DOGE trims federal agency staff to one, cuts nearly $1M grant for 'alpaca farming in Peru'

The Department of Government Efficiency announced on Tuesday that it has trimmed the Inter-American Foundation down to one staffer and cut $4.3 million of the government agency's wasteful grants.

According to the DOGE's website, the department has already saved American taxpayers $105 billion, citing a "combination of asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions."

'Reduce social discrimination of recyclers in Bolivia.'

In its latest round of cuts, the DOGE announced that it axed nearly all IAF staffers, keeping only one. The IAF invests "in locally-led initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean to help communities realize opportunities and solve their own problems."

Since 1972, the IAF has awarded 5,800 grants totaling over $945 million, the New York Post reported. The agency claims that it focuses its grant investments on "sustainable agriculture and food security," "enterprise development and job skills," "civil engagement and human rights," and "addressing the root causes of out-migration."

While trimming the IAF's staff, the DOGE noted that it canceled several wasteful grants, including "$903,811 for alpaca farming in Peru," "$364,500 to reduce social discrimination of recyclers in Bolivia," "$813,210 for vegetable gardens in El Salvador," and "$323,633 to promote cultural understanding of Venezuelan migrants in Brazil."

The DOGE also halted another $731,105 earmarked for boosting the "marketability of mushrooms and peas in Guatemala," $677,342 to improve "fruit and jam sales in Honduras," $483,345 to increase "artisanal salt production in Ecuador," and $39,250 to "support beekeeping in Brazil."

"The Inter-American Foundation, an agency whose primary action was to issue foreign grants ($60M budget), has been reduced to its statutory minimum (1 active employee)," the DOGE wrote in a post on X.

The DOGE added that the cuts were in response to President Donald Trump's February 19 executive order, "Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy," which directed the administration to "dramatically reduce the size of the Federal Government."

Peter Marocco, who previously oversaw the Trump administration's reduction of foreign aid programs at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of State, was appointed on Friday to lead the IAF.

An IAF employee defended the agency's grant programs in a comment to the Guardian.

"Our programs have continued to demonstrate their important impact of addressing root causes of illegal migration and supporting job creation," the worker said. "Without the IAF, I think you really do remove one of the few cost-effective tools to keep people in their home communities."

The IAF did not respond to a request for comment from the Post.

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