Senate’s DOGE Caucus Launches "Waste Madness" Bracket to Expose Federal Spending Excesses

In a move designed to highlight and combat what they consider egregious examples of federal government waste, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Caucus in the Senate is launching a novel initiative modeled after the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament. Spearheaded by Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the leader of the DOGE Caucus, this "Waste Madness" bracket will pit sixteen instances of questionable federal spending against each other, allowing the public to vote on which expenditures are the most egregious and deserving of elimination.

Senator Ernst, drawing a parallel between the annual college basketball frenzy and what she views as the government’s perennial "spending madness," emphasized that the latter is a year-round phenomenon that contributes significantly to the national debt. The DOGE Caucus aims to bring this wasteful spending to a screeching halt by increasing transparency, cutting frivolous projects, and ensuring that the government serves the American people effectively.

The "Waste Madness" bracket will feature sixteen "seeds" representing various instances of federal spending deemed wasteful by the DOGE Caucus. These items will be presented to the public on social media platform X, where individuals can cast their votes to determine which eight are deemed the most egregious. Subsequent rounds, mirroring the "Elite Eight" and "Final Four" stages of the NCAA tournament, will narrow the field until a single "champion" of wasteful spending is crowned.

Each member of the DOGE Caucus has been assigned or has selected specific instances of federal spending to represent in the tournament. While Senator Ernst acknowledged that there may not be any unexpected upsets akin to a low-seeded team defeating a top contender, she expressed hope that the introduction of these items to the public will generate surprise and outrage.

Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) will be highlighting a $4.5 million appropriation by the Biden administration to combat disinformation in Kazakhstan. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), drawing on his experience as a former Auburn University football coach, will focus on a $168,000 allocation for an Anthony Fauci exhibit at the National Institutes of Health Museum in Maryland.

Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) will draw attention to a $7.9 million expenditure on training journalists in Sri Lanka to avoid binary-gendered language. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) has chosen a $45 million Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) scholarship program for Burmese people as his contribution to the bracket.

Senator Ernst herself will be spotlighting the $4 million spent by the Departments of Agriculture and Interior on establishing a farming infrastructure for insect-based food consumption for humans.

Other items featured in the "Waste Madness" bracket include:

• Billions of dollars in costs associated with the ATF illegally miscategorizing bureau employees as law enforcement (Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa).

• $690,000 to study cannabis use among sexual-minority gender-diverse individuals (Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.).

• $12 million for a Las Vegas pickleball facility (Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont.).

• $1.75 million for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, an institution with substantial assets (Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah).

• $2 billion sent to the Taliban since the Biden administration’s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan (Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.).

• A six-figure line item for vegetable gardens in El Salvador (Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.).

• A $1.3 million subsidy for equity and advocacy for Long Island transgender youth of color (Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala.).

• A $100,000 EPA grant to a major city’s teachers union foundation to hold a 14-day Environmental Justice Freedom School that the DOGE caucus claims touches on climate change, teachers unions, indoctrinating children, and paid activism (Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.).

• A $22 billion allocation from the Department of Health and Human Services to provide free housing and vehicles for undocumented immigrants (Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.).

• Millions of dollars in wasteful spending on gender transition procedures for U.S. service members (Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan.).

• $1.45 billion in FEMA funds for luxury hotels for undocumented immigrants (Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho).

Senator Risch has also introduced legislation aimed at ending this practice, known as the End FEMA Benefits for Illegal Immigrants Act.

In addition to the "Waste Madness" tournament, the DOGE Caucus is also announcing a division of priority areas among its members. These areas include acquisition reform, digitizing antiquated government systems, transparency efforts, restoring service to the civil service, fraud prevention, non-strategic foreign aid reduction, and cost-efficiency measures. The senators will be focusing on these areas throughout the legislative year, working to identify and implement solutions to address these issues.

The DOGE Caucus’s efforts represent a multifaceted approach to combating government waste, combining public awareness campaigns with targeted legislative action. By engaging the public through the "Waste Madness" bracket, the caucus hopes to generate momentum for meaningful reforms that will improve government efficiency and accountability.