basal retired egregious fraud – accountability is here."

The Labor Department announcement connected Tuesday comes aft Fox News Digital first reported successful April that the section revealed $1.4 cardinal of unspent COVID backing would beryllium "returned to taxpayers done the U.S. Department of Treasury’s General Fund," and added that "action" was "being taken to retrieve the remaining $2.9 billion."

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Former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer is seen during her Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee confirmation proceeding successful Washington, D.C., connected Feb. 19, 2025. (Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

According to the section leaderboard connected the DOGE website, past updated connected May 11, the Department of Labor ranks successful the apical 5 of departments that person made DOGE-related cuts, and DOGE wide says it has saved each American payer $1,055.90. 

Fox News Digital’s Eric Revell contributed to this report.