In a tense exchange that appeared to straddle partisan lines, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm about her agency staff marketing to companies flagged by ethics officers, including oil giants .
It was a brief moment of political theater near the end of a two-hour hearing on the Department of Energy’s annual budget, an attempt by the right-wing lawmaker to show his populist bona fides and denounce Democrats’ apparent hypocrisy about fossil fuels. .
But the withdrawal highlighted another loophole in federal ethics rules at a time when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ ties to a billionaire donor are sparking a new debate about how to control corruption and showed how Republicans are turning head. .
From 2017 to 2021, more than 130 employees collectively reported stock, bond and option transactions in companies that Energy Department ethics officers reported as related to their agency work, a Wall Street Journal investigation published in February found.
Limited to officials who file annual returns, the analysis is only a partial picture of a period when the Trump administration has been in office, but it concluded that a third of senior officials received such warnings about personal stock trades.
“I think it’s easier if you don’t own individual stocks,” said Granholm, who said she misunderstood the frequency of filing requirements and missed several deadlines herself before selling all of her stock a few months after entering the task.
But he said the department’s “very strict” internal ethics team allows, for example, employees who work at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which deals with atomic weapons, to own shares in companies involved with the Office of Energy and Energy Efficiency Regenerable.
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“If someone holds an individual title and works at NNSA and that title appears to be related to something in EERE and they’re not involved in it at all, it’s not considered an ethics violation,” Granholm said, using the units. ‘ acronyms.
It seems like an easy call, but the Journal reports detailed trades by high-ranking lab officials whose work ethics officials specifically reported trades in company stock.
“All of that has been verified,” Granholm said.
“Okay then?” Hawley said.
“Because they don’t trade in areas where they have influence or contact,” Granholm continued.
Hawley said it was “unfortunate” that 28 agency officials own shares in Exxon Mobil Corp., while 17 own shares in Chevron Corp. and 15 own shares in both.
“It does not involve or influence our actions in any way,” Granholm said.
Hawley refused. “Doesn’t it affect their actions? He owns individual shares, right?”
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“Absolutely not,” replied Granholm.
“Then why did you sell yours?” Hawley asked.
“Because I had an ethics agreement with the president of the United States saying I was going to resign,” he said.
“Well,” Hawley replied, “probably because he was rightly concerned that owning these individual shares would influence your decisions, don’t you think?”
“It’s different when you’re a department head and you have an entire agency versus when you’re part of an agency and you’re trading stocks that deal with a completely different part,” Granholm said.
“We have 100,000 people in the department, a very large agency, and they’re scattered all over the country,” he added before returning to his earlier example: “If someone in the NNSA buys stock in Exxon, it doesn’t imply a certain area of influence. That’s the part of the influence you’re up against.”
Hawley returned to optics, “I guess I don’t understand your position. Is your position that you are not concerned that 130 Energy Department officials are trading 2,700 stocks, including Chevron, Exxon and others?”
Granholm said she would only be concerned “if our ethics office was concerned.”
“I have a solution: Ban it,” said Hawley, who previously authored legislation to ban federal lawmakers from trading stocks and to embarrass former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, for doing so. “Let’s defeat all the officials of the executive department. Let’s ban it from all members of Congress. What do you say about this?”
Wrapping up a hearing that touched on everything from funding for nuclear waste storage to subsidies for hydrogen fuel to how Republicans’ desire to default on the federal government could affect the U.S. atomic arsenal, Granholm replied: “I would not object “.
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