After the Pentagon failed its latest financial audit, Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is taking steps to improve oversight of military spending. Ernst has introduced the Reviewing Every Check and Each Invoice Purchasing Troops’ Supplies (RECEIPTS) Act, which would require the Department of Defense to achieve a clean audit by 2028. The legislation also calls for the use of artificial intelligence to review financial records, aiming to reduce reliance on expensive consultants.
Ernst is seeking information about undisclosed defense funds that may have been spent on research projects she describes as unnecessary, such as studies on seal sleep patterns and snail mucus. She points out that her COST Act, which became law in 2021, requires all defense spending to be publicly accessible with clear price tags. However, she claims the current administration has not complied with this requirement and has requested an investigation into noncompliance.
“If we are going to ask taxpayers to spend $1.5 trillion on defense, we must be able to defend how every dollar is being spent,” said Senator Ernst. “We depend on our troops to win wars against foreign enemies, and now, taxpayers are counting on leaders in Washington to win the war on waste. I’m spearheading this fight for tax-dollar transparency by holding the Pentagon accountable to finally passing an audit, investigating shady spending on ridiculous research like octopus hypnosis or monkey mind reading, and demanding that putting public price tags on defense spending is no longer Mission Impossible.”
Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President at government watchdog White Coat Waste, commented: “White Coat Waste is proud to support Senator Joni Ernst’s tireless work to rein in reckless DOD spending at home and abroad, like the Pentagon’s wasteful cat constipation experiments and puppy poisoning tests in China that we worked together to expose and end. Her common-sense COST Act requires a public price tag on Pentagon-funded projects and our investigators have uncovered animal labs skirting her transparency law and referred them to the Inspector General. Taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent — and any animal lab that violates Sen. Ernst’s federal funding disclosure requirements doesn’t deserve another dime.”
Senator Ernst has worked for years toward greater transparency regarding taxpayer dollars used by federal agencies. Her office provides constituent services such as casework assistance across Iowa (official website). She serves as chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship while participating in several other committees related to armed services and homeland security (official website). In addition to authoring the COST Act requiring public cost disclosures for federally funded projects—including those from the Pentagon—she sponsored legislation passed in 2025 mandating annual reports for overbudget or delayed infrastructure projects.
Ernst’s office operates within Iowa but handles inquiries statewide (official website), offering responses through various channels (official website). Elected in 2014 as Iowa’s first female U.S. senator—and first female combat veteran in Senate history—Ernst continues her efforts from within Congress (official website).
