The leading Republican senator working with the Department of Government Efficiency has faced allegations that a federal employee is raking in city wages while living in beachside Florida.
A whistleblower has come forward to Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, alleging that an employee of the Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has lived in the Miami area for years.
Ernst, who is tasked with helping the Senate work with DOGE leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, has found ways to tackle government waste
This is Ernst’s latest crackdown on government waste ahead of newly-elected President Donald Trump’s second term, after he already made proposals to bring federal teleworkers back to the office.
According to the whistleblower, this HUG employee, Antonio Carraway, continues to be paid handsomely as if he still goes to HUD headquarters in Washington, DC every week.
The person who came forward said this “Florida man” can “retire” while earning “100 percent taxpayer-funded union time” (TFUT).
In a letter to acting HUD Secretary Adrienne Todman, exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, Ernst outlined the fraudulent misconduct, highlighting receipts showing the man could have been living there since 2020.
“A Florida man who moonlights as a ‘real estate professional’ while allegedly slacking off in his day job is just one of the bureaucrats I’m highlighting this holiday season,” Ernst told DailyMail.com in a statement.
Elon Musk, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), departs to meet with the next Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, December 5, 2024
Ernst has been tasked with assisting with DOGE efforts in the Senate
Ernst’s office claims a HUD employee lied about his location to receive full DC wages while living in Florida
“It sounds like a comical headline, but taxpayers are the butt of the joke, while federal employees are caught doing everything but their jobs,” she said.
“Americans, however, will have the last laugh. Next year I will give the bureaucrats a choice: do your job or get fired.’
Legal documents naming Carraway reveal that he lives near Port Saint Lucie, Florida.
The documents include housing discrimination complaints from 2019 and 2020, Limited Liability Company (LLC) disclosures every year since 2017 to date, and more.
Legal records even show Carraway is defending himself in court in Florida in a case that has been ongoing since 2022.
The Florida man even argued his own case earlier this year before District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who arrested prosecutor Jack Smith’s Donald J. Trump illegal documents case against the United States of America.
In fact, the Ernst team discovered that not only does the employee not live where he claims, but he also apparently has a part-time job.
“Also notable in the evidence that he resides in Florida is his active registration as a ‘real estate professional,'” the Republican wrote in her letter.
“Maybe he conducts all his real estate business outside of the hours for which he receives a federal salary. Somehow I doubt it.”
The senator said she met Vivek to discuss how DOGE can be more effective
Robert C. Weaver Federal Building, HUD Headquarters, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, DC
The Iowan also arrested another HUD employee earlier this year who was allegedly paid while in jail for drunken driving.
A whistleblower then came forward to reveal that Tracy Vargas, a former federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) bureaucrat, may have collected a taxpayer-funded paycheck for the four days she spent behind bars.
In March 2020, the agency introduced “mandatory telework” to deal with the rising number of COVID-19 infections across the country.
Just two months later, Vargas, who worked for HUD for 20 years, was arrested for “driving under the influence of alcohol” in May 2020 at 3:28 PM local time. According to the whistleblower, she spent four days in an Oklahoma prison and did not submit any leave requests.
Vargas allegedly “was successfully paid” during that period and claimed she was “involved in union activities” that fall under taxpayer-funded union time.
In April 2020, Vargas was arrested again around 1 a.m. local time
Vargas was arrested in May 2020 at 3:28 PM local time for ‘driving under the influence of alcohol’
Speaker Mike Johnson addressed these types of issues directly, talking about the crackdown on remote workers when Musk and Ramaswamy came to Capitol Hill in early December.
“We have long complained about the size and scope of government, that it has become too big,” Johnson said as he celebrated DOGE’s initiative.
‘Let me be honest about it: the government is too big, it does too much and almost nothing well.’
The speaker then announced a policy that is sure to shock federal workers in DC and beyond.
“One of the first things I think you’ll see is the demand from the new administration, and from all of us in Congress, that federal employees return to their desks.”
Ernst had introduced a similar proposal aimed at tracking the computer activities of federal employees.
Ernst’s first DOGE-related bill, the REMOTE Act, will use software to monitor bureaucrats’ computer use and require agency reports on the negative impacts of telecommuting.
The proposal will also provide important information on how to get DC back to work.
It comes after she found that only 6 percent of federal workers report in-person full-time.