U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) introduced her Stop Secret Spending Act of 2024 to the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in mid-March. The bill is “to amend the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, to ensure that other transaction agreements are reported to USAspending.gov, and for other purposes.”
Ernst announced today that the bill — now called the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Bill — has passed in the Senate. The bipartisan legislation, co-sponsored by Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), “would require the public disclosure of every taxpayer-funded project that is $1 billion or more over budget or five years or more behind schedule.”
Ernst wrote: “My bipartisan bill to protect taxpayers from funding blank checks for failed projects PASSED the Senate. We are holding the big spenders in Washington accountable for their billion dollar boondoggles that are over budget and behind schedule.”
Boondoggles beware!
My bipartisan bill to protect taxpayers from funding blank checks for failed projects PASSED the Senate.
We are holding the big spenders in Washington accountable for their billion dollar boondoggles that are over budget and behind schedule.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) March 26, 2024
[NOTE: Ernst is at the same time hearing criticism from some fiscal conservatives for voting yes on the $1.2 trillion government funding bill last week. Ernst’s and Hassan’s boondoggle bill is now in the hands of the House, where Republican anti-spending stalwarts like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Chip Roy await.]
Ernst considers the Billion Dollar Boondoggle bill as part of her ongoing Make ‘Em Squeal campaign, which includes giving monthly “Squeal Awards” which recognize “a Washington expense, program or concept that has proven to be wasteful and must be cut.” The March award went to the U.S. Treasury.
Note: Also this month, Ernst, who is the Republican Policy Committee chair and the fourth-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, announced that she will run against U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas to become the Senate Republican Conference chair.