Reports such as Lankford’s have been criticized for mischaracterizing some expenditures for the sake of headline-grabbing publicity.

A National Institutes of Health project highlighted in Monday’s report, for instance, suggests nearly $2 million was spent determining that 5- to 8-year-olds prefer food that has not been sneezed on and would rather be rich than poor.

In fact, the multiyear study uses food to learn more about how infants’ and young children’s brains work — including at what age they begin to differentiate food that may have been contaminated.

Lankford also gets in some conservative policy points.

His report says the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a favorite Republican target, spends too much and regulates too much and, most objectionable of all, lacks any congressional oversight. The report calls for abolishing the CFPB, which was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, largely at the direction of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

It is also critical of the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration’s regulatory policies and its use of foreign aid dollars to promote labor rights and “green” initiatives in Latin America.