EXCLUSIVE: A top DOGE leader in the Senate is trying to reel in a massive federal grant from a nonprofit focused on promoting fishing, boating and outdoors she alleges is being used to pad executive salaries, a characterization the organization rejected.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and her colleagues have been scouring federal grants for appearances of waste, fraud or abuse of taxpayer funds, and came upon a $27 million grant to the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation (RBFF).
More than $26 million of the grant had been paid out, and long-term figures showed RBFF received $164 million in funding since 2012, with nearly $13 million of that coming in 2024.
From the government website USA Spending, the grant’s purpose highlights RBFF’s “Take Me Fishing” consumer campaign that includes a social and digital media component, as well as ads on Walt Disney Company-branded streaming services and “mobile fishing units” that cater to urban communities and “underserved audiences.”
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The Disney contract is worth $1.99 million, and other expenditures included $204,000 in SEO consulting, $5 million to a Minnesota agency for media, creative development and design, and $189,000 to an Atlanta hotel.
The Alexandria, Virginia-based nonprofit recorded six-figure salaries for several top officials, totaling more than $1.5 million. The group’s president is reportedly paid about $318,000 per year. Most others fell in the mid-$100s.
However, RBFF officials defended their work in a statement to Fox News Digital, and suggested government funds are being spent responsibly.
“RBFF has a proud tradition of attracting Americans to the sport of fishing and boating,” the statement read.
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“By significantly increasing participation over the past 10 years, local communities, independently-owned businesses and manufacturers have directly benefited from increased spending.”
RBFF said American anglers contribute nearly $150 billion in economic output and 1 million jobs nationwide.
“In fact, we know that fishing produces $1,500 in commerce per participant per year – a figure that drives economic activity in every state in the union,” the organization said.
“We are wholly funded via a competitive grant that is awarded through the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service via the Sport Fish Restoration excise tax, and our organization is supported by state fish and wildlife agencies, as well as industry manufacturers and retailers from Alaska to Florida.”
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Ernst was not convinced, telling Fox News Digital that “Washington fell hook, line, and sinker into padding the pockets of overpriced recreational consultants.”
She quipped that “special interests” should instead be told “to ‘go fish.’”
“The Department of Interior needs to claw back the remaining $650,000 and tell these consultants that there are other fish in the sea.”
Fox News Digital also reached out to the Interior Department for further comment on the grant, which preceded the current agency leadership.