Sen. Ernst Unveils COST Act to Publicly Itemize All Federal Spending

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is rolling out the Cost Openness and Spending Transparency (COST) Act, a bill that would require every recipient of federal funds—from federal agencies to state and local governments, contractors and research grantees—to publicly disclose each project financed with tax dollars, including the total amount, the share paid by Washington and the privately funded portion. Announced during Sunshine Week and ahead of a Senate Small Business Committee hearing Ernst will lead with watchdogs such as White Coat Waste and Open the Books, the measure is explicitly framed as a response to the recent Minnesota childcare fraud scandal involving allegedly fraudulent Minneapolis day care and medical services companies. Under the bill, recipients would have to issue press releases or other approved public notices detailing their federally funded projects, while the Office of Management and Budget, led by Director Russell Vought, would be required to audit random samples for compliance and publish its findings. The legislation also orders OMB within a year to create an anonymous reporting channel for citizens to flag suspected noncompliance, a provision Ernst’s office says was inspired by citizen journalists who helped expose Minnesota’s "Quality Learning Center" operation. The COST Act moves in parallel with a new anti-fraud task force announced by the White House and led by Vice President JD Vance, signaling that both congressional Republicans and the Trump administration see highly public project-level disclosure as a key tool to deter and detect fraud in programs that distribute hundreds of billions of dollars annually.