Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, wants to put a stop to federal workers juggling multiple government jobs on the taxpayer’s dime. She’s introducing a new bill called the Dismantling Double Dippers Act to make sure full-time civil servants get permission before taking on extra gigs.
Current laws already ban federal employees from holding more than one government position at once without approval. But Ernst aims to enforce those rules more strictly. Her bill calls for annual audits of payroll records to catch any double-dippers—people who collect pay from multiple federal roles simultaneously.
As chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, which focuses on government efficiency, Ernst also sent a letter to Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor. She pressed OPM to investigate how widespread this double-dipping really is in the federal workforce. “The public deserves access to this information,” she wrote. “OPM oversees hiring and managing federal workers, so it’s in the best position to boost transparency and end this timecard fraud by bureaucrats.”
Double-dipping cases have popped up before, showing why Ernst sees a need for tighter oversight. Take Crissy Monique Baker, a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) employee. From 2021 to 2024, she held full-time contractor jobs at HUD, AmeriCorps, and the National Institutes of Health. At times, she even billed the government for over 24 hours of work in a day—including 26 hours on 13 days in one month. Baker pleaded guilty in July to fraud, costing taxpayers about $225,866.
In another example, an NSA contractor in 2014 admitted to submitting 79 fake timesheets while holding a Department of War contract too. That scam defrauded the government of $65,265.
Ernst highlighted a related case that wasn’t pure double-dipping but still screamed poor oversight. John Beale, a top EPA policy adviser, pretended for 13 years to work undercover for the CIA. He actually spent time on overseas trips or at his Massachusetts vacation home. Prosecutors say he stole $900,000 from taxpayers and got 32 months in prison. “The EPA should have monitored him better,” Ernst argued.
To crack down, the Dismantling Double Dippers Act would task OPM’s watchdog with yearly payroll audits across agencies. Ernst also wants OPM to share details about federal job titles and descriptions with the public, helping everyone keep tabs on government waste and fraud. This push comes amid broader efforts, like those from the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to streamline the federal workforce.
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