Latest news with #JoniErnst
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
The rare bipartisan movement to block China's under-the-radar land grab amid growing fears about the creeping adversary on the hunt
A coalition of senators from both sides of the aisle is sounding the alarm about what they see as a quiet but dangerous trend across America's heartland: Acres of farmland falling into foreign hands, with China leading the seizures. The urgency behind their concern is driven by a stark trendline: Chinese agricultural investments in the U.S. have skyrocketed tenfold over the past decade, according to Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, who has sponsored the 'Farmland Act.' The legislation is designed to stymie Chinese influence over U.S. land by giving the federal government more oversight of agricultural property owned by foreign countries. It's an effort with one overarching goal in mind: Curtail the creeping ambitions of one of our top adversaries. Ernst explicitly calls out China, which 'in particular has increased agricultural investments tenfold over the past decade.' Ernst told the Daily Mail that 'limiting the opportunities for foreign entities, especially adversaries like China' to purchase farmland is critically important. China 'will come in and purchase that land, so that we're not able to put it into production, and in turn they are,' Ernst noted. There is bipartisan consensus that China is a threat to the United States in areas such as intellectual property and global competitiveness, but Democrats and Republicans typically disagree on the best ways to deal with the adversarial nation. Republicans are raising concerns about insufficient oversight in government programs that fund research and technological innovation, particularly when foreign nationals are leading projects financed by U.S. taxpayers. Democrats, on the other hand, are blaming the Trump administration for cutting funding to research initiatives they say are critical to maintaining America's competitiveness in emerging technologies. Despite the disagreements, Ernst has been able to draft two Democrats to support the bill: Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. Republicans Rick Scott of Florid a and Ted Budd of North Carolina have also signed on, giving it wide geographical support. Opposition to the Farmland Act centers on concerns about expanded federal oversight and regulatory burdens for foreign investors in acquiring U.S. agricultural property. Legitimate investments could see their transactions disrupted or delayed, these critics argue. Still, many states have already taken steps to limit foreign purchases of their land, including Ernst's Iowa. 'But, if you go back and look across the United States at what we already have sold to foreign entities, if you put all those acres together, its going to be larger than the state of Tennessee,' Ernst told the Daily Mail. In Budd's state of North Carolina, China owns nearly 50,000 acres of farmland, some of it near critical sites such as us military bases. Scott's home state of Florida is home to nearly 13,000 acres of farmland owned by China. Ernst's bill isn't the only one in the works that aims to stop China's efforts to buy up American agricultural land. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley has introduced the Protecting Our Farms and Homes from China Act, and Representative Mary Miller introduced a House compliment to his bill this week. Twelve Republican members have co-sponsored Miller's bill in the House. The Trump administration claimed back in February that overall, China owns over 350,000 acres in 27 states. Foreign entities and individuals own roughly 43 million acres of U.S. agricultural land, nearly 2 percent of all U.S. land, according to government data. A Government Accountability Office report from 2024 determined that foreign acquisitions of U.S. land are difficult to identify. It also determined that a prior report from 2021 - claiming that foreign entities owned 40 million acres - was inaccurate. Trump's Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced recently that the Department of Agriculture (USDA) would not allow 'Chinese nationals' or other foreign adversaries to purchase farmland in the United States. 'American agriculture is not just about feeding our families but about protecting our nation and standing up to foreign adversaries who are buying our farmland, stealing our research and creating dangerous vulnerabilities in the very systems that sustain us,' Rollins said.
