10 Woke Spending Items Scrapped in Trump’s Rescissions Package

Iraqi Sesame Street to Genderqueer Dinosaur Enthusiasts

Under the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), the Trump Administration sent a rescissions package – a request to rescind appropriated funds – to Congress. Today, Majority Leader Steve Scalise introduced the bill, H.R. 4, the Rescissions Act of 2025.

This package includes $9.4 billion in spending cuts identified initially by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This includes a rescission of $8.3 billion in wasteful foreign aid spending and $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (NPR and PBS).

This bill is likely the first of many rescissions packages we can look forward to. When browsing through the programs and initiatives this bill scraps, one can only be appalled by the government’s contemptible use of precious taxpayer dollars. 

Below, to paint the picture of the kind of spending rescinded in the rescissions package, we highlight 10 (of countless) of these wasteful programs and initiatives.

1) Iraqi Sesame Street

The package rescinds $3 million for the Iraqi Sesame Street. USAID started funding Sesame Workshop in 2021, an organization that produces ‘Ahlan Simsim,’ or ‘Welcome Sesame.’ USAID authorized $20 million in funding to the organization to be paid out over 7 years.

2) Teaching Children About Environmentally Friendly Reproductive Health

The package rescinds $2.5 million for teaching young children how to make environmentally friendly “reproductive health” decisions. Certainly, the children of the world must learn that latex condoms are biodegradable and copper IUDs are more environmentally friendly than hormonal ones!

3) NPR’s Defense of Looting and Cannibalism, Profiles of Genderqueer Dinosaur Enthusiasts

NPR has recently received scrutiny for its new CEO, a partisan Democrat who has questioned whether we should have the First Amendment protecting freedom of expression. But NPR long ago replaced the Boston-accented guffaws of car mechanics with truly bizarre taxpayer-funded programming, including:

• A 2020 segment titled “In Defense of Looting” amid the BLM riots;
• A 2022 Lifestyle program that alleged “fatphobia” dictates the width of doorways;
• A 2021 segment on the rampant racism of…bird names;
• A 2022 deep-dive into the exciting world of genderqueer dinosaur enthusiasts; and
• A 2017 defense of cannibalism (yes, really).

While running these strange programs, NPR has both received taxpayer money and run ads, even though the latter is illegal under their founding statute. They also claim that only 1% of their funding comes from taxpayers, but this is not true – NPR uses an elaborate shell game to launder their taxpayer money through affiliates while taking only 1% directly.

4) Electric Busses in Rwanda

The package rescinds $500,000 for electric busses in Rwanda. Nearly 40 percent of Rwanda’s population lives below the poverty line – $2.15 per person per day. The answer? Green energy. To contribute to Rwanda’s goal of electrifying 20 percent of all its buses by 2030, USAID graciously stepped in, offering up taxpayer dollars.

5) Nepali Trans People, Sex Workers, and their Clients

The package rescinds $833,000 for services for “transgender people, sex workers and their clients and sexual networks” in Nepal.

6) LGBTQI+ Programs in Uganda and the Western Balkans

The package rescinds $643,000 for LGBTQI+ programs in the Western Balkans and $567,000 for LBGTQI+ programs in Uganda.

7) Promoting Voter ID in Haiti

The package rescinds $1 million for voter ID in Haiti. As Haiti grapples with a state of emergency, significant poverty and starvation, and armed gangs controlling much of the capital, Port-au-Price, the Left demands Americans fund their national identification card system.

Wait, does this mean voter ID laws aren’t racist?

8) Promoting Vegan Food in Zambia

The package rescinds $8,000 for promoting vegan food in Zambia. Zambia’s malnutrition rates are among the highest in the world: 35 percent of the population cannot meet their minimum-calorie requirements and one-third of the children under 5 are stunted.

Astonishingly, this didn’t stop the Left from attempting to lecture Zambians about “sustainable practices like pasture-based grazing… alternative meat sources… and [reducing] environment impacts.”

Zambians already have a rich diet of leafy greens, root vegetables, and maize. Surely, though, encouraging a starving population to stop fishing in the abundant Zambezi River is cruel and unworthy of funding.

9) Strengthening Queer Global Movements

The package rescinds $5.1 million to strengthen the “resilience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer global movements.”

Last year, while promoting “The First Year of the USAID LGBTQI+ Inclusive Development Policy,” USAID describes its international goals: namely, “inclusion” for LGBTQI+ people around the world, placing them in other USAID programs in a range of sectors from mental health to youth leadership. In other words, an LGBTQI+ jobs program on the taxpayer’s dime.

Additionally, this initiative aids in LGBTQI+ lobbying efforts around the world. For example, working to “make the process to change identification documents more accessible for transgender and non-binary people across the country, including individuals in the conflict-impacted Bajo Cauca region.”

10) Left-Wing News Coverage

Taxpayers have spent over $500 million annually subsidizing news coverage that ranges from biased to outright partisan from PBS and NPR. Adjusted for inflation, taxpayers have been forced to spend over $28 billion on state-owned media since 1969. What are taxpayers getting for their money? A newsroom staffed by left-wing ideologues, a managing editor who considered Hunter Biden’s scandals “not really stories,” and prime time news that provides overwhelming positive coverage of Democrats and overwhelmingly negative coverage of Republicans. PBS primetime news has also claimed that President Joe Biden was mentally “quite acute” and that President George W. Bush should be impeached.

CPB often defends itself by claiming that it spends 70% of its tax dollars on grants to affiliates. These same affiliates have been caught colluding with Democrats to build donor lists, airing drag queen skits for children, and hosting candidate forums entirely built around attacking the GOP. Republicans voting to fund CPB are engaged in an act of masochism.