Sen. James Lankford found several eye-popping instances of federal waste in his annual "Federal Fumbles" report. (Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"However, the work is far from over," Lankford wrote in the report.
"Too often, the federal government is gridlocked, unresponsive and inefficient," he continued. "We must continue pushing through bureaucratic red tape to make the government work better for you, the taxpayer. We have so much still to do."
Some of the more egregious examples of federal waste laid out in the report included a handful of grant programs from the National Institute of Health (NIH) held over from the Biden administration.
Among those were a roughly $240 million study on transgender "animal experiments involving mice, rats and monkeys." That grant program was eventually terminated by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
"These NIH-funded studies attempted to model transgender adults and children by subjecting animals to hormone regimens and surgical procedures," Lankford wrote.
HOUSE DEMOCRATS MUTINY SCHUMER’S DEAL WITH WHITE HOUSE, THREATENING LONGER SHUTDOWN
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at Mar-a-Lago, Feb. 1, 2026, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)
Still, Lankford argued that unless Congress passed a law regarding the issue, "another pro-abortion Administration could resume or expand such projects at any time, forcing taxpayers to fund research that is both immoral and scientifically obsolete."
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Though the sums were not as eye-popping, Lankford also found that $124,000 in taxpayer money was sent to China to conduct drug research and experiments on "up to 300 beagles per week."
Lankford said NIH announced it would not renew the contract after national scrutiny, but that there are still "18 Chinese animal research laboratories, including several with troubling ties to the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army, [that] still hold NIH approval to receive U.S. funding."
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-senators-federal-fumbles-report-highlights-240m-spent-transgender-rat-testing