The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will be canceling $4 million in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) contracts after the federal agency’s freshly-formed DOGE task force uncovered $260 million in savings last week, Secretary Scott Turner exclusively announced on Fox News, Thursday.
“We’re working hard, and we will cut $4 million in DEI-focused contracts,” he said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”
“This is money that should go to serve the American people… so DEI here at HUD is dead.”
The contracts on the chopping block were geared toward “culture transformation and mindset, outward mindset thinking and subscription services,” he elaborated.
Last week, Turner established a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity” and “eliminate waste, fraud and abuse” at HUD.
DOGE, guided by Elon Musk, revealed that $1.9 billion in funds “misplaced” during the Biden administration had been recovered as of last Friday, adding that they were “earmarked for the administration of financial services, but were no longer needed.”
DOGE said it worked with Turner to release the funds, and they are now available for use by the Treasury Department.
“Those funds were supposed to be used for administrative services that help us carry out the services here at HUD and, when you don’t use those funds, they don’t just go to the next year. You’re supposed to notify the Department of Treasury that these funds are now available for other federal expenditures, and that did not happen,” Turner said.
“It was great mismanagement and negligence over the past few years from the Biden administration.”
Three civil rights nonprofits have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, claiming that eliminating federal grants perceived as “DEI,” including those administered by the HUD “materially impede their ability to advance civil rights causes at the core of their missions.”
Turner is among the swath of defendants listed in the lawsuit.
Fox News’ Dierdre Harvey contributed to this report.
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