DOGE, DoD Mention Univ of Montana Program as Wasteful Spending

As the DOGE team goes agency by agency highlighting waste, fraud, and abuse in federal government spending- a University of Montana program was mentioned by name in a video shared by the Pentagon spokesman.

Here's the video that radio listeners started sharing with me on Monday. In the video, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell says their initial findings have identified $80 million in wasteful spending. (h/t to @StPeteTrent for sending my way via X)

Parnell: "In the Air Force, $1.9 million for holistic DEI transformation and training. $6 million to the University of Montana to strengthen American democracy by bridging divides. At the Defense Human Resources Activity, $3.5 million for support to DEI groups. And how about this one- $1.6 million to the University of Florida to study social and institutional detriments of vulnerability and resilience to climate hazards in African Sahel. You see, folks, this stuff is not a core function of our military. This is not what we do. This is a distraction from our core mission. So we believe that these initial findings will probably save $80 million in wasteful spending, again, $80 million in wasteful spending just right here."

I reached out to the University of Montana for more information on this program in particular.

It is worth noting that UM has had some very good programs for critical languages that have been a very good resource. This program is not connected to the critical languages program at UM's Mansfield Center.

UM Spokesman Dave Kuntz tells me that the program highlighted by the DOD spokesman "is a single grant to the Mansfield Center to expand democracy and civics education, with an emphasis on bridging the rural vs. urban divide. The elimination of this grant does not impact the Defense Language work that the center does."

He tells us that here are five components to this effort:

-K-12 Teacher trainings on how to weave civics into curriculum standards.

-Provide a comprehensive civics program to regional college students.

-Develop community engagement exercises to enhance civic discourse in rural communities.

-There is a research component to help identify best practices to advance the skills of civic engagement.

-There is a two week event in DC that aims to bring rural and urban youth together to learn about civics and bridge that urban vs. rural divide

The Billings Gazette has additional info on this story. Click here for that full report.