Opinion: Bureaucrats being paid for multiple jobs, while doing neither

By Sen. Joni Ernst

Ever had to be in two places at the exact same time?

It sounds impossible, yet I’ve discovered a number of bureaucrats holding several different government jobs simultaneously.

It may sound impressive, except this multitasking isn’t magic, folks, it’s fraud.

A full-time Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) employee double-billing, frequently billing taxpayers for more than 24 hours of work in a single day. Of course, she was working from home in all three positions. She billed taxpayers $225,866 for hours she never worked over nearly three years before finally being caught.

A senior human resources official at the Peace Corps was also employed as a contractor for two other government agencies, double billing taxpayers for tens of thousands of dollars. He boasts being “key in the development” of the Peace Corps’ remote work policy, which he presumably took advantage of to get away with his job juggling.

Timecard thieves were even two-timing the government’s own human resources department, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and a Pentagon intelligence agency.

An OPM contractor, who also was employed full-time for the National Security Agency (NSA), was required to work on-site at both jobs, but wasn’t showing up at either. He billed for hundreds of hours he never worked, scamming taxpayers out of $70,646. Meanwhile, another contractor at NSA’s headquarters was actually employed by a different defense contractor, collecting $65,265 for hours she never worked.

There’s even a case in which an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) senior policy advisor avoided doing work for more than 13 years by falsely claiming he was also employed by the CIA. His deceptive double duty defrauded taxpayers out of nearly $900,000. While being one of the highest paid employees in the federal government, he traveled around the world or relaxed at his vacation home rather than working. EPA even paid him an annual retention bonus every year for more than a decade to ensure he remained with the agency. While he wasn’t moonlighting per se, the EPA management should have known this arrangement was illegal, where this employee was, and what he was doing.

Each of these demonstrates just how easy it can be for a public employee to pull down a pair of paychecks without earning either, sometimes for years.

What’s even more infuriating is that the salaries of these side hustlers are being paid by hardworking Americans, millions of whom are actually working multiple jobs to make ends meet.

That is why I am giving my September 2025 Squeal Award to the double-dealing bureaucrats bringing home two or more paychecks but doing nothing.

I’m introducing the Dismantling Double Dippers Act requiring a regular cross check of the government’s employment rolls to spot duplicates and make potential copycats think twice before trying to get paid for double duty.

But that’s not all. I’m doubling down by asking the Trump administration to determine who works for every agency, where they are located, and if any bureaucrats are on the payrolls of multiple agencies.

Joni Ernst, a native of Red Oak and a combat veteran, represents Iowa in the United States Senate.