Ernst, Stefanik Expose Tax Dollars to China

WASHINGTON – As hardworking Americans report and pay taxes on every dollar earned under the threat of an audit, this Tax Day, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) are forcing Washington to live by the same rules when sending tax dollars to China.

After exposing that the Biden administration sent more than $18 million to China for everything from a bakery roadshow to DEI trainings, the lawmakers are introducing a new bill to require every penny sent to foreign adversaries be publicly disclosed.

“Americans should never send a cent to China,” said Ernst. “But you cannot stop what you cannot see. I am exposing every single tax dollar sent overseas to scrutinize and halt all wasteful spending.”

“My legislation will ensure hardworking taxpayer dollars are not funding our adversaries including Communist China as they work against American interests,” said Stefanik. “The days of poor stewardship over American dollars under the Biden Administration are long gone as House Republicans join President Trump in his efforts of rooting out government waste, fraud, and abuse.”

While most of the $18 million sent to China was publicly disclosed, more than $4 million sent by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was not, and a Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit confirmed that not all money being sent to China is being publicly disclosed.

To ensure that the American people know how their money is spent, Ernst and Stefanik are introducing the Tracking Receipts to Adversarial Countries for Knowledge of Spending (TRACKS) Act to require every penny sent to foreign adversaries or entities of particular concern, such as terrorist groups including the Taliban, to be accounted for and disclosed to the public for scrutiny.

Background:

Ernst has long fought to stop tax dollars from being sent overseas for risky research.

An Ernst-requested investigation exposed how EcoHealth sent over $1 million U.S. taxpayer dollars to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for risky experiments on bat coronaviruses. She also secured an audit by the Department of Defense’s Inspector General of risky research in China paid for by the Pentagon and hidden from the public. 
 

She led the charge to permanently debar the Wuhan Institute of Virology and defund EcoHealth Alliance from receiving U.S. taxpayer dollars.

Ernst efforts also led to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) defunding EcoHealth and promising to cut off any taxpayer dollars used for research of pandemic potential.

In her $2 trillion blueprint to slash waste in Washington, Ernst pointed to the millions being sent to China for secretive risky research.

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