SCOOP: Hawley Moves to Ban Federal Cash Prizes After Accusing Fauci of Profiting During Pandemic

• July 30, 2026

Sen. Josh Hawley speaks during a Senate hearing.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is set to announce legislation to bar all federal employees from soliciting cash prizes while they are in office. The announcement follows the senator grilling Dr. Anthony Fauci about the millions of dollars he pocketed while allegedly contributing to the spread and coverup of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“No federal bureaucrat should accept cash prizes while on the job,” Hawley said in a statement to the Daily Signal. “I am introducing legislation to bar federal employees from accepting cash prizes or soliciting awards. Anthony Fauci got rich while millions of people died. It can never happen again.”

The bill, which Hawley is calling the No Cash Prizes for Bureaucrats Act, would remove existing loopholes for federal employees to receive lucrative financial awards for medicine and research. It would also strengthen existing rules preventing National Institutes of Health employees from using their position or title to solicit, induce, or coerce lucrative awards to enrich themselves or use other employees to do so on their behalf.

On Wednesday, Hawley hinted he might take such action following Fauci’s appearance on Capitol Hill. “We should do a blanket ban so that no federal bureaucrat can accept cash money while they are on the job,” he told a group of reporters.

Just prior, Fauci, the former director at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and avoided three hours of questioning by invoking the Fifth Amendment over 100 times.

Hawley used his time to ask Fauci about the financial rewards he collected during the pandemic.

“You got rich while people were dying, hundreds of thousands of Americans—over a million in the end—and you were getting rich,” Hawley told Fauci during the hearing, referencing a $900,000 cash award. “And not only were you doing that, you were using federal employees, with taxpayer money, to apply for and solicit cash prizes for you personally, cash prizes totaling over a million dollars.”

“In fact, you applied for and received at least eight other federal cash prizes on federal time using federal employees and federal resources,” the senator continued.

During the hearing, Hawley also brought up Fauci’s increased net worth, now totaling $12 million, and his $400,000 yearly pension paid for with taxpayer dollars, claiming that he is the “highest paid federal employee ever.”

Virginia Grace McKinnon | Journalism Fellow

Virginia Grace McKinnon is a journalism fellow for the Daily Signal.

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