Watchdog Accuses Dem Senator of Voting to Enrich His Wife

Sierra Marlee writes for BizPac Review about the latest controversy surrounding a former John Locke Foundation critic on Capitol Hill.

Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), an ethics watchdog, is asking for an investigation into a Democrat senator.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, is being accused of violating ethics rules after reportedly backing legislation that helped enrich his own wife. FACT is asking the Senate Select Committee on Ethics to look into whether Sandra Whitehouse’s environmental organization financially benefitted from her husband’s political positions, and “whether he violated the Senate ethics rules on conflicts of interest.”

Mrs. Whitehouse has worked for consulting firm Ocean Wonks LLC as the president since 2017, prior to which she was a Senior Policy Adviser at Ocean Conservancy starting in 2008. According to USASpending.gov, Ocean Conservancy has been the recipient of $14.2 million in grant money since 2008. “During 2024 alone, it was given two sizable grants, one for $5.2 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for marine debris cleanup in September and another for $1.7 million from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), again to assist with marine debris cleanup,” Fox News reported. The $5.2 million grant was funded by the Biden-era Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which Whitehouse voted for. The $1.7 million grant was similarly funded by the EPA’s appropriations bill, which the senator also voted for.

FACT Executive Director Kendra Arnold explained exactly why such apparent conflicts of interest are an ethical problem for Whitehouse.

“While these two grants alone appear to be a conflict of interest, it is even more egregious in the context of Senator Whitehouse’s long history of working on legislation being lobbied for by organizations tied to his wife,” she wrote. “Altogether, Ocean Conservancy has spent millions on federal lobbying expenses over the years on issues relating to oceans, climate change, and environmental cleanup—issues directly championed by Senator Whitehouse, a longtime member (and current Ranking Member) of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee and the co-founder of the Senate’s so-called ‘Oceans Caucus.”