Judge forces $2.2 billion in wasteful spending

Judge forces $2.2 billion in wasteful spending

FEMA, USAID money is poured into woke programs instead of where it’s needed most—to save lives.

Commentary by Matt Staver, Liberty Counsel – April 26, 2025

The Trump administration recently responded to a judge confirming its compliance with the court’s order to send 2.2 billion dollars to Washington, D.C., and 23 states—not because it was needed but because the judge ordered FEMA to continue pouring out money.

This is an outrageous waste of our tax dollars. It is time for Congress to step up and rein in wasteful spending to protect the future of our nation.

With the budget in the House and Senate right now, we have the opportunity to permanently wipe out this obscene and immoral spending. A continuing resolution (CR) during budget reconciliation needs only a majority vote to pass in the Senate.

Clean water is essential to good health, but USAID has been more concerned about “gender” than health.

In South Sudan, 41% of the population doesn’t have access to clean water, resulting in 20,000 reported cases of cholera alone in a year and a half alone. However, instead of helping ensure the Sudanese have clean, renewable water, USAID gave 40 MILLION dollars to increasing “Gender Awareness” to raise awareness of the percentage of women in the water treatment workforce.

When children are kidnapped and abused because of the long trek to get water and carry it home, why in the world are we spending 40 MILLION dollars to become “aware” of the gender of their staff?

The average cost to dig a freshwater well in Africa is 18 dollars per person. That means 40 million dollars toward digging wells would have given 2.2 million people access to clean drinking water — and saved countless lives. With Sudan’s population at 51.2 million, this single grant could have worked wonders for a substantial number of people without access to clean water.

Don’t believe the lie that shutting down USAID funding will hurt the nations. USAID is not helping them by funding nonessential woke programs.

Congress needs to make permanent sweeping changes to zero out the wasteful funding at both FEMA and USAID and either close or drastically restructure many of these damaging agencies.

Here are just a few of the hundreds of cases of waste:

  • $3 million dollars to a Netherlands-based organization for “girl-centred climate action” in Brazil.
  • $7.9 million was allocated for “a project that would teach Sri Lankan journalists to avoid “binary-gendered language.”
  • Millions to EcoHealth Alliance—which was involved in research at the Wuhan lab, credited as responsible for unleashing COVID-19.
  • $2 million for “gender affirming care” and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala.