Senator Joni Ernst has launched a sharp rebuke against Pentagon-funded labs for failing to disclose exact spending amounts on bizarre research projects, including octopus hypnosis, seal sleep studies, and monkey mind-reading experiments, in direct violation of federal transparency law she authored.
In a letter to Department of Defense Inspector General Platte Moring, Ernst demanded answers on why grantees are evading the COST Act, a commonsense transparency measure she sponsored that mandates every DOD-funded project to publicly post the precise dollar amount in press releases, studies, and announcements.
Ernst highlighted five striking examples where labs accepted Pentagon funding but omitted the costs from public disclosures. Every one of these announcements or published studies vaguely acknowledged “DOD funding” without revealing the price tag, breaching the COST Act, which was enacted as part of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.
“The Pentagon diverted defense dollars toward octopus hypnosis, calculating how long seals—the fin-footed, semiaquatic mammals, not Navy SEALs—sleep, and monkey mind reading,” Ernst told the Daily Caller. “Well, monkeys and seals and octopi, oh my! It’s anyone’s guess how much was spent on this questionable research because the price for taxpayers isn’t provided, as required by law.”
Emphasizing the need for accountability, Ernst added, “This is exactly why I authored my COST Act — to put an end to this shady spending and ensure folks in Iowa, and across the nation know exactly how their hard-earned money is being spent. If we want the Pentagon – the only federal agency that has never passed an audit – to clean up its books, putting public price tags on these funds can no longer be Mission Impossible.”
On the same day as Ernst's letter, the government watchdog group White Coat Waste Project filed its own formal complaint with the Inspector General, which it first shared with The Gateway Pundit. The complaint accuses four major universities of flagrantly violating the COST Act while conducting animal experiments funded by taxpayer dollars.
