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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is introducing legislation to block federal bureaucrats from accepting cash prizes on Thursday, just a day after laying into Dr. Anthony Fauci for receiving what Hawley said was over $1 million during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hawley accused Fauci during a Wednesday Senate hearing of exploiting loopholes in federal laws that already prohibit government employees from soliciting rewards like cash prizes. Hawley’s bill, dubbed the No Cash Prizes for Bureaucrats Act, would close those loopholes.
“No federal bureaucrat should accept cash prizes while on the job. That’s why I’m introducing legislation to bar federal employees from accepting cash prizes or soliciting awards. Fauci got rich while millions of people died. It can never happen again,” Hawley told Fox News Digital in a statement.
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Hawley cited public records showing that Fauci, while director of the National Institutes of Health, used employees to solicit at least eight cash awards for himself, with one award check alone totaling $900,000.
The new legislation would block federal employees from receiving rewards for medicine and research as well as block employees from soliciting such rewards. It would also strengthen existing federal regulations that block NIH officials from using their or a subordinate’s official duty time to solicit rewards.
The bill comes after Hawley thrashed Fauci during a Wednesday hearing with the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, during which Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment over 100 times.
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“But I think I know why you’re doing it,” Hawley said of Fauci’s refusal to testify. “It’s because you don’t want to answer questions. It’s because you did all kinds of terrible things. It’s because during the pandemic, you got rich … while people were dying.”
“You were using federal employees with taxpayer money to apply for and solicit cash prizes for you personally, cash prizes totaling over $1 million,” Hawley said. “You did all of that during the pandemic, didn’t you?”
Rather than respond to Hawley’s questions, Fauci repeatedly said, “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
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Hawley then pointed to what he described as internal emails from Fauci’s staff, including one from former chief of staff Greg Folkers discussing a nomination for the Dan David Prize. According to Hawley, the email asked federal employees to bolster the COVID-19 section of Fauci’s nomination by providing language detailing his pandemic response.
“We’re working on this nomination for the Dan David Award for Fauci,” Hawley read from the email. “We need to beef up the COVID part.”
Hawley said the Dan David Award carried a $900,000 cash prize and claimed Fauci used federal employees to help obtain it. He further accused Fauci of using government staff and resources to pursue at least eight additional cash awards, including honors from the Partnership for Public Service, the Adelson Prize, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Academy of Medicine and the CDC Foundation.
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“In fact, you turned your staff into a full-time application machine,” Hawley said. “You actually wrote to people and said, ‘Do you think maybe I’d qualify?'”
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
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