U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who chairs the Senate DOGE Caucus, has been recognized as Taxpayer Defender of the Month by the National Taxpayers Union (NTU). The NTU highlighted her ongoing efforts to address waste, fraud, and abuse in federal government spending.
Ernst has spent over ten years identifying unnecessary government expenditures through her monthly “squeal” awards. Earlier this month, she was chosen to lead a legislative initiative aimed at preventing fraud before it occurs.
“Iowans sent me to Congress to make Washington squeal, which is why I am especially honored to receive this award for my work to save folks’ hard-earned tax dollars,” said Ernst. “For over a decade now, my squeal work has exposed and put an end to egregious examples of waste. As more gets uncovered in Minnesota and beyond, it turns out this was just the tip of the iceberg, and I’m continuing my charge to stop the fraud before it happens.”
Brandon Arnold, Executive Vice President of NTU, stated: “Senator Ernst has been a relentless force for taxpayers. She’s an outstanding choice for this award because of her leadership to eliminate duplication and waste, and her commitment to ensuring federal agencies follow basic standards of fairness and transparency.”
Last year, Ernst released a report that detailed more than twelve cases of government projects exceeding budgets by a total of $162 billion. She then guided her bipartisan Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act through the Senate. This law requires any taxpayer-funded project with costs over $1 billion above budget or delayed by more than five years to be disclosed publicly.
As part of these efforts, President Trump last year ended funding for California’s high-speed rail project after Ernst’s findings were made public.
Ernst also advanced legislation called the Ending Unemployment Payments to Jobless Millionaires Act as an amendment within broader tax legislation. Now enacted into law, it is expected to save up to $100 million over ten years by ending unemployment insurance payments for individuals earning more than $1 million annually.
Earlier in 2026, Ernst identified and removed an earmark from a spending bill that would have allocated $1 million to a Minneapolis addiction recovery group flagged for suspicious activity similar to previous fraud schemes.
In previous actions, Ernst revealed that EcoHealth Alliance had directed over $1 million in U.S. taxpayer funds toward research on bat coronaviruses at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. She led efforts in Congress both to bar further U.S. funding for the institute and cut off taxpayer support for pandemic-related research conducted there.
According to her official website, Senator Ernst represents Iowa in the U.S. Senate where she also leads the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship while serving on several other committees including Armed Services; Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Her office provides constituent services across Iowa such as casework assistance with federal agencies (source). Elected in 2014 as Iowa’s first female senator and first female combat veteran in the Senate (source), Ernst continues offering services like responding to public inquiries throughout all regions of Iowa (source).
