Sen. Joni Ernst proposes over $2 trillion in federal cuts during shutdown

FIRST ON FOX: A Senate Republican has a list of more than a “trillion dollars worth of ideas ripe for a trim” as the federal government shutdown continues. 

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought has so far announced his plans to withhold nearly $30 billion in federal funding to blue states and cities, while Senate Democrats continue to block Republicans’ efforts to reopen the government.

And Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has some ideas for even deeper cuts. In a letter to Vought, first obtained by Fox News Digital, Ernst laid out a plan that could result in over $2 trillion in cuts to federal spending.

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Her letter comes as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and most Senate Democrats have remained steadfast in their opposition to the GOP’s short-term funding extension.

“Schumer’s Shutdown has provided a golden opportunity to slash waste, fraud and abuse in Washington,” Ernst said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “There is no one more fitting to lead the charge than Russ Vought.”

“I have compiled a comprehensive list of more than $2 trillion of nonessential government expenditures that should be put on the chopping block to put taxpayers first, make Washington squeal and deliver a more efficient government,” she continued.

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Ernst, who chairs the Senate DOGE Caucus, which borrowed its moniker from tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), wants to target tens of billions in expired and unexpired COVID-19 pandemic funding, consolidate unused federal office space and prevent taxpayers from “subsidizing” the roughly $400 million per day in backpay owed to furloughed nonessential federal workers.

She also wants to go after nearly $1.6 trillion in unspent funding “stashed away in secret slush funds,” clawback billions in the Biden-era electric vehicle charging station program, railroad projects in blue states, end research into “silly science projects” like shrimp on treadmills, and streamline “duplication and unnecessary overlap within” the Department of War, among many others.

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“This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I will be providing many more recommendations soon,” Ernst wrote in the letter. “My team and I stand ready to help you make some prime cuts during this Schumer Shutdown.”

Meanwhile, there appeared to be no off-ramp in sight to end the now three-day government shutdown.

Senate Democrats are also unfazed by Vought and President Donald Trump’s desire to target their states and cities with cuts, with many arguing that the administration was already carrying out those tactics.

Still, Senate Republicans hope that enough Democrats peel off and vote to reopen the government. So far, three members of the Democratic caucus have done so — Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine.