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The Biden administration’s State Division approved greater than $1 million in taxpayer funds for renovating swimming swimming pools at U.S. embassies and mission residences in war-torn international locations equivalent to Haiti, Sudan and Iraq, a report from Sen. Joni Ernst’s workplace discovered.
“The Biden State Division threw a blowout summer time pool social gathering in your dime,” Ernst, R-Iowa, mentioned in an announcement offered to Fox Information Digital.
“Bureaucrats may assume losing tens of millions is a drop within the bucket, however I’m sick and bored with taxpayers getting tossed within the deep finish by Washington,” Ernst added. “I’ll proceed working with the Trump administration to place a cease to the splashy spending of the Biden years.”
Ernst’s workplace discovered that the State Division underneath the Biden administration approved that two swimming pools in Haiti, 5 in Iraq, three in Sudan, one in Russia, one in Zimbabwe and one in Ghana be renovated, totaling greater than $1.2 million, in accordance with the New York Put up, which first reported on the pool renovations on Thursday.
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The U.S. embassy in Baghdad was awarded a whopping $444,000 to interchange its indoor dehumidification system for its pool in a contract. (Reuters)
Taxpayers spent $41,259 to rehabilitate the pool on the U.S. embassy in Moscow in a contract inked three months after Russia invaded Ukraine in a warfare that has continued raging. The acquisition order was dated June 3, 2022, via Aug. 15, 2022, after the warfare started in February that very same 12 months.
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Taxpayers spent $41,259 to rehabilitate the pool on the U.S. embassy in Moscow in a contract inked three months after Russia invaded Ukraine in a warfare that has continued raging. (Reuters )
The U.S. embassy in Baghdad was awarded a whopping $444,000 to interchange its indoor dehumidification system for its pool in a contract that started on Sept. 27, 2024. Whereas the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, Iraq obtained over $10,000 to conduct mechanical repairs to its pool, in accordance with the Ernst report reviewed by Fox Information Digital.
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In Sudan, taxpayers spent $24,000 in 2021 for the set up of a pool deck. Sudan has notably been underneath a State Division don’t journey advisory “on account of armed battle, civil unrest, crime, terrorism, and kidnapping,” with the embassy in Khartoum suspending operations in 2023 over the continued violent conflicts within the nation.
President Biden’s State Division awarded greater than $1 million in taxpayer funds to rehabilitate swimming swimming pools at U.S. embassies, in accordance with a brand new report from Sen. Ernst’s workplace. (Getty Pictures )
A number of the contracts detailed within the report haven’t been absolutely paid out, equivalent to a $173,000 award to conduct work on a swimming pool in Indonesia on the embassy in Jakarta.
The federal authorities has beforehand been criticized for the quantity of taxpayer funds spent on U.S. embassies abroad, together with spending hefty sums on art work underneath the Obama administration, Fox Digital reported on the time.
U.S. embassies are primarily funded via congressional appropriations to the U.S. Division of State.
Ernst’s report follows months of the Division of Authorities Effectivity reporting it has saved the federal authorities billions of {dollars} amid its ongoing investigations into numerous federal companies seeking corruption, overspending and mismanagement.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been on the forefront of gutting departments and applications underneath State’s purview, together with shuttering USAID earlier in July for failing to make sure its applications truly supported America’s pursuits.
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Sen. Joni Ernst’s workplace printed a report in July discovering that the Biden administration’s State Division authorized greater than $1 million in contracts to renovate swimming swimming pools at a handful of U.S. embassies in war-torn international locations. (Samuel Corum/Getty Pictures)
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“This period of government-sanctioned inefficiency has formally come to an finish. Underneath the Trump administration, we’ll lastly have a international funding mission in America that prioritizes our nationwide pursuits. As of July 1st, USAID will formally stop to implement international help. Overseas help applications that align with administration insurance policies – and which advance American pursuits – will likely be administered by the State Division, the place they are going to be delivered with extra accountability, technique, and effectivity,” Rubio mentioned in remark relating to shuttering USAID.
