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Home Front: Politix
Biden admin spent hefty sum of US tax dollars to upgrade embassy swimming pools in Iraq, Russia
2025-07-21
[FoxNews] Sen. Ernst slams 'blowout summer pool party' spending as Trump administration vows to end wasteful expenditures

The Biden administration's State Department authorized more than $1 million in taxpayer funds for renovating swimming pools at U.S. embassies and mission residences in war-torn countries such as Haiti, Sudan and Iraq, a report from Sen. Joni Ernst's office found.
Can you imagine how much chlorine you'd have to use to treat the water in Haiti, Sudan and Iraq
"The Biden State Department threw a blowout summer pool party on your dime," Ernst, R-Iowa, said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.

"Bureaucrats might think wasting millions is a drop in the bucket, but I am sick and tired of taxpayers getting tossed in the deep end by Washington," Ernst added. "I will continue working with the Trump administration to put a stop to the splashy spending of the Biden years."

Ernst's office found that the State Department under the Biden administration authorized that two pools in Haiti, five in Iraq, three in Sudan, one in Russia, one in Zimbabwe and one in Ghana be renovated, totaling more than $1.2 million, according to the New York Post, which first reported on the pool renovations on Thursday.
Details at the link.
The federal government has previously been criticized for the amount of taxpayer funds spent on U.S. embassies overseas, including spending hefty sums on artwork under the Obama administration, Fox Digital reported at the time.

U.S. embassies are primarily funded through congressional appropriations to the U.S. Department of State.

Ernst's report follows months of the Department of Government Efficiency reporting it has saved the federal government billions of dollars amid its ongoing investigations into various federal agencies in search of corruption, overspending and mismanagement.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been at the forefront of gutting departments and programs under State's purview, including shuttering USAID earlier in July for failing to ensure its programs actually supported America's interests.
Posted by:Skidmark

#5  They cut 80% of the programs, which made it small enough that State could handle it with their diminishing staff count — not just downsized but putting effort where it mostly ought to be, just as intended.

And taking the power to disburse funds out of the hands of the hopelessly corrupt. That part is really important.
Posted by: trailing wife   2025-07-21 14:52  

#4  USAID was not shuttered. They made cuts and then rolled it into the State Department. The Grift Machine is still alive and functioning.

After Air America came Evergreen Air. Changes in name only. I hope the move to DoS was a bit more than that.
Posted by: Besoeker   2025-07-21 13:23  

#3  USAID was not shuttered. They made cuts and then rolled it into the State Department. The Grift Machine is still alive and functioning.
Posted by: mossomo   2025-07-21 12:56  

#2  WTF swimming pools?
Posted by: Procopius2k   2025-07-21 12:44  

#1  This swimming pool initiative confuses me in that I can’t see how it forwards the all-encompassing DEI agenda which was the sole priority of the Biden Admin. Maybe somebody knew somebody and this was just a low level grift.
Posted by: Super Hose   2025-07-21 06:13  

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