Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says the impeachment inquiry into President Biden is part of the oversight function congress has over the executive branch.
“The House is really leading on this charge and I do actually have concerns about what’s been uncovered so far about President Biden,” Ernst said this morning. “….The House does have to follow the facts and see where they lead.”
In January of 2020, Ernst accused Biden of “turning a blind eye” to his son’s business dealings and she accused House Democrats of lowering the bar for impeachment by trying to impeach President Trump. Ernst has recently suggested she and her fellow Republicans in the Senate are focused on getting a bipartisan deal on the annual defense spending bill rather than impeachment. She commented briefly today during a conference call with Iowa reporters.
“It’s being led by the House and we’ll see where it goes,” Ernst said.
The White House has said the president was not in business with his son and the impeachment inquiry is based on debunked conspiracy theories.
Ernst today criticized the Biden Administration for allowing federal employees to work from home. Ernst says it’s time for Senate Democrats to bring up a bill House Republicans passed in February that would require federal agencies to return to pre-pandemic telework policies — when just 2% of all federal employees worked from home.
“Even president Biden knows this must be addressed. During his 2022 State of the Union (address) he pledged that ‘the vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person,'” Ernst said, “but here we are, a year and a half later, and D.C. remains a ghost town.”
A government report found that in January, February and March of this year, the employee occupancy rate at the headquarters for 17 federal agencies was 25% or less. “Bureaucrats are too busy taking bubble baths during work meetings or playing golf on the taxpayers’ dime,” Ernst said.
Ernst is calling for a report on how many federal employees are working remotely. Last month, the White House chief of staff sent an email to top agency officials, directing them to “aggressively execute” plans to get employees to work in their government offices.