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Senate DOGE Caucus leader Joni Ernst (R-IA) is demanding answers from President Biden and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on reported plans to exhaust the remainder of the CHIPs and Science Act’s multibillion-dollar appropriations before Donald Trump takes office.
“Your recent mandate to the Department of Commerce staff to work overtime–including weekends–spending billions of dollars in funding provided by the CHIPs and Science Act as quickly as possible before President-elect Trump takes office in January is extremely concerning,” Senate DOGE Caucus leader Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, writes in a letter that’s to be given to Raimondo on Wednesday.
Ernst wants Raimondo to halt all spending.
Raimondo recently told Politico she’d “like to have really almost all of the money obligated” from what is one of President Biden’s major government spending initiatives “by the time we leave.”
From Fox News:
The CHIPs Act, sponsored by then-Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, sought to invest in domestic semiconductor manufacturing, research, development and other related endeavors.
In her letter, Ernst said microchips and other “essential goods” strengthen the U.S. economy and supply chain.
She said that the success of the CHIPs Act hinges on careful planning and execution, which, according to her interpretation, are not reflected in Raimondo’s remarks regarding the upcoming final rounds of spending.
“[B]inge buying shopping sprees by bureaucrats shoveling billions out the door before your term expires” are unwise, she said.
“This is not a time to let the CHIPs fall where they may,” she said, pointing to reports that nearly $280 billion in COVID-19 response funding was wasted or subject to fraud.
“Shoveling out heaps of taxpayer dollars as fast as possible, with little to no oversight, is part of the reason the United States government is nearly $36 trillion in debt today,” Ernst wrote.
In exclusive comments to Fox News Digital, Ernst quipped that while “Black Friday might have come-and-gone, the Biden administration is on a spending spree, convinced every tax dollar must go.”
“We’ve never seen bureaucrats work this hard, and you can be sure they made a list and aren’t checking it twice to find out who is naughty and nice. This is backwards and underscores the need for DOGE to shake up Washington and bring some much-needed Iowa common sense to the capital,” she said.
More over at Fox News:
Top DOGE senator demands answers on plan to exhaust CHIPs Act funds before Trump arrives https://t.co/dGWTaErk33
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) December 11, 2024