(Radio Iowa) – The U.S. Senate has approved an amendment Iowa Senator Joni Ernst offered on the massive tax and spending bill senators have been debating since Sunday. “My amendment ends freebies for free loading fat cats by disqualifying anyone making a million dollars or more from being eligible for unemployment income support,” Ernst said. Earlier this year, the Senate unanimously approved a bill to implement the policy and the Ernst amendment easily passed overnight by a voice vote. “Too many of the idle rich are living high off the hog, collecting government checks for not working,” Ernst said, “while at the same time earning a million dollars or more from some other side venture.”

Ernst, who has been proposing this policy since 2023, said during the first two years of the Biden Administration thousands of millionaires were paid $271 million in unemployment assistance. Nearly 15,000 millionaires got unemployment checks in 2021 according to the IRS. “In 2022, the most recent year data is available, nearly 6000 millionaires were paid almost $58 million in jobless benefits. That’s about $10,000 each for each millionaire not to work,” Ernst said. “…Able-bodied millionaires shouldn’t expect handouts made possible by the overtaxed and overworked Americans.”

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Red Oak, Iowa) speaks during debate on bill to implement Trump’s tax and spending plans.

Another Ernst amendment would remove a new tax on wind and solar energy projects from the bill. That amendment has the support of Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, but it is not yet on the senate’s schedule for a vote. Critics say taxing wind and solar projects would lead to higher electric bills and fewer construction jobs in the renewable energy sector.