Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, is facing an ethics investigation after legislative actions he supported helped secure substantial federal grants for an environmental organization connected to his wife. This development has sparked concerns about a possible conflict of interest.
The controversy revolves around funding measures that supported a nonprofit focused on marine debris cleanup—an initiative that aligns with the mission of Ocean Conservancy. The grants were influenced by votes cast by Senator Whitehouse, writes Fox News.
The ethics watchdog, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), is asking the Senate Select Committee on Ethics Chairman James Lankford, R-Okla., and Vice Chairman Chris Coons, D-Del., to investigate Whitehouse “to determine whether he violated the Senate ethics rules on conflicts of interest.” The group works primarily to draw attention to potential Democratic lawmaker ethics violations.
Whitehouse’s wife, Sandra, is employed as president of consulting firm Ocean Wonks LLC and has been since 2017, per her LinkedIn page. Before that, she was a direct employee of Ocean Conservancy, serving as Senior Policy Adviser beginning in 2008.
Ocean Conservancy has received more than $14.2 million in federal grants since 2008, per USASpending.gov. 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.
The former was funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) championed by the Biden administration and voted for by Sen. Whitehouse. The latter was funded through the EPA’s annual appropriations bill, which Whitehouse also voted for.
The watchdog group’s concerns go beyond the most recent grants. They point to a broader pattern in which Senator Whitehouse has allegedly supported legislation that benefits organizations connected to his wife. According to public records, Ocean Conservancy has paid Sandra Whitehouse nearly $2.7 million since 2010, further intensifying demands for an in-depth inquiry into the senator’s potential conflicts between his public role and private associations, the investigation noted.
This isn’t the first time Whitehouse has gotten into hot water when it comes to financial scandal. In 2022, Business Insider disclosed that Whitehouse had violated the STOCK Act by missing the federal deadline to disclose two personal stock purchases—Target Corporation and Tesla, Inc.—a delay his office attributed to a staff transition. Later that year, The New York Times uncovered that he was among several members of Congress trading stocks tied to his legislative work, including companies before the committees on which he serves.
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