Ernst Bill Exposing Boondoggles Passes U.S. Senate
WASHINGTON – The United States Senate passed Senator Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) bipartisan Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act that requires any taxpayer-funded project more than $1 billion over budget or more than five years behind schedule to be made public.
The bill’s passage comes after Ernst released a bombshell report exposing more than a dozen examples that collectively racked up $162 billion in cost overruns.
“A billion dollars over budget isn’t a rounding error, it is a trainwreck,” said Ernst. “The Senate took an important step in curbing the runaway spending in Washington. Sunlight is always the best disinfectant, and an extra layer of scrutiny will allow these bloated projects to either be swiftly fixed or defunded before billions more tax dollars are wasted.”
This bill would apply to some of the worst boondoggles uncovered by Ernst, including:
- The Department of Veterans Affairs’ electronic health record system upgrade that has tripled in cost from an initial $16.1 billion price tag to $49.8 billion.
- Additionally, flaws with the new system may have contributed to the deaths of several veterans and caused harm to others.
- The Bay Area Rail Transit Extension - that Nancy Pelosi tried to sneak funding for into a COVID relief bill – has ballooned in costs from $4.7 billion to $12.8 billion.
- At nearly $2 billion per mile, it has been labeled “the worst new transit project in the U.S.”
- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Artemis moon mission launch booster and engine contracts that have already run $6 billion over budget.
- The real budget is a blackhole because “NASA hasn’t established an official cost estimate.”
Click here to view the bill.
Background:
Ernst’s years of advocacy led to the defunding of the California Crazy Train that was nearly $100 billion over budget.
In 2022, Ernst successfully inserted a provision into the Inflation Reduction Act requiring the Department of Transportation (DOT) to keep track of projects paid for by taxpayers that are a billion dollars over budget or behind schedule. After the Biden administration refused to enact the provision in the Inflation Reduction Act, Ernst continued her efforts and pushed for her Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act in 2023 to expose these government projects.
Ernst successfully fought to advance the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act out of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee earlier this year in July.
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