The federal government sent more than $1.3 billion in American tax dollars to China and Russia over the past five years, according to a new report from the fiscal transparency group Open the Books out Wednesday.
More than $490 million in U.S. contracts and grant money went to researchers in China while another $870 million ended up in Russia. The use of millions of American tax dollars to fund dubious foreign research earned the Treasury Department the monthly “Squeal Award” presented by Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst to highlight wasteful spending.
According to the report from Open the Books, $2 million from the federal government went to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology to conduct experiments on bat coronaviruses and “transgenic mice.” Another $770,466 went to a Russian lab to study cats on treadmills.
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