DOGE to claw back $8BN foreign aid including $3 million on Iraqi Sesame Street and $800k for Nepal sex workers

The White House has recommended that Congress take up action on a DOGE-inspired bill that could cut billions in waste, fraud and abuse identified by Elon Musk and his ‘nerd army.’ 

President Donald Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought has sent to Capitol Hill a plan to slash funding for global projects including ‘$3 million for Iraqi Sesame Street.’

Called a rescission bill, it allows Congress to take back money that has been appropriated but not yet spent. 

It is the first push in Congress to reform the many eye-popping spending programs uncovered by DOGE this year.

And it comes just as the former DOGE leader has loudly condemned Congress for not doing enough to cut spending. 

Leaving DOGE after his status as a special government employee ended last week, Trump awarded Musk a key to the White House and lauded the world’s richest man for helping the federal government uncover $180 billion in waste. 

But this week Musk has gone scorched earth on his GOP allies, calling Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ an abomination that ‘will drive America into debt slavery!’ 

The package the White House is urging Congress to pass, however, would cut spending like the Tesla owner has demanded. 

The plan calls for cutting up to $9.4 billion in approved funding, much of that coming from projects at the State Department, USAID, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees NPR and PBS. 

Speaker Mike Johnson has recieved a proposal from the Trump administration to cut congressional spending by up to $9.4 billion. Much of the spending would come from slashing fund meant for USAID

Ex-DOGE leader Elon Musk went on a social media tirade Tuesday ripping the White House for not cutting government spending

The plan was put forward by Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, who will testify before Congress about the measure at a hearing Wednesday afternoon

Much of the funding on the chopping block comes from pro-DEI and LGBT initiatives USAID funded for other countries, which were identified by DOGE. 

According to OMB, the package will rescind ‘$643,000 for LGBTQI+ programs in the Western Balkans’ and ‘$567,000 for LBGTQI+ programs in Uganda.’

OMB also announced it cut millions meant for condoms and vasectomies and over $830,000 for ‘transgender people, sex workers and their clients and sexual networks’ in Nepal.’ 

Over $5 million for ‘resilience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans gender, intersex, and queer global movements,’ will be undone, as will ‘$3 million for circumcision, vasectomies, and condoms in Zambia.’

In total, the measure calls for $8.3 billion in cuts to USAID, an agency Trump pushed to shut down earlier this year. 

Having Congress cut the agency’s funding is another meaningful step taken by the administration to wind down the embattled USAID, which the administration aims to end completely. 

The OMB-backed bill also slashes $135 million for the World Health Organization, which has been widely derided by GOP lawmakers since the COVID-19 pandemic.   

‘$67,000 for testing insect powder nutrition on children in Madagascar,’ will also be cut, according to OMB’s X account. 

Republicans in the House exposed how USAID funded a Serbian LGBT activism group called Group EXIT earlier this year, among many other pro-LGBT groups 

DOGE and lawmakers have also taken issue with HIV an

‘Today, the House has officially received the rescissions request from the White House to eliminate $9.4 billion in wasteful foreign aid spending at the State Department and USAID and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS,’ GOP House leadership said in a joint statement Tuesday. 

‘Now that this wasteful spending by the federal government has been identified by DOGE, quantified by the Administration, and sent to Congress, House Republicans will fulfill our mandate and continue codifying into law a more efficient federal government.’

Speaker Mike Johnson, who led the letter, has said that he hopes the rescission package will get a vote on the floor as soon as next week.