Flake’s yearly report found more than $5 billion worth of what he argues is “outrageous and wasteful” spending by the federal government in 2016.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services invested $150,000 in a gingerbread house that can “withstand the force of an earthquake.”
http://www.flake.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/4fcf3486-328a-40de-a1cc-f88515002d0d/wastebook-2016-final-pdf.pdf
Highlights from Flake’s 2015 edition of Wastebook include (click links to view related footage):
$1 million for monkeys running in hamster balls on a treadmill
$5 million to “Help A Hipster” quit smoking by throwing parties at bars and nightclubs
$1.2 million to put sheep in microgravity
$2.1 million to promote tourism in Lebanon, a nation the State Department advises travels to avoid due to “ongoing safety and security concerns”
$17,500 to have people wear a fat suit for “weight sensitivity training”
$853,000 to teach minors the art of making wine
$707,000 for researchers to create a fight club for shrimp
$780,000 to study college students and pizza addiction
$276,000 to discover how unattractive people snag a more attractive date
$1.3 million to study how a koozie keeps your beer cold
$3 million for bus security grants that were paid, in part, to companies operating luxury charter buses and limousines, including a self-proclaimed “nightclub on wheels”
$104.4 million to subsidize low-income public housing for over-income families
$175,000 to develop a smartphone app that lets you know who caught the fish you are eating
$1.2 million grant partially used to fund a life-size Pac-Man game