Do Jesse Watters’ claims about the federal budget, LGBTQ+ and DEI funding add up?

The U.S. Senate passed a $1.2 trillion dollar spending package, narrowly avoiding a partial government shutdown. Before the bill was signed into law in the wee hours of March 23, one pundit criticized some of its details.

"What's in the new monster bill Congress is rushing to pass?" Fox News host Jesse Watters posted March 21 on X, where it had 2.3 million views as of March 28. He wrote that the bill included:

• $850,000 for a "gay senior home."

• $15 million to pay for Egyptians’ college tuition.

• $400,000 for a "gay activist group to teach elementary kids about being trans."

• $500,000 for a "DEI zoo."

• $400,000 for "a group to give clothes to teens to help them hide their gender." 

His X post also included a clip of him discussing the earmarks on his show, "Jesse Watters Primetime," the same night. He posted a similar claim on TikTok, where it amassed more than 500,000 views and 55,000 likes. 

We contacted Fox News, and a spokesperson shared a list of the funding items Watters was referring to. 

Joshua Sewell, research and policy director at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget watchdog group, said the majority of federal spending is not distributed through earmarking. Sewell said the earmarks Watters noted "don’t appear to be unique or out of character" or "excessively large" when compared with other projects receiving earmarks. 

Except for the Egyptian college funding, all of the items Watters cited are from the budget’s Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education portion, which  Sewell said, has approximately 1,000 earmarks. 

Given the large number of earmarks, "I’m sure everybody could find something they don’t think is a best use of funds," Sewell said.

E.J. Fagan, assistant professor of political science at the University of Illinois Chicago, agreed that earmarks "are a teeny-tiny piece of the federal budget." 

Fagan also said his "impression from the backlash to these very small set of earmarks is that it is just cherry-picking." His research on the FY 2022 budget found that 0.6% of all federal earmarks mentioned LGBTQ+ as a target population. 

Here, we examine each of Watters’ claims. 

This needs more context. 

The $850,000 earmark is for the Boston-based nonprofit LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc. to provide affordable housing for people 62 and older. It will help fund "The Pryde," a 74-unit housing complex in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood that is slated to open this spring. But that complex  is not exclusive to gay people; it is open to anyone who meets the income and age requirements.

The organization’s mission is to "facilitate access to welcoming, safe and affordable housing for low-income LGBTQ+ seniors," by developing that housing and establishing onsite services and programming "that addresses the needs of LGBTQ seniors." 

The $850,000 will be used for programming and the complex’s community center, which also will be open to older people from the neighborhood who don’t live in the complex.

The organization says the project is needed because of the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ seniors, some of whom may not have offspring to serve as caregivers or who may face discrimination or isolation. 

Applicants for the housing complex were not asked about their sexual orientation. 

"It would be against the law to limit this affordable housing to just members of the LGBTQ+ community," said the organization’s executive director, Gretchen Van Ness. 

The money will come from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ funds for community living.

Van Ness told PolitiFact that she applied for the funding through the office of Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., last year, because The Pryde is in Pressley’s district. 

This is missing context.

Fifteen million dollars is allocated to USAID, the federal agency that manages foreign aid, "for scholarships for Egyptian students with high financial need to attend not-for-profit institutions of higher education in Egypt," that are accredited by agencies recognized by the United States Department of Education or meet equivalent standards, the budget description says.

Similar Egyptian higher education funding has been provided to USAID over the past four decades, a USAID spokesperson told PolitiFact. The scholarships allow Egyptians to study at universities "in fields critical to Egypt’s sustained economic growth and development." 

Spending bills passed during Donald Trump’s presidency provided $10 million per year for the higher education scholarship program from 2017 through 2019 and increased it to $15 million in 2020. 

"The State Department and USAID have a long history of funding numerous programs to support the spread of democracy and western values throughout the world," Taxpayers for Common Sense’s Sewell said. "This is not a surprise."

This is misleading.

