Government mascots, decked out in costumes and funded by taxpayer money, are in the crosshairs of a proposal from a GOP senator intent on reducing expenditure amid the ongoing government shutdown.
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst is targeting mascots such as Franklin the Fair Market Fox from the Department of Housing and Puddles the Blue Goose from the Fish and Wildlife Service. She is urging Trump’s budget director to reconsider these costs.
Russell Vought, the Office of Management and Budget director, stated in a memo circulated before the shutdown that ‘Reduction in Force (RIF) notices for all employees’ within programs that do not align with the President’s priorities should be issued by various agencies.
During a planned floor speech on Friday, Ernst aims to demand the dismissal of government mascots and other ‘inefficacious bureaucrats’ immediately.
A singular costume for a mascot at the US Embassy in Singapore dramatically cost taxpayers $22,000 in February. In 2019, an extravagant $250,000 was spent at a costume firm in Ohio, as highlighted by Ernst’s office.
Ernst told the Daily Mail last week that keeping 750,00 non-essential workers on the government payroll costs $400 million every working day.
The total cost of keeping these workers has crossed $2.8 billion since the government shutdown began, she said.
In addition to these, Ernst’s cost-cutting proposals include removing federal employees and contractors who were inactive prior to the shutdown and eliminating positions held by those who admitted to being paid to take naps and watch Netflix.
Franklin the Fair Market Fox from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Puddles the Blue Goose from the Fish and Wildlife Service, and Owlie Skywarn from the National Weather Service are a few of the characters eyed for cuts
Some government employees have recorded in their own journals that they get paid to take naps and watch Netflix, according to Iowa Senator Joni Ernst
Ernst, chairman of the Senate DOGE caucus, plans to suggest during a floor speech Friday that riff-raff like government mascots and other ‘do-nothing bureaucrats’ be fired immediately
Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House today
‘Did nothing all day today over ten hours in here,’ read one journal entry shared by Ernst’s office with the Daily Mail.
‘I do hope to play another good game of chess,’ read another.
Before the shutdown, the senator introduced the Double Dippers Act to cross-check payrolls to identify and stop bureaucrats from billing taxpayers twice for work they’re not even doing.
One full-time employee at the Department of Housing and Urban Development was found to have been simultaneously holding two additional full-time government contractor positions, sometimes billing for 26 working hours in a single 24-hour day, Ernst said. That cost the American taxpayers more than $225,000 over three years.
The senator’s push comes as air traffic controller shortages are causing flight delays, the Federal Drug Administration is not able to process applications for new drugs, and members of the military may miss out on their next paycheck, all due to the inability of Congress to pass a budget resolution.
House Republicans passed a budget bill and sent it to the Senate, where the funding legislation needs to overcome a 60-vote threshold.
Republicans hold 53 seats in the chamber, and Democrats John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez-Masto of Nevada, and Independent Angus King of Maine supported the GOP budget package. Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky has opposed it.
