Following White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s promotion to a top role, four of the 10 officials serving as senior advisers to President Joe Biden are openly LGBTQ.
WASHINGTON, DC- Even as the federal government says it doesn’t have enough money in FEMA’s coffers to pay for hurricane disaster recovery, the Daily Caller News Foundation reports that it apparently has enough to spend over a million dollars of taxpayer money on LGTBQ initiatives in Latin America.
The outlet reports that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spends billions of taxpayer dollars annually assisting worldwide, including promoting social causes abroad. One of those initiatives included spending $1.5 million in Latin America and the Caribbean promoting LGBTQ causes. Those programs include raising awareness of individuals and promoting coordination of various organizations, a source with direct knowledge of the program told the Daily Caller, with the promise of anonymity.
The source told the Daily Caller that a congressional committee froze the $1.5 million funding package. However, USAID is ignoring the hold and moving forward with the initiative, which is called “an incredibly rare and nearly unprecedented move” since such holds are typically honored.
The $1.5 million funding package includes funding for litigation against Latin American and Caribbean countries if they allegedly discriminate against LGBTQ persons, DCNF reported. According to the World Population Review, some of those countries have the highest percentages of Catholics or Christians in the world.
The outlay for the Latin American and Caribbean operation is part of a $6.5 million package for LGBTQ initiatives worldwide, including in the Middle East and Africa, the source told the Daily Caller.
The congressional hold, however, only applied to the $1.5 million portion of the overall package; however, the source said that USAID has chosen to move ahead with the spending plan.
USAID's $45 billion budget for FY-2024, intended for aid and assistance delivery operations, has been expanded by the Biden-Harris administration to support causes like LGBTQ initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean. This move has not been without criticism, with some lawmakers viewing it as a waste of money or a purely political maneuver.
Furthermore, the lack of adequate tracking of USAID funding raises concerns about potential misuse, with fears that it could end up in the hands of foreign adversaries, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan or Hamas in Gaza.
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