How did the merit-based review regularly let things like these through? (Picked by scrolling at random through a list of cancelled grants):

$2.4 million for "Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) Girls in a Robotics Leadership Project"

$1.2 million for "FW-HTF-R: Collaborative Research: Virtual Meeting Support for Enhanced Well-Being and Equity for Game Developers"

$700k for "CAREER: Advancing Equity in Middle School Mathematics by Engaging Students and Families of Color in Participatory Design Research"

Etc., etc., etc.