A Family Affair: Sen. Whitehouse Accused of Authoring Legislation that Benefitted His Family
In the new era of exposing corruption, no one is immune
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat representing Rhode Island since 2007, is once again facing an ethics probe due to allegations of “backing” legislation that helped his wife’s environmental nonprofit, Ocean Conservancy. Allegations suggest that his backing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) unethically benefited his wife’s work.
Ocean Conservancy, a non-profit whose main focus is marine debris removal, is where Sandra Whitehouse has been both an employee or consultant since 2008. At issue is the more than $14.2 million in federal grants they have received. It is reported that during 2024 alone, the organization was given $5.2 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for marine debris clean up efforts and another for $1.7 million from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – also to assist with marine debris cleanup.
What about the bills Whitehouse personally authored and championed? In 2018, in what he saw as a critical first step in addressing ocean debris, Whitehouse introduced and passed the Save Our Seas Act (SOS). This act reauthorized the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Marine Debris Program. The program addresses the impacts of marine debris in our ocean, waterways, and Great Lakes. Organizations like Ocean Conservancy, publicly hailed its passage as “the tip of the spear” in the fight against marine debris.
It was the second bill, Save Our Seas 2.0 (The Marine Debris Act) in 2020 that things got interesting. SOS 2.0 was a much more ambitious bill. One that was built on the foundation of the original. And this was not just a bill that Whitehouse backed. He was the author and legislative architect that facilitated the bill’s passage.
As Senate Budget Committee Chair, Whitehouse shaped fiscal priorities. He gave multiple “Time To Wake Up Speeches” leading up to the vote. In press (e.g., a 2020 Providence Journal op-ed), he highlighted marine debris as an existential issue that must be addressed. SOS 2.0 had three titles that centered on domestic programs to address marine debris, international engagement to combat marine debris, and domestic infrastructure to prevent marine debris.
But the cornerstone of SOS 2.0 was the creation of The Marine Debris Foundation. This bill mandated the creation of a nonprofit designed to harness a private, sustainable funding mechanism that would outlast temporary appropriations– and channel it into permanent grants for organizations tackling marine debris; organizations like Ocean Conservancy.
Housed under the Department of Commerce, The Marine Debris Foundation, and its board, work directly with NOAA in offering grants to ocean cleanup organizations. After the bill’s passage, NOAA appointed Ocean Conservancy Vice President of Conservation, Nicholas Mallos, to its board. Mallos’ appointment only tightens the knots of concern surrounding the ethical questions facing Whitehouse, his wife, and Ocean Conservancy.
‘Whitehouse says freeing up capital can be a “really powerful” way to allow banks to direct more credit to green projects.’
With the recent inquiries into his daughter’s work as founder and managing partner at Newmarket Capital, an asset group that offers, “solutions that emphasize environmental and social themes, such as the promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency” – questions are mounting. One thing is clear, the Whitehouse camp dismissing calls for an investigation as attempts by “dark money groups” does not look to be minimizing the validity of ethics concerns this time.
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We need to ban this “consulting” thing. We need to ban family members of Congress and high officials from being on boards of corporations and NGO’s that receive government contracts or funding.
End ALL Federal funding to NGO/Charities and we address even more problems. Then require each member HoR and Senate to disclose any conflict of interests and set a more mechanical, autonomous process for ethical failings. IOW a very basic if X violation then Y punishment without opportunity for ethics committee to soften it. Congress will very much oppose the latter as the hill to die on.
It is a quagmire that is intentionally difficult to navigate. Some NGOs are very valuable, such as the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association). They write all the electrical and fire codes that the states adopt. We need a structure that is more open in which NGOs that provide a valuable service are the ones getting any funding. Although I am not even sure that the NFPA is getting any federal funding at all.
It’s not “dark money” when it goes in HIS shell bank accounts, after all!
Coleridge wrote that conflict of interest was the pulley on which good character is hoist into public view.
Coleridge wrote op-eds for a couple of decades.
Let me guess, in keeping with the bylaws of his ritzy social club, the legislation only benefits white people?
Slimy Sheldon is racing Meathead Mazie for the top of the Senate Idiot Championship. A close third is Patty Murray.
Chris Murphy also continues to pull ahead!
Murray, for decades, was acknowledged as the dumbest member of Congress. I wonder how she feels about all the competition she now has?
Just impeach him. Let him twist in the wind for a good long while.
Also claw back any monies from his grifting wife’s NGO. They knew what they were doing when they hired her.
Friendly FYI – members of Congress are expelled, not impeached.
But yeah, an ethics probe…. Oh dear me oh my, I’m sure he’s quaking in his boots.
Cant’ stand these grifters.
He can’t be impeached. He can be expelled, but it takes a 2/3 vote of the senate, which obviously isn’t going to happen, and it has to be for an offense that occurred since the last election. (That last part isn’t in the constitution, but it has been the position of both houses of Congress for well over a century, and the Supreme Court has taken official note of that fact, without commenting on it.)
Thanks for the correction. Look, I’ll be happy if they investigate him and haul him, his wife, and the executive staff of the NGO in front of a televised committee and interrogate him under oath.
I just want him to squirm and sweat.
Cut off all money to NGO’s. Create legislation or an EO banning spouses, children, relatives, friends from serving on governmental boards, agencies or lobbying any of the above.
Authored? No way he’s smart enough to do that. Someone else did it, and handed it to him.
The same NGO lawyers funneling his tip through his wife’s W-2.
This scumbag is a piece of sh*t. I’ll never forget his shameful performance in the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. The dirtbag should have the teeth broken out of his lying mouth.
See anything regarding Joe Rogan’s interview with Elon Musk? 55,000 democrat NGOs received money from US Taxpayers. Has this particular NGO participated? Same system here for this non-profit?
Mr Buffer creeps me out. Hopefully Karma is in play.
I did. Terrifying.
Sheldon was threatening the SC at one point and had written “The Supreme Court is not well. And the people know it,” Mr. Whitehouse argued in his brief. “Perhaps the court can heal itself before the public demands it be ’restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.’ Particularly on the urgent issue of gun control, a nation desperately needs it to heal.”
Sheldon’s wife is the new Big Guy?
Government grants just need to end. Congress has demonstrated conclusively that it is unable to prevent itself from abusing the process. If a process is regularly abused, the only solution is to suspend the process. (It’s also been conclusively demonstrated that they can’t be trusted to monitor themselves. “Government oversight” is a bad joke.)
He is just trying to save the planet. and his wife wants to help. Is that wrong?
A link to his 12/2o speech on the senate floor taking credit for it. In his own words: https://youtu.be/isko6DwI08I
Why is the American Government creating NGO’s and funneling taxpayer money into it? They say the new one will get private money but I’ll wager a bunch of taxpayer funds end up there and then where is it going? Just take a guess how this money laundering works.
Maybe, just maybe some of these folks will come to understand the planet doesn’t need saving. But that would kill the grift.
Start every session of Congress with the video of Ceausecu’s last day in office.
This asshole is always railing against “Dark Money ”
Now, we know why. Trying to shield himself.