The July 9 news release sounded routine: U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced $5 million in funding for groups that work to recruit more women to registered apprenticeship programs. But that came as a surprise to potential grant recipients, because just months ago Chavez-DeRemer’s Labor Department was canceling already-awarded grants in the same program and proposing to eliminate both the program and the bureau that administers it.
The tiny grant program is known as the Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO), but it’s a big deal for groups like Oregon Tradeswomen that work to recruit women to construction careers. WANTO grants are overseen by the Women’s Bureau, a subagency of the Labor Department. In the White House budget proposal for the 2026 fiscal year, the Trump administration is asking Congress to get rid of the Women’s Bureau, calling it “an ineffective policy office that is a relic of the past.”
Does the renewed grant announcement mean Chavez-DeRemer has had a change of heart? Has a decision been made to support continuation of the Women’s Bureau and the WANTO program? In response to that question, a Labor Department spokesperson said the department would have nothing to share beyond the press release itself.
The release says there was a thorough evaluation and realignment of the program “to ensure WANTO grants help the department achieve President Trump’s goal of reaching one million new active apprentices.”
Judging by the grant description, the Labor Department is taking WANTO back to basics, favoring grant applicants that aim broadly at women overall. The new grant description eliminates Biden-era language that encouraged applicants to focus on “historically underrepresented communities,” including “women of color and women with disabilities, women at or below the federal poverty line, formerly incarcerated women, immigrant women, transgender women, and women who live in rural geographic areas.”
“Under President Trump’s leadership and our shared commitment to transparency, the department has been reviewing all taxpayer-funded grants to ensure they fulfill their intended purpose and help this Administration achieve our workforce goals,” says a statement attributed to Chavez-DeRemer. Applications are due Aug. 8, and the department will make as many as 14 grants of between $350,000 and $750,000, totaling $5 million. That’s down from $6 million the previous year.
“I believe that they are responding to the external pressure to fund WANTO,” said Gayle Goldin, who served as deputy director of the Women’s Bureau in the Biden administration.
Led by Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-Oregon), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pennsylvania), and Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), more than 50 U.S. Representatives in the Democratic Women’s Caucus signed on to an April 14 letter to Chavez-DeRemer urging her to preserve current staffing at the Women’s Bureau — and its work with the WANTO program. The letter got no formal response, and later that month the Labor Department canceled existing WANTO grants, cutting off funding for projects that were already underway around the country. But after some tweaks, it appears WANTO is back for now.
“Needless to say, I was pleased, as a strong supporter of the program,” Bonamici told the Labor Press. “Hopefully we were able to convince them that this is a good program and it’s something that should be preserved.”
Protect and Fund
Jointly with the National Taskforce on Tradeswomen’s Issues, the presidents of eight major construction unions signed a June 10 statement calling on Congress to continue funding the WANTO program and the Women’s Bureau: Iron Workers, Insulators, Elevator Constructors, Laborers, Plasterers and Cement Masons, Sheet Metal Workers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and Painters and Allied Trades. See the statement here.
