Joni Ernst: “all Americans can take great pride in our Nation's generosity that has saved millions of people around the world from…”

“all Americans can take great pride in our Nation's generosity that has saved millions of people around the world from starvation and disease, and our government Agencies coordinating aid efforts should be eager to share details about how their use of taxpayer money makes the world a better place. Yet, over the past decade, USAID repeatedly rebuffed my request for information, using intimidation and shell games to hide where money is going, how it is being spent, and why. As a result of my oversight, I learned that the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, is a rogue bureaucracy operating with little accountability and even sometimes at odds with our Nation's best interests. What warranted such secrecy and stonewalling? Here is just some of USAID's questionable spending that I uncovered: Money intended to alleviate economic distress in war-torn Ukraine was spent sending models and designers on junkets to New York City and fashion weeks in Paris and London at a cost of more than $203,000, $148,000 went to a pickle maker, a dog collar manufacturer fetched $300,000, and a custom carpet manufacturer collected $2 million. Elsewhere, $20 million was awarded to Sesame Workshop, which produces 'Sesame Street,' to create content for Iraq. Two million dollars went toward promoting--get this, folks--promoting tourism to Lebanon--a nation that our very own State Department warns against traveling to due to the risks of terrorism and kidnapping.”