Child Labor Is A-ok With Labor Secretary

Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer started her job about a week ago, and she’s already throwing children under the bus—or, in this case, into the cotton field. 

Chavez-DeRemer bragged to Breitbart about an alleged $33 million in cuts that she made to the budget. But upon closer look, these “cuts” include regulations on child labor.

"Our main focus at [the Department of Labor] should always be investing in our workforce first. Your hard-earned tax dollars shouldn't be spent on programs that put America Last,” she wrote on X. 

But included in the $33 million she allegedly cut is a $3 million grant to Uzbekistan’s cotton industry. 

On the surface, the grant titled “Enhancing Transparency and Accountability in Uzbekistan’s Cotton Industry” seems potentially wasteful for a country currently trying to cut “waste, fraud, and abuse.” But the goal of the program was to fight forced and child labor.

Uzbekistan, which was originally part of the Soviet Union before declaring independence in 1991, has a record of human rights’ violations, including forced and child labor. Known for its authoritarian regime, Uzbekistan would pull children out of school to work in cotton fields. While child labor has greatly decreased over the years, forced labor is still prevalent. 

The Solidarity Center, a U.S.-based nonprofit that received funding from the grant, established itself in Uzbekistan to help mitigate longstanding child and forced labor in cotton fields by establishing local cotton businesses. 

The organization originally started receiving funding in 2022, and its contract was set to run through December 2026 before it lost funding in Chavez-DeRemer’s cuts.

"Our project in Uzbekistan supported efforts to eliminate risks of forced labor in the cotton sector, improving conditions for Uzbek workers and creating a more ethical global supply chain," Rudy Porter, Solidarity Center's regional program director for Europe and Central Asia, said in a statement to Daily Kos. 

Porter added, "Ensuring fair labor standards benefits workers in Uzbekistan and means American workers don’t have to compete with cotton made cheaper by exploitation.”

Daily Kos contacted the Department of Labor for comment but did not hear back. 

The Department of Labor hasn’t been too friendly toward children in the United States as of late, either. As a casualty of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the Labor Department will no longer offer child care, subsidies for child care, on-site health clinics, or its mental health program.

President Donald Trump, who promised to cut government spending by an exorbitant amount, is already attempting to dissolve the Department of Education and lay off thousands of federal workers, and his Cabinet is following suit. 

Lee Zeldin, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is expected to lay off more than 1,100 scientists after slashing 31 environmental regulations. And Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is laying off thousands of workers—including veterans—at the Pentagon. 

Chavez-DeRemer may just be another Cabinet member who is making cuts to gain some brownie points with Trump and Musk, but her approach isn’t helping the GOP’s reputation that’s already fraught with attacks against children.