In advance of Sunshine Week, 2019 WCW “Congressional Waste Warrior” awardee Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) took to the Senate floor to shed light on egregious and secretive government waste, and wasteful taxpayer-funded animal experiments were front and center.

“Folks, this is your money: So, shouldn’t you have a right to know how it’s being spent?”@brad_polumbo says @JoniErnst makes an important point about transparencyhttps://t.co/KnGVTa60Mp

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 12, 2020

In her 7-minute-speech, Sen. Ernst highlighted a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded study that wasted over $900,000 to place dead turtles and living turtles on a treadmill to study how they move. The same experimenters are still receiving tax dollars and are now putting turkeys on treadmills!

Ernst explained how many federal agencies are not required to disclose how much they spend on these wasteful projects, and how her legislation including the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act and the Cost Openness and Spending Transparency (COST) Act would improve transparency about government spending.

WE'RE ALREADY AT 2020. There were a lot. I'm still actually archiving 2020. So many y'all.

Bu two favorites:@SenJoniErnst with her turtle and treadmill.

And @ChrisMurphyCT pulls out another popular meme.

But there were so many. pic.twitter.com/J0PfpmuS3y

— Senator FloorCharts (@FloorCharts) November 15, 2021

Taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent! If you haven’t already, urge your lawmakers to cosponsor Sen. Ernst’s COST Act!