Fox News
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
GUY BENSON SHOW: Joni Ernst Joins the Show and Discusses the 'Big, Beautiful Law,' Her Future in Politics
Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), the first female combat veteran elected to the U.S. Senate and author of DAUGHTER OF THE HEARTLAND: My Ode to the Country that Raised Me, joined The Guy Benson Show today to discuss her vote for the Big Beautiful Law and why the law is crucial to keeping taxes lower for Iowans and Americans across the country. Sen. Ernst also broke down where the U.S. is trimming spending through its recession-related legislation, noting that even small cuts matter. Benson and Ernst also discussed on her work shaping the NDAA, with key efforts to strengthen military recruitment and rein in secretive spending. Listen to the full interview below! Listen to the full interview below: Listen to the full podcast below:
Fox News
20-07-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Biden admin spent hefty sum of US tax dollars to upgrade embassy swimming pools in Iraq, Russia
The Biden administration's State Department authorized more than $1 million in taxpayer funds for renovating swimming pools at U.S. embassies and mission residences in war-torn countries such as Haiti, Sudan and Iraq, a report from Sen. Joni Ernst's office found. "The Biden State Department threw a blowout summer pool party on your dime," Ernst, R-Iowa, said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. "Bureaucrats might think wasting millions is a drop in the bucket, but I am sick and tired of taxpayers getting tossed in the deep end by Washington," Ernst added. "I will continue working with the Trump administration to put a stop to the splashy spending of the Biden years." Ernst's office found that the State Department under the Biden administration authorized that two pools in Haiti, five in Iraq, three in Sudan, one in Russia, one in Zimbabwe and one in Ghana be renovated, totaling more than $1.2 million, according to the New York Post, which first reported on the pool renovations on Thursday. Taxpayers spent $41,259 to rehabilitate the pool at the U.S. embassy in Moscow in a contract inked three months after Russia invaded Ukraine in a war that has continued raging. The purchase order was dated June 3, 2022, through Aug. 15, 2022, after the war began in February that same year. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad was awarded a whopping $444,000 to replace its indoor dehumidification system for its pool in a contract that began on Sept. 27, 2024. While the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, Iraq received over $10,000 to conduct mechanical repairs to its pool, according to the Ernst report reviewed by Fox News Digital. In Sudan, taxpayers spent $24,000 in 2021 for the installation of a pool deck. Sudan has notably been under a State Department do not travel advisory "due to armed conflict, civil unrest, crime, terrorism, and kidnapping," with the embassy in Khartoum suspending operations in 2023 over the ongoing violent conflicts in the nation. Some of the contracts detailed in the report have not been fully paid out, such as a $173,000 award to conduct work on a swimming pool in Indonesia at the embassy in Jakarta. The federal government has previously been criticized for the amount of taxpayer funds spent on U.S. embassies overseas, including spending hefty sums on artwork under the Obama administration, Fox Digital reported at the time. U.S. embassies are primarily funded through congressional appropriations to the U.S. Department of State. Ernst's report follows months of the Department of Government Efficiency reporting it has saved the federal government billions of dollars amid its ongoing investigations into various federal agencies in search of corruption, overspending and mismanagement. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been at the forefront of gutting departments and programs under State's purview, including shuttering USAID earlier in July for failing to ensure its programs actually supported America's interests. "This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end. Under the Trump administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests. As of July 1st, USAID will officially cease to implement foreign assistance. Foreign assistance programs that align with administration policies – and which advance American interests – will be administered by the State Department, where they will be delivered with more accountability, strategy, and efficiency," Rubio said in comment regarding shuttering USAID.
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst speaks in support of USAID, public broadcasting cuts
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst spoke on the U.S. Senate floor in support of the rescissions bill July 16, 2025, which included cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development. (Photo courtesy of the office of U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst) U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst praised the cuts to U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) included in the bill passed in the early hours of Thursday to cancel $9 billion in federal funding for foreign aid efforts and public broadcasting. Ernst spoke in support of the cuts made through the rescissions bill, requested by President Donald Trump's administration, that will claw back federal funding that had previously been approved, some of which were provisions targeted by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) service earlier in 2025. The Iowa Republican has regularly criticized USAID spending and supported the DOGE cuts and the closure of the foreign aid agency. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX In remarks on the Senate floor, Ernst, who leads the DOGE Caucus, said the cuts were eliminating wasteful spending going to programs which she said should not have received money from the U.S. government through USAID, including $20 million in funding approved to produce a Sesame Street program for Iraq and $2 million for promoting tourism in Lebanon. She also highlighted that USAID provided more than $800,000 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, a location theorized by some to be the origin of COVID-19. 