DOGE says it canceled grants that were used for trans animal studies
The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced on Wednesday that several grants for transgender experiments on animals have been canceled. DOGE leader Elon Musk stated that a pilot program to audit federal agencies with unused credit cards has also been expanded due to “a lot of shady expenditures happening.”
The cost-cutting group revealed that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) canceled seven grants, including one for $532,000 to “use a mouse model to investigate the effects of cross-sex testosterone treatment” and another for $33,000 to test “feminizing hormone therapy in the male rat.”
In a statement, DOGE emphasized its commitment to advancing biomedical research under NIH’s priorities and promoting radical transparency in alignment with the @POTUS agenda. The agency stated that their work is driven by accountability to all Americans as they push forward in science and public health.
Recently, there has been criticism from Republicans regarding taxpayer funds being used for transgender animal studies. During a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing titled “Transgender Lab Rats and Poisoned Puppies: Oversight of Taxpayer Funded Animal Cruelty,” Justin Goodman of the White Coat Waste Project (WCW) watchdog group highlighted the millions spent on “transgender animal testing.”
In addition to the canceled grants, DOGE reported that the pilot program to audit federal agencies for unused and unneeded credit cards has been expanded to include 16 more agencies. After two weeks, 146,000 credit cards were deactivated, with DOGE noting that there is still more work to be done as there were approximately 4.6 million active cards/accounts at the start of the audit.
Elon Musk raised concerns about the high limits on government-issued credit cards, with many having limits up to $10,000. He pointed out that there are almost twice as many credit/purchasing cards as there are people in the government, leading to potential misuse and “shady expenditures.”
Under President Donald Trump, the Elon Musk-led DOGE has made significant cuts in what it considers wasteful government spending. The agency’s efforts to increase efficiency and transparency in government spending have been met with both praise and criticism.
