Just before self-dismissing ahead of schedule to focus on campaigning and avoid a vote proposed by Rep. Massie (R-KY) on impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the House quietly passed Senator Ernst’s Billion Dollar Boondoggle bill under suspension of the rules, sending the bill to the President’s desk for signature and enactment. The bill was reported out of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee in the Senate and was passed by Unanimous Consent; it didn’t receive Committee consideration in the House.

The bill will require all federal agencies to complete extensive reporting on projects that are $1 billion over budget or at least five years behind schedule. Senator Ernst (R-IA) had previously included an identical report requirement in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but limited to only transportation projects delayed or over budget. USDOT failed to issue a report until June 2025. Their report identified five aviation projects (including one environmental study), three highway projects, three transit projects, and four passenger rail projects (two of which were grants for the same CA High speed rail project) that qualified as more than $1 billion over cost or five years delayed.

Following the publication of the USDOT report, in August 2025 Sen. Ernst released her own report featuring the Senator’s thoughts on a subset of those projects. Despite the USDOT report including aviation and highway projects in roughly equal number to transit and rail, Senator Ernst’s report features only rail and transit projects and focuses as much on the low ridership of such systems, compared to the “nearly 5 billion trips across the nation’s 623,218 bridges are taken daily by cars, trucks, and other vehicles”.

In particular, Senator Ernst chose not to discuss the fact that one of the three highway projects reported on by USDOT is an Iowa highway project that is eight years behind schedule and has nearly doubled in cost since the State’s original cost estimate.

Instead, the report focuses on rail and transit project with a focus on projects in California, including the High Speed Rail project, Transbay Corridor Core Capacity, and the Silicon Valley Subway Extension, and the Downtown San Francisco Rail Extension and Transit Center. Her report also highlights the Honolulu Rail Transit program, the Purple Line in Maryland, and the Minnesota Light Rail extension.

Senator Ernst’s list of projects is also not the same list of projects as that produced by USDOT, which did not include the Silicon Valley or San Francisco transit projects or Minnesota Light Rail.

Once enacted, the new boondoggle bill will largely just reaffirm the IIJA reporting requirement for USDOT, as the reporting specifications are identical. The significant change is that the new bill expands the reporting requirement beyond USDOT to apply to all federal agencies. In her report, Senator Ernst has signaled the types of other agency projects that may be subject to the reporting requirement, highlighting the Air Force One replacement project, USPS Delivery Vehicles, Navy and Coast Guard shipbuilding, and renovation of the Federal Reserve headquarters among other projects.