The Biden administration’s State Department spent more than $1.2 million of taxpayer dollars to upgrade swimming pools in third world countries, according to shocking new analysis — the latest example of wasteful government spending uncovered by the Department of Government Efficiency.
During the 46th president’s term, the federal government placed at least 14 orders related to swimming pools at embassies or mission residences in seven countries, including Russia. The spending in Russia occurred after its brutal invasion of Ukraine began, according to an analysis from Sen. Joni Ernst’s office, which is working with DOGE.
“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 told The New York Post. “I will continue working with the Trump administration to put a stop to the splashy spending of the Biden years.”
The Post and Ernst’s office used data from USASpending.gov to compile information about the embassy pool expenditures. Most of the orders appear to be for upgrades to pools rather than installations of brand new ones, despite some of the costs running into six figures.
In Zimbabwe, the State Department approved an upgrade to US mission residences in Harare to include pool covers, costing more than $130,000. The spending occurred in a country where millions of people live in poverty and lack access to basic necessities.
Uncle Sam spent $40,000 in 2022 for a “swimming pool sewer pump replacement” at the Moscow Embassy. Records indicate that the contract was issued almost three months after Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine began that February.
In Iraq, officials billed taxpayers for a roughly $444,000 upgrade to the indoor dehumidification system inside the lavish Baghdad Embassy. The facility has already cost taxpayers over $750 million to construct.
The analysis found that there were two upgrades for pools in Haiti, one in Russia, five in Iraq, three in Sudan, one in Zimbabwe, one in Ghana, and one in Indonesia.
Some of the contracts flagged have not yet been fully paid. A $173,000 contract awarded for a “prapatan swimming pool project” is still awaiting pay out, according to USASpending.gov records.
The pool spending report comes as Ernst, who leads the Senate DOGE Caucus, has been probing the vast federal government for waste, fraud, and bloat.
Republicans have aggressively scrutinized government spending under the Biden administration — and what they’ve found so far is shocking.
What will tomorrow bring?