{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-dr-rand-paul-highlights-government-funded-yoga-classes-federal-agencies-latest-waste-report/", "Dr. Rand Paul Highlights Government-Funded Yoga Classes for Federal Agencies in Latest \u2018The Waste Report\u2019", "2015-09-14", "2015", "2015-09", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Rand Paul today released the latest edition to \u2018The Waste Report,\u2019 an ongoing project cataloguing egregious examples of waste within the U.S. government. The latest edition highlights the federal government spending $150,000 of taxpayer dollars to provide free yoga classes for employees at a variety of federal agencies.\n\n\u2018The Waste Report\u2019 can be found HERE or below.\n\nMaybe you saw a Groupon for yoga classes and considered it, but even at a discount you were not sure you wanted to spend the money.\n\nWell if you were an employee at certain federal agencies you would not have to worry about cost, because the U.S. taxpayer will pick up the tab. That\u2019s right. A variety of federal agencies in a number of locations provide \u201cfree\u201d yoga classes to employees. But these classes are not free \u2013 since 2013; they have cost taxpayers over $150,000.[1]\n\nThe U.S. State Department spends $15,000 for yoga in the nation\u2019s capital. A yoga instructor from Berkeley, California, is paid $4,000 a year from the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Research Service.\n\nOf course, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which The Waste Report highlighted trying to buy the Cadillac of treadmills earlier this year, has gotten in on taxpayer financed yoga. For $11,000 annually the DOE also offers Pilates at a California location. Another agency aligning its chakras is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.\n\nThe Railroad Retirement Board spends $11,000 annually for yoga classes for office workers at its Chicago headquarters. Strangely, they reported that participants were initially charged for the class, but in some kind of weird reversal of economic principles, there was so much demand, the agency decided to start picking up the tab in 2010.\n\nNot all agencies that offer employees yoga at work also pay the cost; many agencies, including the U.S. Senate, require participants to pay for the class. [2]\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T20:25:19Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-dr-rand-paul-highlights-government-funded-yoga-classes-federal-agencies-latest-waste-report/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4268800150603056, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}