US funded cat experiments and Wuhan lab research in China and Russia with billions of dollars, says Ernst.

Hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars were given to recipients in China and Russia without proper tracking by the federal government. This includes a grant that allowed a state-run Russian lab to test cats on treadmills, according to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

Uncovering the Truth

Ernst and her team of investigators worked with auditors at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Congressional Research Service, as well as two nonprofit Washington watchdogs—Open The Books (OTB) and the White Coat Waste Project (WCWP)—to uncover dozens of grants that weren’t counted on the federal government’s USASpending.gov internet database.

The Tip of the Iceberg

The total value of the uncounted grants found by the Ernst team is $1.3 billion, but the GAO reported that this amount is just the tip of the iceberg.

China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology

One of the newly discovered grants is $4.2 million to China’s infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) “to conduct dangerous experiments on bat coronaviruses and transgenic mice,” according to a May 31 Ernst statement provided to The Epoch Times.

Buying Chinese Puppy Parts

As part of another U.S.-funded grant, hearts and other organs from 425 dogs in China were purchased for medical research.

More Unreported Grants

Other previously unreported grants exposed by the Ernst team include $1.6 million to Chinese companies from the federal government’s National School Lunch Program and $4.7 million for health insurance from a Russian company that was sanctioned by the United States in 2022 as a result of the invasion of Ukraine.

Shining a Light on Reckless Spending

“It’s gravely concerning that Washington’s reckless spending has reached the point where nobody really knows where all tax dollars are going,” Ernst told The Epoch Times. “But I have the receipts, and I’m shining a light on this, so bureaucrats can no longer cover up their tracks, and taxpayers can know exactly what their hard-earned dollars are funding.”

The Problem with Sub-Awards

The problem is that federal officials don’t rigorously track sub-awards made by initial grant recipients, according to the Iowa Republican. Such sub-awards are covered by a multitude of federal regulations that stipulate many conditions to ensure that the tax dollars are appropriately spent.

The Eco-Health Sub-Awards to WIV Illustrate the Problem

“Despite being required by law to make these receipts available to the public on the USAspending.gov website, EcoHealth tried to cover its tracks by intentionally not disclosing the amounts of taxpayer money being paid to WIV, which went unnoticed for years,” Ernst said in the statement.

The Real Corruption

Adam Andrzejewski, founder and chairman of OTB, told The Epoch Times, “When following the money at the state and local level, the real corruption exists in the subcontractor payments. At the federal level, the existing system doesn’t even track many of those recipients.