**American Taxpayers Fund $1.3 Billion for Russia and China since 2017**
A recent report by Open the Books revealed that over $1.3 billion of U.S. tax dollars have been funneled to Russia and China since 2017. In response, Senator Joni Ernst and Congressman Mike Gallagher are introducing the TRACKS Act to ensure transparency and accountability for taxpayer-funded grants.
In a collaborative effort with OpenTheBooks.com, Senator Ernst and Congressman Gallagher discovered that U.S. grants and contracts worth $490 million were paid to organizations in China and $870 million to entities in Russia over the past five years. To combat this misuse of taxpayer funds, they are introducing the Tracking Receipts to Adversarial Countries for Knowledge of Spending (TRACKS) Act, which requires the tracking and public disclosure of every government grant paid to organizations in these countries.
OpenTheBooks.com CEO and founder, Adam Andrzejewski, champions the importance of radical transparency in U.S. public policy as a means for holding firms accountable and maintaining a more effective government. Through disclosing the usage of grants and contract awards, private citizens become a part of the solution.
The analysis exposes alarming taxpayer-funded projects in Russia and China, some of which include: $58.7 million from the Department of State, $51.6 million from the Department of Defense, $4.7 million to a U.S.-sanctioned Russian health insurance company, $4.2 million from Health and Human Services, $2.4 million on Russian alcohol and addiction research, $2 million for dangerous experiments at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, and $1.6 million to Chinese companies for the National School Lunch Program.
**The TRACKS Act: A Step Toward Accountability and Transparency**
The introduction of the TRACKS Act by Senator Ernst and Congressman Gallagher promises to create much-needed transparency and accountability for the billions of taxpayer dollars spent on projects in adversarial countries. American taxpayers deserve to know where their money goes, and this legislation will ensure that funds are used more effectively and responsibly.