Watters is referring to "Garden State Equality," a New Jersey LGBTQ+ advocacy group and a state affiliate of the Equality Federation, a national network of LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations. 

The budget describes the $400,000 earmark as funding "for trauma-informed strategies to support LGBTQ+ youth." 

Garden State Equality Executive Director Christian Fuscarino told PolitiFact the funding will support programs to educate communities about adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, traumatic events early in life such as violence, abuse or neglect that can affect long-term health. Research has shown that LGBTQ+ people report higher rates of adverse childhood experiences.

Fuscarino said some of the federal funding will be used for a summer camp for high school-aged kids that teaches about the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion, and imparts some trauma-informed strategies. That can include sharing techniques such as breathing exercises to cope with trauma’s impacts, Fuscarino said. The money comes from the Department of Education’s funds for "innovation and improvement."

The organization also conducts professional development training with kindergarten through 12th grade educators on LGBTQ+ terminology and anti-bullying initiatives. It has developed LGBTQ+ lessons and curriculum resources. 

Since 2019, New Jersey law has required schools to teach LGBTQ+ history in middle and high schools, and adopt instructional materials that portray society’s diversity including the "political, economic, and social contributions" of LGBTQ+ people.

A breakdown of how this funding will be spent is not yet finalized, Fuscarino told PolitiFact. Although the money is earmarked, the organization may not access the money until it submits a proposed budget and receives Department of Education approval.

Fuscarino said Watters’ characterization of the organization’s work as "teaching" elementary kids about "being trans" is inaccurate.

"We may go to a kindergarten class by being invited and read a story that is about an LGBTQ character," said Fuscarino, "but that’s not the core of what we're doing."

Watters’ framing is misleading. ("DEI" is an acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion.) 

The $500,000 earmark is for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, the nonprofit that manages the acclaimed San Diego Zoo. 

The money is for the nonprofit’s Nature Biodiversity Corps program that "brings together inner-city high school students from diverse cultural, ethnic, and lived-experience perspectives," according to the website. The students "design, implement, maintain, and monitor native wildlife gardens on their school campuses," alongside experts and Wildlife Alliance mentors, the website says.

The funding comes from the Department of Education’s funds for "innovation and improvement." 

In the clip from his show that Watters shared on X, Watters described the biodiversity program as "an anti-racist nature appreciation program where high school kids from diverse backgrounds can observe wildlife." But the program is more than a trip to the zoo.

Students spend 10 to 20 hours monthly working on wildlife gardens at their own schools and participating in nature-based learning experiences at wildlife conservation sites.

The website says that since 2022, 200 high school students have participated, creating 14 gardens. 

Race and ethnicity are not considerations for participation in the program, zoo spokesperson Jake Gonzales said. 

The earmark funding will go toward staff salaries, transportation and supplies — including native plants for the gardens — and toward reaching more students at more schools, Gonzales said. The zoo has received federal earmarks in previous years, but for other conservation projects.

This claim is inaccurate.

The funding is for Briarpatch Youth Services, a Madison, Wisconsin, nonprofit that runs a youth homeless shelter and works with at-risk youth.

The earmark was requested by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and would come from the Department of Health and Human Services’ funds for substance abuse and mental health services. 

Briarpatch’s website lists several programs including employment services, support for those navigating the criminal justice system and street outreach and counseling for homeless youth.

The nonprofit’s "Teens Like Us" program has a support group for "queer and questioning youth" beginning at age 13. In 2023, the Teens Like Us program included what organizers called the "Briar-Attire Gender Affirming Clothing Program." The program provided gender-affirming clothing such as chest binders and tucking underwear to those who could not afford or access them. The Teens Like Us website no longer lists the clothing program.

Baldwin’s office told PolitiFact the $400,000 earmark can be used only for mental health services and counseling for kids experiencing homelessness, and will not be used for the Teens Like Us program. Briarpatch Executive Director Jill Pfeiffer confirmed that to PolitiFact.