Lee Zeldin, the head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, has cancelled 400 DEI and Environmental Justice awards totaling $1.9 billion.
Zeldin disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday on X, noting that the grant cancellations cut across nine different programs.
The development comes amid efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency to probe the agency.
According to him, the agency’s total savings from the exercise would stand at $2 billion.
“I am cancelling over 400 diversity, equity, and inclusion and environmental justice grants across 9 grant programs totaling $1.7 BILLION, bringing @EPA’s total savings to over $2 billion!
“This fourth round of EPA/Doge cuts was our biggest yet,” he said.
Reacting, DOGE said, “Great work… these cancellations of non-essential grants/contracts included $3.2M to a consulting firm to “develop a reporting system to collect data on Justice40, the EJ scorecard, and other EJECR reporting asks.”
Written By Ogaga Ariemu