Amid chaos at the top of the Labor Department, the agency disbursed tens of millions of dollars in grant funding to race-based and left-of-center organizations, a break from the Trump administration’s uniform efforts to root out taxpayer spending on liberal groups.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez DeRemer faces an internal investigation following accusations that she used public funds for personal travel, engaged in politically motivated grantmaking, created a hostile work environment, and engaged in an affair with a subordinate. Two of DeRemer’s top aides recently resigned from the department, the New York Post reported, citing sources that said departmental investigators had gathered sufficient evidence to tie them to some of the aforementioned ethics violations.
While DeRemer was allegedly focused on taking staffers to a strip club and using departmental funds to throw herself a birthday party, her agency was busy distributing close to $60 million in funds to organizations with racial focuses or liberal mission statements, according to grant records reviewed by the Washington Examiner.
“The executive branch functions under the authority and direction of the President, and federal agencies are expected to carry out the policies and priorities established by the administration,” Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) told the Washington Examiner. “Congress maintains an important oversight role in ensuring that agencies administer federal funds consistent with the law and with the policy direction set by the executive branch.”
“Under the Trump administration, the expectation is clear: federal agencies should focus grant funding on programs that deliver real results for the American people, and initiatives associated with what many have described as the ‘woke’ DEI agenda do not have a place in the use of taxpayer-funded grants,” Sessions added.
Funding for anti-Trump groups
Some of the left-of-center groups funded under DeRemer’s leadership have publicly opposed President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Chicanos por la Causa, a Hispanic advocacy organization that accepted seed funding from the National Council of La Raza, has received a consistent stream of cash from the Labor Department under DeRemer’s watch.
On its website, the group brags about participating in a lawsuit that successfully blocked the first Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. It also funds scholarships for DACA recipients and runs voter registration events for Latinos, a demographic that tends to favor the Democratic Party.
“This is not immigration policy, this is racial profiling against Latinos, Asians, and other people of color that runs counter to long-held American values,” Chicanos Por La Causa posted to its social media accounts in September 2025, criticizing the Trump administration’s enforcement of immigration laws.
Some conservatives blame what they view as a failure of leadership at the department for the deluge of grants to left-of-center groups.
Mike Watson, director of research at the Capital Research Center, said there “certainly is an institutional bureaucracy” at DOL that seeks to push liberal policies.
“When the cat’s away, the mice will play,” Watson said, alluding to DeRemer’s alleged absentee leadership at the department. “The bureaucrats will do what the bureaucrats have been doing for as long as these agencies have existed, which is trying to use big government to advance the progressive agenda.”
“Bureaucrats who aren’t being supervised, who aren’t being closely watched, they’ll do what they want to do, they’ll do what they have been doing, they’ll do what they got into government to do, which is to make government bigger, which is to make government more intrusive, and which is to make government carry out the progressive agenda,” Watson added.
Steady flow of funds
Indeed, left-of-center groups that have long enjoyed the Labor Department’s patronage have continued to do so during DeRemer’s tenure.
The National Urban League, for instance, won $13,295,208 in grant funding from the Department of Labor in October 2025.
Primarily an African American civil rights organization, the league advocates of left-of-center policy priorities such as race-based affirmative action and the Affordable Care Act. Its leader, the former Democratic mayor of New Orleans, called for the prosecution of Trump over his involvement in the Jan. 6 riots.
The Soros family’s Open Society Foundations and other left-of-center philanthropies have also provided funding to the National Urban League.
Job training programs affiliated with organized labor also continued to win millions of dollars in grants from the DOL. An electrician training organization affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which overwhelmingly supports the Democratic Party, has been granted nearly $2 million under DeRemer. It is just one of many such programs.
Watson, an expert on organized labor, conceded that reining in these union-related expenditures could be beyond the abilities of even a competent labor secretary, given the desire of northeastern Republican congressmen to keep unions placated.
DeRemer has denied the allegations levied against her and her department.
“At the direction of President Trump, the Department of Labor acted swiftly and decisively to eliminate discriminatory DEI funding and other grants that put America Last, saving taxpayers tens of millions of dollars annually,” DOL spokeswoman Courtney Parella told the Washington Examiner. “We remain committed to ensuring that funding decisions align with the Administration’s priorities, which is why we’ve made historic investments in expanding Registered Apprenticeships and bolstering workforce development programs to help President Trump usher in a Golden Age for American Workers.”
In May, the Labor Department claimed it had saved $400 million by cutting wasteful spending, primarily by pruning Biden-era programs. DeRemer has also taken deregulatory actions and has been a vocal critic of DEI, both of which are consistent with Trump’s broader platform.
A source at DOL, who requested anonymity, claimed that none of the grantees identified by the Washington Examiner “were selected by this administration” and that many of the steps the department has tried to take to rein in purportedly wasteful spending have been thwarted by legal challenges.
Staffers have reportedly described DeRemer as an “absentee secretary” who has left employees “deeply demoralized.”
“Over the past few weeks, we’ve learned that not only is she not doing her job, she’s embroiling the department in scandal and possible criminal activity,” Helen Luryi, a staffer who left the department in April 2025, told the New York Times. “It’s frankly embarrassing.”
“Secretary Chavez-DeRemer firmly denies any allegations of wrongdoing,” the secretary’s lawyer told the New York Post in January. “Her utmost priority remains to advance President Trump’s agenda by continuing her hard and successful work for the betterment of the American people.”
Other race-based or left-leaning organizations funded by the DOL under DeRemer’s watch include the National Association for Hispanic Elderly, the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging, the National Indian Council on Aging, and 100 Black Men.
The National Asian Pacific Center on Aging, the National Association for Hispanic Elderly, and the National Indian Council on Aging are all part of the Diverse Elders Coalition, an organization that supports DEI policies focused on older Americans.
“Founded in 2010, the Diverse Elders Coalition (DEC) advocates for policies and programs that improve aging in our communities as racially and ethnically diverse people; American Indians and Alaska Natives; and lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT) people,” the group’s website reads. “In the decades to come, the communities represented by the DEC will collectively form the majority of older adults in the United States. The DEC is working to strengthen policies and programs to enhance the health and well-being of diverse elders, educating and connecting diverse older adults and their loved ones to key policy debates on aging, and increasing public support for issues that affect our communities.”
Additionally, the coalition opposes the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, supports DACA, and generally advocates in support of looser immigration laws.
Some of the funding to these groups, such as grants to the National Urban League and race-based elder groups, was provided through the Senior Community Service Employment Program. DOL held up funding related to this program to conduct a review in 2025 and was subject to litigation for doing so.
EMBATTLED LABOR SECRETARY HAS HISTORY OF QUESTIONABLE SPENDING THAT ELUDED CONGRESS
All the racially focused groups funded by the DOL serve racial minority communities. The grants disbursed by the Labor Department to these nonprofit organizations generally funded their efforts to recruit and train individuals for workforce participation.
“In the most recent election, the American people delivered a clear mandate, and it is the responsibility of executive agencies to faithfully implement that mandate through their operations, policies, and funding decisions,” Sessions told the Washington Examiner. “As such, the administration has made clear that federal programs and grant funding should reflect priorities rooted in merit, measurable outcomes, and service to the American people. The President has directed agencies to move away from policies and funding structures rooted in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives advanced by the previous administration, and instead ensure that federal resources are allocated based on merit, effectiveness, and the public interest.”