With a Republican Senate in hand, Ron Johnson promises spending clawbacks and health agency probes

Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wis., is planning sweeping accountability and increased investigations now that Republicans seized control of the upper chamber in Tuesday’s elections. Those plans include a promise to work quickly to slash government waste from the Biden era and to investigate the corporate capture of big health agencies. 

Johnson is slated to chair the Senate Homeland Security Committee Subcommittee on Oversight where he will possess newfound authority from the majority, including subpoena power and a larger staff.  

Johnson shared his plans on Wednesday’s episode of the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show after GOP control of the Senate became clear, with a projected majority of 52 or more votes. 

“It's about exposing the truth,” Johnson said of his plans for accountability. 

Big Food, Big Pharma

“I often say, I'll be like a mosquito in the nudist colony. It's a target rich environment,” he joked. “But listen, I've written more than 60 oversight letters to Department of Defense, our federal health agencies in terms of what happened on COVID, vaccines, vaccine entry, that's going to be a big focus of what I want to do.”

“Take a look at the capture of these federal health agencies, other federal agencies, by big corporate interests, whether it's big [agriculture], big food processing, Big Pharma—again, this is the corruption of the system. When you have government that's massive, the entities that government regulates figure out a way to capture that government,” he explained. 

"That's what's happened, to the detriment in the American public. So, that would be our focus…expose that corporate capture that corporate corruption of our federal health agencies,” he added. 

Johnson has been critical of federal health agencies for helping to suppress lab-leak theories about COVID-19 and promoting vaccines while discounting potential side effects. He has spearheaded an effort to obtain data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about adverse side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines, but was stonewalled while he was in the minority. 

In that same vein, Johnson also promised that his committee would work hand in hand with Elon Musk on plans to improve government efficiency and cut waste from the federal bureaucracy. He highlighted Musk’s streamlining of the X workforce when he purchased the company, then known as Twitter before Musk rebranded it. 

“I would love to work with Elon Musk in terms of making government far more efficient. I mean, I love what he did at X, you know, went in there, but got rid of 80% of their staff. And seems like X is working pretty well now,” Johnson said. “But again, we need a complete overhaul of the federal government. We need to shrink its size, its cost and its scope, its influence over our lives.” 

Republicans are projected to take control of the Senate with potentially sizable margin. With results for four contested races outstanding, Republicans currently lead in two, which would put their majority at 54 seats and give Johnson and his fellow committee and subcommittee chairs new powers to compel documents and testimony from federal agencies.  

Johnson also laid out proposals to claw back funding from COVID-19 era excess, whether as part of widespread relief packages or the signature spending initiatives from the Biden administration, like the Inflation Reduction Act. 

“Everything we can claw back, we should,” Johnson said. 

$145 billion

President-elect Donald Trump, set to begin his second non-consecutive term in January, has also proposed clawing back unspent funds. “It actually sets us back, as opposed to moves us forward. And [I will] rescind all unspent funds under the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act,” Trump told the Economic Club of New York in September. 

Much of the money in different pools from the act, including direct spending on climate and energy projects—up to $145 billion—has yet to be officially disbursed to recipients, making them vulnerable to clawbacks from the likely Republican Congress.

Similarly, up to $9 billion in clean energy rebates are unlikely to be awarded before the end of the Biden administration, making them likewise vulnerable. 

Earlier this year, Politico reported that “hundreds of billions” of dollars of the total $1.6 trillion in spending from key Biden-supported legislation have yet to be disbursed, and that federal agencies were unlikely to be able to do so before the election. 

Assassination probes

From the minority, Johnson helped lead Republicans during the committee’s bipartisan preliminary probe into the first assassination attempt against then candidate Trump at a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. However, Johnson was sharply critical of the Biden Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service for slow walking responses to requests for documents. 

In the immediate aftermath of the incident in July, Johnson’s office released preliminary findings from its own, separate investigation into the attempt. 

It is possible that Johnson’s committee will pursue a deeper probe into the Secret Service, an agency about which many Republicans still have concerns after a second assassination attempt against Trump in the same election cycle. 

Retaking the Senate is only the first step—a new Republican leader for the chamber will have great influence on how far Johnson’s proposals or investigations could go. 

When long time Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced he was stepping down from the role after nearly two decades, it sparked a race to replace him. Currently, three candidates are standing for election to the role by their fellow Republican Senators. 

They include Senator John Cornyn of Texas and GOP Whip John Thune of South Dakota, who remain the most likely candidates to replace McConnell. Florida Senator Rick Scott is also running as a McConnell critic from outside Senate leadership and advocating on behalf of a more conservative wing of senators. The media has reported that Scott's candidacy is a long shot, but with Trump's sweeping victory, he could see a boost.