Senate DOGE Leader Unveils Fresh Round of Targets: No More 'Welfare for Politicians'
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa is pushing for massive cuts to take place as the Senate considers President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Ernst is the Senate leader of the DOGE caucus, and says that the opportunity to make deep cuts in wasteful federal spending should not pass by as the Senate considers its version of the budget bill passed by the House, according to Fox News Digital.
The White House has developed a $9.4 billion package of rescissions, which are cuts in previously allocated budget lines. Ernst said she wants the Senate to go deeper.
“We have a ‘big, beautiful’ opportunity to reduce reckless spending and save billions of dollars,” Ernst said.
“Defunding welfare for politicians, stopping bogus payments and ending unemployment for millionaires are just the start of my commonsense solutions to continue rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. Washington has lived high on the hog for far too long, and now is the time to tighten the belt,” she said.
Ernst said one piece she wants to add is called the ELECT Act, which she said would zero out the presidential campaign fund, which she has called “welfare for politicians.”
The fund usually has about $400 million.
‘WELFARE FOR POLITICIANS’: Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) is sounding the alarm on an account she hopes to defund which was set up to help presidential campaigns, saying “the last thing we need to spend tax dollars on is more political attack ads.” https://t.co/gOc7Kdcn2o pic.twitter.com/bdunz2KeYW
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 18, 2025
Ernst also wants to remove taxpayer funding of office space and staff for former presidents.
“The federal government must be held accountable for every tax dollar spent,” said Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said.
The Senate package Ernst supports would include a proposal from House DOGE Caucus Chair Aaron Bean, a Florida Republican, who wants to tighten spending by ensuring all spending has a code that tells one and all where the money is going.
During its work, the Department of Government Efficiency found $160 billion spent either fraudulently or without a code.
“The American people deserve a government that is efficient, accountable and fiscally responsible. That’s why the House successfully advanced DOGE reforms through reconciliation that will safeguard America’s financial future,” Bean said.
“I encourage the Senate to build on the work we’ve done in the House to deliver lasting fiscal responsibility to the American people.”
Need to make @DOGE cuts permanent — to truly end waste and drive down our national debt! pic.twitter.com/YkjrZiJCTH
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) May 15, 2025
Representatives of conservative organizations went on record applauding the proposed changes.
“The Delivering on Government Efficiency in Spending Act will require the Treasury Department to make all federal payments public and searchable,” according to Tom Schatz, president of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste.
“The increased spending transparency will help identify and eliminate waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. “
Kurt Couchman, the senior fellow in fiscal policy at Americans for Prosperity, agreed. “Congress and the President need to know where taxpayer funds go to make coherent budgets and to execute the laws properly,” he said.
“Senator Ernst’s DOGE in Spending Act would shine more light on federal spending so Congress can continue what’s working and change what isn’t.”
The Senate’s DOGE package would attack what’s called “unemployment for millionaires” by banning anyone making $1 million or more from getting unemployment insurance benefits, bar unionized government workers from negotiating while being paid, and sell multiple unused or under-utilized federal buildings.
The bill also seeks to “snap back inaccurate SNAP payments,” Ernst said, so that payments that were in error due to negligence are collected from those who received them.
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