Ernst’s First Bills of New Congress Drain the Swamp

Legislation saves taxpayer dollars and holds bureaucrats accountable to working for Americans.
WASHINGTON – In the first week of the 119thCongress, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) took action on her leading priority of putting taxpayers first by introducing a trio of bills to reform Washington by relocating federal agency headquarters and workers across the country and closer to the people they serve.
After a decade of exposing waste, fraud, and abuse through her “Squeal Awards,” Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Ernst has focused her latest efforts on reforming the federal workforce after herreportin December 2024 on telework abuse exposed a chronically absent bureaucrat class.
“It is week one of Republican control in Congress, and I am already working hard on my top priorities – to drain the swamp, save tax dollars, and get federal employees back to serving the American people,”said Ernst.“While DOGE stands ready to clean house, I will be leading the fight in the Senate to disrupt the business-as-usual bureaucrats who spent the last four years out of office. The federal workforce has shown they clearly don’t want to work in D.C., and I am going to make their dreams come true.”
Ernst’s package of bills to save taxpayer dollars includes:
Background:
In August 2023, Ernstdemandedinvestigations into 24 federal departments and agencies to determine the impact of telework on the delivery and response times of services.
Heradvocacyled to the General Services Administration (GSA)downsizing3.5 million square feet of federal buildings, saving taxpayers over$1 billionin November 2023. A year later in December 2024, after Ernst’s urging, GSA announced it woulddownsizeanother 1.5 million square feet of office space, saving taxpayers another $475 million.
In December 2023, Ernstexposedthat, almost four years after COVID-19 temporarily closed federal buildings, not a single government agency is occupying even half their office space and called on Biden’s bureaucrats to deck the agency halls with federal workers or sell off unused facilities.
Her latest telework reportrevealedthat 90% of federal employees eligible for telework do so, 23-68% of federal employees sampled are being overpaid by receiving incorrect locality pay, and not a single agency headquarters in Washington was even half-full, with the average occupancy at 12%.
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