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Sen. Ernst to Newsmax: Any Spending Should Benefit US Taxpayers

By James Morley III | Tuesday, 22 July 2025 10:53 AM EDT

The GOP majority passed a rescissions package last week that will trim $9 billion in previously approved federal expenditures, some of which included sending money overseas to renovate swimming pools in foreign countries. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told Newsmax on Tuesday that the Trump administration is "making sure that when we are spending, it is for the benefit of our taxpayers right here in the good old U.S. of A."

"Wake Up America" host Sharla McBride asked Ernst to comment on her recent post where she said, "Joe Biden used your tax dollars to renovate pools around the world. I am stopping the splashy spending." Ernst said the DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] effort has enabled her and her team to "scrutinize government spending."

"There are open records that we can request. And through that process, we did find out that the federal government was spending $1 million on upgrading pools all around the world — in Russia, Sudan, Indonesia, and even five of them in Iraq. And this is at a time when we know we need to tighten our belts here in the United States," Ernst said.

"So spending all of that additional money overseas on luxury items really doesn't make any sense to our taxpayers," she added.

Ernst, who is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Armed Services Committee, noted that there is more work to be done in the next rescissions bill. "So this is why I continue to work with [Director] Russ Vought over at OMB [Office of Management and Budget], with [President Donald Trump] and his team, making sure that when we are spending, it is for the benefit of our taxpayers right here in the good old U.S. of A. So let's use a little common sense, and I think we can do that in this next rescissions package," she added.