From Fox News: The Biden administration’s State Department authorized more than $1 million in taxpayer funds for renovating swimming pools at U.S. embassies and mission residences in war-torn countries such as Haiti, Sudan and Iraq, a report from Sen. Joni Ernst’s office found.
“The Biden State Department threw a blowout summer pool party on your dime,” Ernst, R-Iowa, said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.
“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 added. “I will continue working with the Trump administration to put a stop to the splashy spending of the Biden years.”
Ernst’s office found that the State Department under the Biden administration authorized that two pools in Haiti, five in Iraq, three in Sudan, one in Russia, one in Zimbabwe and one in Ghana be renovated, totaling more than $1.2 million, according to the New York Post, which first reported on the pool renovations on Thursday.
The report notes that the Biden administration spent $41,259 in taxpayer money to refurbish the pool at the U.S. embassy in Moscow. The purchase order was dated June 3, 2022 – a little over three months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
More pool money was shelled out for additional locations, all courtesy of U.S. taxpayers:
- $444,000 at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad to replace its indoor dehumidification system for its pool in a contract that began on Sept. 27, 2024.
- $10,000 for mechanical repairs on a pool at the U.S. Consulate in Erbil, Iraq
- $24,000 for the installation of a pool deck in Sudan
- $173,000 contract awarded for work on a swimming pool in Indonesia at the embassy in Jakarta. (This one has not been fully paid out yet.)
In a statement on X, Ernst wrote, “The Biden State Department threw a blowout summer pool party around the world on your dime. 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. The splashy spending must stop!”
The New York Post first reported on the massive pool spending spree which Ernst exposed.
Biden admin spent hefty sum of US tax dollars to upgrade embassy swimming pools in Iraq, Russia https://t.co/1lVTKf0EQ7
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 20, 2025
READ MORE from Fox News.
Follow us on X (Formerly Twitter.)
The DML News App: www.X.com/DMLNewsApp
