Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is introducing a bill Thursday requiring the return to the U.S. Treasury of an estimated $65 billion in unused COVID relief slush funds, and, in the process, end a flood of wasteful and fraudulent uses of such money on items like golf carts, ice cream trucks, and a bowling party.

“The COVID cash bonanza was a $4.5 trillion all-you-can-eat buffet of waste, fraud, and abuse, with the cost eaten by taxpayers,” Ernst said in a statement. “At $38 trillion in debt, the federal government shouldn’t have secret slush funds or be spending them on golf carts, bowling parties, and high school drag shows. While too much money has already been sent out the door, we have a chance to return the remaining $65 billion to the American people.”

Among a lengthy list of examples Ernst cited of how such funds were spent are these:

• Massage chairs for a teachers’ lounge “as a way to help retain staff during the pandemic” in Montana;
• A California school district bought an ice cream truck;
• More than $185 million for golf courses, including the purchase of golf carts;
• $6.6 million was spent on a new sprinkler systems for golf courses in Colorado Springs;
• A Minnesota town bought so many new golf carts that increased maintenance was required to repair the added wear on the course;
• More than $2,000 for a bowling party in Connecticut; 
• $10 million for rodeos;
• $7,675 to hire a 20-piece marching band for a parade;
• More than $2,400 on swag that included handcrafted plaques, keychains, banners, and signs including one spelling BOSS in Connecticut.

The $65 billion Ernst hopes to return to the Treasury was part of a $350 billion appropriation intended to help state and local governments weather the economic downturn that resulted from the reduction in economic activity during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

“The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) provided $350 billion for a new program called the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF). The SLFRF was intended to provide money to state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to support their response to the pandemic and to help with recovery,” according to a 2023 report by the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC).

“A significant motivation for the SLFRF was to replace state and local tax revenue based on the assumption that these governments would experience shortfalls like those experienced during previous recessions. However, the reduction in state and local revenues never materialized to the extent that Congress anticipated at the time of enactment. Instead, the SLFRF has been used to fund controversial programs with hardly any oversight from federal policymakers,” the EPIC report continued.

Due to lax oversight by the Treasury, EPIC claimed in 2023, wasteful spending with little or no known connection to mitigating the impact of the COVID pandemic developed quickly after Congress approved the programs and then-President Joe Biden signed the measure into law.

“More than $185 million has been approved for projects related to golf courses (such as updating irrigation systems or buying golf carts), more than $400 million has gone to improve swimming pools, almost $80 million has gone to sports stadiums, $34 million has gone to building tennis and pickleball courts, $10 million has gone to rodeos, and one town even got $15 million to install showers and a commercial kitchen at a site to host the circus and local flea market,” according to EPIC.

The Ernst proposal goes beyond unused funds under the SLFRF to include the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Divisions M or N of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act of 2021, the CARES Act, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, and the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2020.

“The amounts rescinded under subsection (a) shall remain in the general fund of the Treasury for the sole purpose of deficit reduction,” the bill text specifies. The text also includes a provision specifying that specific funds “shall not be rescinded if, not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the President submits to the Committee on the Budget of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the Senate a notice waiving the rescission under subsection (a) with respect to the account or program.”

Ernst was first elected to the Senate in 2014, then re-elected in 2020, but she is not seeking a third term in 2026.