'What exactly was our international development agency developing at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology?' Ernst said. 'Well, if the CIA, FBI, and other experts are correct that the COVID virus likely originated from a lab leak, USAID may have had a hand in a once-in-a-century pandemic that claimed the lives of millions.' Ernst said there is 'shortage of other questionable USAID projects, but President Trump is putting an end to this deep state operation.' 'The foreign assistance programs that do advance American interests are now being administered under the watchful eye of Secretary Marco Rubio,' Ernst said. '… Overseas projects without merit are being ended and the tax dollars that were paying for them will be refunded if the Senate passes the rescissions bill.' In addition to her comments on USAID, Ernst also said she supported canceling $1.1 billion in taxpayer support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the bill would have gone toward NPR, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and hundreds of local news stations throughout the country in the next two fiscal years. Ernst said often, programming from these outlets are 'partisan propaganda.' 'NPR and PBS have a right to say whatever the heck they want, but they don't have a right to force hardworking Americans to pay for their political propaganda being masked as a public service,' Ernst said. All Senate Democrats who voted opposed the measure, and were joined by Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Murkowski said she opposed the cuts to federal funding for public broadcast because of the importance of these services for Alaska when facing natural disasters, pointing information shared about a potential tsunami by a local station following a 7.3 magnitude earthquake Wednesday. Democrats also proposed amendments to change the provisions related to foreign aid — particularly for efforts related to global health and disaster relief — as well as for public broadcasting. These amendments were not adopted. 'Think about what we are doing, think about the example we are setting,' said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, said while speaking on a proposed amendment striking the cut of $496 million in international disaster assistance. Ernst and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley voted in support of the legislation in the early morning Thursday, getting it passed the Senate in the 51-48 vote that largely fell along party lines. It must pass the U.S. House before a deadline Friday before it could make it to Trump's desk. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Daily Mail
17-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Sen. Ernst pushes to stop Pentagon credit card fraud
A Senate Republican is pushing a provision that would swiftly deactivate employee credit cards once they finish their service at the Pentagon. Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst wants to require physical cards issued to ex-employees to be returned to the department immediately. Her proposal, which is being offered as part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act, would also mandate the deletion of credit cards from digital wallets. Earlier this year, an audit conducted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) exposed an eye-popping $40 billion in annual expenditures throughout the government on 4.6 million credit cards - a number that's nearly twice the number of active federal employees. Thousands of the transactions unearthed in a separate report by the Pentagon's inspector general occurred at 'high-risk locations' including casino ATMs, bars and nightclubs. 'After exposing sweeping abuse of government credit cards, I am chopping up the Pentagon 's plastic,' Ernst told the Daily Mail. 'From casinos to bars and much more, bureaucrats have been swiping away and sending the American people the check.' Ernst's office was unable to confirm when her measure could receive a vote before the full Senate body and provisions like these often get stripped out or risk being voted down during last minute negotiations to get the must-pass legislation over the finish line. The Senate version of the NDAA has passed out of the Armed Services Committee, and the House is scheduled to vote on their version of the bill Thursday afternoon. The Senate did not achieve final passage of last year's NDAA until mid-December. Slashing waste, fraud, and abuse has been top of mind for Republicans in Washington since President Trump reclaimed the White White House and greenlit an agency tasked with slashing the federal bureaucracy, and Erst has been eager to align herself with the president's objectives as she contemplates a re-election bid in 2026. But her provision only covers the Pentagon, not the broader $40 billion problem plaguing all agencies. 'Washington insiders wouldn't leave their own old credit cards floating around, and there is no reason why they should treat taxpayer-funded credit cards with less responsibility,' Ernst concluded. Some of the bad actors have been identified as part of ongoing investigations. In 2020, a Texas National Guardsman was sentenced to two years in federal prison and ordered to repay over $75,000 after it was uncovered that he used 'General Services Administration and Department of Defense 'fleet cards' to purchase fuel and maintenance for government vehicles.' Other similar instances of fraud are decades old, showing that misuse of government-issued credit cards has been a pervasive problem. In 2005, an ex-US Army recruiter was arrested for using a 'stolen card to purchase gasoline, automotive parts and food for his personal use and consumption in excess of $13,000.' A 2002 report by the Government Accountability Office noted that a 'Fort Benning military cardholder charged $30,000 for personal goods and cash advances before and after retirement.' The same report also said that the individual tasked with approving the charges only acted as a 'rubber stamp' and failed to notice the cardholder retired.
