President Trump has signed a new executive order (EO) requiring political appointees to oversee federal grant approvals, called the “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking.”
The EO, signed on Thursday, targets increased scrutiny on federal grants, especially those previously awarded for research and administrative costs deemed controversial. This falls within a broader effort by the Trump administration to align federal spending with the “America First” agenda.
“Every tax dollar the Government spends should improve American lives or advance American interests,” the EO reads in Section 1. “This often does not happen.”
The order went on to criticize the allocation of federal funds toward initiatives that promote “absurd ideologies,” citing projects ranging from “drag shows in Ecuador” to “transgender-sexual-education-programs.”
The EO also emphasizes the serious risks linked to wasteful spending, blaming the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for previously directing taxpayer funds to the “unsafe lab in Wuhan, China — likely the source of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Hellbound and Down 