Elon Musk's DOGE bombarded with insider tips on government waste. Here's what they revealed

Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican working with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy-driven Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has taken on a new case of alleged government waste.

A whistleblower recently claimed that a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) employee has been living in Florida for years while collecting a taxpayer-funded salary as if he were working full-time at HUD's Washington, D.C., headquarters.

The whistleblower alleges that this “Florida Man” has been “retiring-in-place,” collecting full pay and benefits, including 100% taxpayer-funded union time (TFUT), while moonlighting as a real estate professional. Ernst’s team claimed that the man has resided in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, since at least 2020.

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“Florida man moonlighting as a 'real estate professional' while allegedly slacking at his day job is just one of the bureaucrats that I'm highlighting this Christmas season,” Ernst told Daily Mail.

“It sounds like a comedic headline, but taxpayers are the butt of the joke as federal employees continue to get caught doing everything but their work.”

“Americans will be getting the last laugh though. Come next year, I will be giving bureaucrats a choice – do your job or be fired,” she added.

House Speaker backs Ernst's efforts to combat government inefficiency

Earlier this year, she also exposed another HUD employee, Tracy Vargas, who reportedly continued to receive pay while serving a four-day jail sentence for a DUI in 2020. The whistleblower, in that case, revealed that Vargas did not submit leave requests and claimed she was engaged in union activities covered under TFUT during her incarceration.

Ernst has been vocal about her mission to combat government waste, especially in the wake of federal telework policies introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent Ernst-backed initiative, the REMOTE Act, aims to monitor federal workers’ computer activity, track telework impacts, and push for a return to in-person work.

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Speaker Mike Johnson echoed Ernst's sentiments: “Government is too big, it does too many things, and it does almost nothing well,” during a December meeting with DOGE leaders EMusk and Ramaswamy.