President Joe Biden has requested billions of dollars in his 2024 budget proposal to advance his gender and sexuality agenda worldwide. This allocation of taxpayer dollars for gender equity and equality programs has increased significantly and has doubled over the last two years. While Biden aims to cut $3 trillion from the deficit over the next decade, his budget plan would increase funding to promote “Gender Equity and Equality Around the World.”
Last year, the U.S. Agency for International Development announced that Biden’s budget request of $2.6 billion to promote gender equity and equality worldwide was “the largest-ever gender budget request.” This year, Biden’s request for advancing equity has increased from the previous doubling by another $400 million, reaching a new record.
From the budget:
The Administration remains steadfast in its commitment to invest in opportunities for women and girls and supports the needs of marginalized communities, including the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex community. Reflective of that commitment, the Budget requests more than $3 billion to advance gender equity and equality across various sectors.
The funding will be used to pay attention to “those who face multiple forms of discrimination, such as adolescent girls and young women, Indigenous women, women and girls in the LGBTQI+ community, women with disabilities, and racial, ethnic, and religious minorities.”
Federal spending, especially debt, is being scrutinized due to elevated inflation levels. According to David Ditch, a budget expert at the Heritage Foundation, the Biden administration consistently seeks ways to waste taxpayer resources on ideological crusades at the expense of core federal duties and functions.
Critics of the budget have pointed out that the term “equity” is mentioned 62 times, while other significant issues like “inflation” and “border” are mentioned fewer times. For instance, the budget includes $25 billion for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, but only $40 million is specified to “combat fentanyl trafficking and disrupt transnational criminal organizations.” In contrast, the proposed budget seeks to spend $715 million on opioid use disorder prevention and treatment programs.
From the budget:
The Budget makes robust investments to bolster Federal law enforcement capacity. The Budget includes $17.8 billion, an increase of $1.2 billion above the 2023 enacted level, for DOJ law enforcement, including a total of nearly $2 billion for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to expand multijurisdictional gun trafficking strike forces with additional personnel, increase regulation of the firearms industry, and implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The Budget includes $1.9 billion for the U.S. Marshals Service to support personnel dedicated to fighting violent crime, including through fugitive apprehension and enforcement operations. The Budget also provides $51 million to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to support the continued implementation of enhanced background checks required by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. In addition, the Budget provides a total of $2.9 billion for U.S. Attorneys, which includes 130 new positions to support the prosecution of violent crimes.
Despite the opioid crisis, equity issues would benefit from additional federal aid, including programs prioritizing LGBT issues.
The proposed budget also includes programs authorized in the Jason Simcakoski PROMISE Act that seek to address opioid use disorder prevention and treatment programs, including the VA’s Stratification Tool for Opioid Risk Mitigation and the VA Opioid Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution program.
Overall, Biden’s budget proposal requests billions of dollars for his gender and sexuality agenda worldwide, increasing the focus on advancing gender equity and equality.