February 13, 2025 • 7 mins
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst lays out examples of what she calls a "rogue agency."
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcoming Iowa Senator Jony Ernst to kfab's Morning News. Senator,
good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey, good morning. It's great to be with you. Thanks
so much.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
I am anxious to have this conversation because whereas a
lot of us had never heard of us AID, and
then recently you hear the name of this and you think, well,
it's a humanitarian organization, and then it kind of looks
like it's more of a liberal slush fund for Democrat hacks.
You have called it a rogue agency. Can you tell
(00:30):
me about us AID?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yes, absolutely, and thanks for the opportunity. This is part
of the work that I have done over the past
decade in ferreting out waste of taxpayer dollars, fraud abuse
within the federal government. All of this squeal work has
come together now and what is being called DOGE, you know,
(00:54):
through the Department of Government Efficiency. But several years ago
I had gone after USAID because we were allocating dollars
to them, and we truly didn't know what was going on,
if those dollars were actually getting to the purposes that
we thought we were supporting in Congress. So I started
(01:19):
digging into this and with stonewalled by USAID at every
single term. They did not want me looking at their books.
They did not want my staff looking at their books.
I eventually engaged in a congressional investigation with Representative Mike McCall,
who was in charge of the Foreign Relations Committee in
(01:41):
the House, and we were able to shake loose a
little bit of the paperwork that we needed, and it
did show that there was a lot of waste within
this organization. And you were absolutely correct and that it
started as a humanitarian organization supporting American values, use and
America's their needs globally, in supporting friends and allies. But
(02:07):
what it has done, it has strayed so far to
the left that what we found were things like funding
opium production in Afghanistan, tourism to Lebanon even though the
State Department warns people not to travel there, support for
Moroccan pottery classes. For heaven's sakes, the Moroccans have had
(02:29):
pottery for two thousand years. I don't think we need
to teach them how to make pottery. And then they
were also paying to send Ukrainians to attend Paris Fashion Week.
So I mean, all of these things we should not
be spending money on it's got to stop. They are
a rogue agency. They don't want to be accountable to
(02:50):
anyone except the far.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Left, you know, Sam ro Senator.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
They want to do They want to play the ropo
dope with you, and they have for years. There are
four hundred and forty one federal agency. You're only around
for six, twelve, maybe eighteen years. They're around for two
hundred and fifty years, so they know how to play
this game. The question becomes whether any Democrat actually believes
this is a bad idea. And as you talk to
your Democrat friends when the TV cameras aren't on, ay,
(03:15):
did they even think any of this is a problem
or are they just obsessed with Elon Musk.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
No, there are several Democrats that do believe this to
be a problem. Most of the left to all of
the Democrats are very focused on Elon Musk. But behind
the scenes, and we know that there are a number
of Democrats in the House that are actually part of
the Doge Caucus. Some of them have left the caucus
(03:43):
because it's just too embattled right now. Because the left
is focusing so heavily on Elon Musk. We don't have
any Democrats in my caucus. I'm the founder and co
chair of the Doge Caucus in the Senate. But I
do have one Democrat that is very interested in the
efficiency work that we are doing in the ferreting out
(04:05):
waste issues. He unfortunately doesn't want to have his name
as an official member because of the heat that they
are getting from their leadership over this. So there are
some Democrats that truly believe that we need to right
size the federal government get back to watching how these
(04:26):
taxpayer dollars are spent. But unfortunately, you know, they are
being land blasted.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Howd Yeah, they can't be. They can't have the anesthetic
of sunlight cast on them. But one other thing, and
that is don't we have the Government Accountability Office? What
purpose does that serve now.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
If any Well, it does, but they're not really meant
to be an investigative branch of the federal government. So
they do scrutinize their an accounting office, but overall they're
not going to do a deep dive. And this was
my heartburn, is that I'm charged with congressional oversight and
(05:07):
I have the ability to go to different agencies, especially
those that I have oversight on with my various committees,
and yet I wasn't being granted the access to the
information that I needed to make decisions as a policy
leader in the United States Senate. And that's why I
(05:27):
see USAID as a rogue agency where they wouldn't allow
me access to the very programs that I'm supposed to oversee.
So again, I've been working on this for years, and
I'm thankful that under President Trump, this has finally come
to a head. We've said enough's enough. I was able
(05:48):
to provide a blueprint for Vivek Ramaswami and Elon Musk
last November when I met with them at mar A Lago,
specifically to talk about my squeal efforts how I can
be full to them in Doge met with Elon yesterday.
We had a really good discussion about the caucus, what
(06:08):
we want to do with the caucus here in the Senate,
and also various committee meetings where Elon Musk or some
of his representatives could come in and lay to rest
all of the lies and the myths that the Left
is promoting out there. No, Elon is not sitting at
some terminal and some agency changing people's personnel records. No,
(06:31):
that stuff is not going on what they are doing.
They're working with employees, longtime employees in these agencies to
query different programs to be able to find out how
dollars they are being spent and then provide feedback to
the president, makes suggestions how can we be more efficient.
(06:53):
This is a program that's not doing what it's congressionally
mandated to do. So this is basically an overall audit
of the federal government. Isn't that something that we should
be doing Iowa.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Senator Joni Arn's great information this morning. Thank you so
much for the time.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Absolutely, thank you, Scott
Welcoming Iowa Senator Jony Ernst to kfab's Morning News. Senator,
good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey, good morning. It's great to be with you. Thanks
so much.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
I am anxious to have this conversation because whereas a
lot of us had never heard of us AID, and
then recently you hear the name of this and you think, well,
it's a humanitarian organization, and then it kind of looks
like it's more of a liberal slush fund for Democrat hacks.
You have called it a rogue agency. Can you tell
(00:30):
me about us AID?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yes, absolutely, and thanks for the opportunity. This is part
of the work that I have done over the past
decade in ferreting out waste of taxpayer dollars, fraud abuse
within the federal government. All of this squeal work has
come together now and what is being called DOGE, you know,
(00:54):
through the Department of Government Efficiency. But several years ago
I had gone after USAID because we were allocating dollars
to them, and we truly didn't know what was going on,
if those dollars were actually getting to the purposes that
we thought we were supporting in Congress. So I started
(01:19):
digging into this and with stonewalled by USAID at every
single term. They did not want me looking at their books.
They did not want my staff looking at their books.
I eventually engaged in a congressional investigation with Representative Mike McCall,
who was in charge of the Foreign Relations Committee in
(01:41):
the House, and we were able to shake loose a
little bit of the paperwork that we needed, and it
did show that there was a lot of waste within
this organization. And you were absolutely correct and that it
started as a humanitarian organization supporting American values, use and
America's their needs globally, in supporting friends and allies. But
(02:07):
what it has done, it has strayed so far to
the left that what we found were things like funding
opium production in Afghanistan, tourism to Lebanon even though the
State Department warns people not to travel there, support for
Moroccan pottery classes. For heaven's sakes, the Moroccans have had
(02:29):
pottery for two thousand years. I don't think we need
to teach them how to make pottery. And then they
were also paying to send Ukrainians to attend Paris Fashion Week.
So I mean, all of these things we should not
be spending money on it's got to stop. They are
a rogue agency. They don't want to be accountable to
(02:50):
anyone except the far.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Left, you know, Sam ro Senator.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
They want to do They want to play the ropo
dope with you, and they have for years. There are
four hundred and forty one federal agency. You're only around
for six, twelve, maybe eighteen years. They're around for two
hundred and fifty years, so they know how to play
this game. The question becomes whether any Democrat actually believes
this is a bad idea. And as you talk to
your Democrat friends when the TV cameras aren't on, ay,
(03:15):
did they even think any of this is a problem
or are they just obsessed with Elon Musk.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
No, there are several Democrats that do believe this to
be a problem. Most of the left to all of
the Democrats are very focused on Elon Musk. But behind
the scenes, and we know that there are a number
of Democrats in the House that are actually part of
the Doge Caucus. Some of them have left the caucus
(03:43):
because it's just too embattled right now. Because the left
is focusing so heavily on Elon Musk. We don't have
any Democrats in my caucus. I'm the founder and co
chair of the Doge Caucus in the Senate. But I
do have one Democrat that is very interested in the
efficiency work that we are doing in the ferreting out
(04:05):
waste issues. He unfortunately doesn't want to have his name
as an official member because of the heat that they
are getting from their leadership over this. So there are
some Democrats that truly believe that we need to right
size the federal government get back to watching how these
(04:26):
taxpayer dollars are spent. But unfortunately, you know, they are
being land blasted.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Howd Yeah, they can't be. They can't have the anesthetic
of sunlight cast on them. But one other thing, and
that is don't we have the Government Accountability Office? What
purpose does that serve now.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
If any Well, it does, but they're not really meant
to be an investigative branch of the federal government. So
they do scrutinize their an accounting office, but overall they're
not going to do a deep dive. And this was
my heartburn, is that I'm charged with congressional oversight and
(05:07):
I have the ability to go to different agencies, especially
those that I have oversight on with my various committees,
and yet I wasn't being granted the access to the
information that I needed to make decisions as a policy
leader in the United States Senate. And that's why I
(05:27):
see USAID as a rogue agency where they wouldn't allow
me access to the very programs that I'm supposed to oversee.
So again, I've been working on this for years, and
I'm thankful that under President Trump, this has finally come
to a head. We've said enough's enough. I was able
(05:48):
to provide a blueprint for Vivek Ramaswami and Elon Musk
last November when I met with them at mar A Lago,
specifically to talk about my squeal efforts how I can
be full to them in Doge met with Elon yesterday.
We had a really good discussion about the caucus, what
(06:08):
we want to do with the caucus here in the Senate,
and also various committee meetings where Elon Musk or some
of his representatives could come in and lay to rest
all of the lies and the myths that the Left
is promoting out there. No, Elon is not sitting at
some terminal and some agency changing people's personnel records. No,
(06:31):
that stuff is not going on what they are doing.
They're working with employees, longtime employees in these agencies to
query different programs to be able to find out how
dollars they are being spent and then provide feedback to
the president, makes suggestions how can we be more efficient.
(06:53):
This is a program that's not doing what it's congressionally
mandated to do. So this is basically an overall audit
of the federal government. Isn't that something that we should
be doing Iowa.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Senator Joni Arn's great information this morning. Thank you so
much for the time.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Absolutely, thank you, Scott
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